TW202035141A - Transfer film manufacturing method, transfer film, and article using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a transfer film comprising a plastic film, an ultraviolet light reaction layer formed on the plastic film, and a transparent adhesive layer formed on the ultraviolet light reaction layer, wherein the plastic film is dried with a drying process to reduce the moisture content. The ultraviolet light reaction layer and the transparent adhesive layer are formed on the plastic film after the drying process.

Description

Method for manufacturing transfer film, transfer film and articles using the transfer film

The invention relates to a transfer film applicable to a vacuum transfer process, articles using the transfer film, and a manufacturing method of the transfer film.

Forming a decorative surface to provide visual effects on the surface of an object, such as a patterned surface, a patterned surface, a color surface or a metallic luster surface, has been commonly used in various objects, such as mobile phones, tablets, home appliances, vehicles, etc. The forming methods of the decorative surface currently generally include electroplating, evaporation, spraying, thermal transfer, water transfer, etc. In addition, there are also environmentally friendly vacuum transfer methods.

In the vacuum transfer technology, Taiwan Invention Patent No. I647124 discloses a transfer film that requires humidification. The layered structure of the humidified transfer film is a polyvinyl alcohol film (PVA film) and is formed of oil-soluble paint. There are five layers including the pattern layer, the decorative layer formed by the decorative paint, the oil-soluble fixed layer and the ultraviolet activator layer, and the ultraviolet activator layer also penetrates through the decoration layer. Wherein, the humidified transfer film is vacuumized and irradiated with ultraviolet rays under an environment heated to 40~150°C, so that the humidified transfer film is attached to the surface of an article, and the ultraviolet activator layer After curing, the PVA film is torn off, so that the pattern layer remains on the surface of the article to form a high gloss pattern. In this way, the hierarchical structure of the article is the article itself, the pattern layer, the decoration layer, the oil-soluble fixing layer and the cured ultraviolet activator layer from the inside to the outside. The problem is that the surface of the article using this conventional transfer film does not exhibit a mirror effect, and the conventional transfer film has a complicated hierarchical structure (up to five layers), and humidification is required to complicate the manufacturing process.

In view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the present invention provides a new transfer film, which includes: an ultraviolet light reaction layer, which will be cured to form a transparent hardened layer after being irradiated with ultraviolet light; and a plastic film arranged on the ultraviolet light reaction layer The upper surface of the UV light reaction layer can be torn from the upper surface, wherein the average water content of the plastic film is less than or equal to 5% by weight; and a transparent adhesive layer is formed on the UV light reaction layer The lower surface. Wherein, the plastic film can be a polyvinyl alcohol film. In one embodiment, the thickness of the plastic film is 30-100 μm, the thickness of the ultraviolet light reaction layer is 10-20 μm, and the thickness of the transparent adhesive layer is 20-30 μm.

The present invention also provides an article having a high-gloss metal mirror surface and comprising the transparent adhesive layer taken from the above transfer film and the transparent hardened layer formed by curing the ultraviolet light reaction layer, the transparent The adhesive layer is adhered to the high-gloss metal mirror surface.

The present invention also provides another transfer film, which includes an ultraviolet light reaction layer, which will be cured to form a transparent hardened layer after being irradiated with ultraviolet light; a plastic film is arranged on an upper surface of the ultraviolet light reaction layer and is capable of Tear the ultraviolet light reaction layer from the upper surface, wherein the average water content of the plastic film is less than or equal to 5% by weight; a high-gloss metal mirror layer formed on the lower surface of the ultraviolet light reaction layer; and an adhesive The layer is formed on the lower surface of the high-gloss metal mirror layer. Wherein, the plastic film can be a polyvinyl alcohol film. In one embodiment, the plastic film has a thickness of 30-100 µm, the ultraviolet light reaction layer has a thickness of 10-20 µm, and the adhesive layer has a thickness of 20-30 µm. Among them, the plastic film is the thickest and the high-gloss metal mirror layer is the thinnest .

The present invention further provides another article, which has a surface and includes the adhesive layer, the high-gloss metal mirror layer, and the transparent formed by curing the ultraviolet light reaction layer from the other transfer film Hardened layer, the adhesive layer adheres to the surface.

In addition, the present invention also provides a method for manufacturing a transfer film, including: providing a plastic film; performing a drying operation on the plastic film to reduce the water content of the plastic film; and applying the drying operation on the plastic film A plurality of layers are produced, and the layers include an adhesive layer and an ultraviolet light reaction layer. The ultraviolet light reaction layer is located between the plastic film and the adhesive layer, and will be cured to form a transparent hardened layer after being irradiated with ultraviolet light.

In one embodiment, the layers mentioned in the above method of the present invention include a high-gloss metal mirror layer, and the high-gloss metal mirror layer is located between the ultraviolet light reaction layer and the adhesive layer.

In one embodiment, the plastic film mentioned in the above method of the present invention is a polyvinyl alcohol film.

The structure of the transfer film manufactured by the above-mentioned method of the present invention is as described above, and will not be repeated.

Compared with the prior art, the article using the above transfer film of the present invention can present a high-gloss almost mirror surface, or even achieve a mirror surface effect, which solves the problem that the article using the conventional transfer film does not exhibit a mirror surface effect. Furthermore, the layered structure of the transfer film of the present invention is simple and does not require humidification, which is sufficient to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art.

Fig. 1 schematically shows a partial cross-sectional structure of a transfer film 1. The transfer film 1 is a preferred embodiment of the present invention, which includes a plastic film 11, an ultraviolet light reaction layer 12, and a transparent adhesive layer 13. Wherein, the plastic film 11 is disposed on an upper surface of the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12, and the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12 can be peeled from the upper surface. The transparent adhesive layer 13 is formed on the lower surface of the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12. In more detail, the plastic film 11 is the thickest layer, preferably about 30-100 μm in thickness, and preferably a polyvinyl alcohol film (PVA film), but not limited to this. The thickness of the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12 is preferably about 10-20 μm. After it is irradiated with ultraviolet light of appropriate energy, it will be cured to become a transparent hardened layer 12a in FIG. 6. The preferred thickness of the transparent adhesive layer 13 is about 20-30 μm, and the transparent hardened layer 12a is adhered to a surface 51 of an article 5 in FIG. 6 through the transparent adhesive layer 13. In this embodiment, the surface 51 is a high-gloss metal mirror surface, but it is not limited to this. The color of the high-gloss metal mirror surface can be gold, white gold, chrome or silver, but it is not limited to this. The high-gloss metal mirror surface can be a whole surface, or it can be a surface composed of multiple points or regions with tiny gaps between each other. This surface appears to be a complete surface to the naked eye, but between points or regions under a microscopic view It's in the gap. The high-gloss metal mirror surface can be formed by evaporation, non-conductive vacuum coating (NCVM), anodizing or electroplating, but it is not limited to this.

The plastic film 11 needs to perform a drying operation to remove the water content of the plastic film 11, thereby reducing the water content of the plastic film 11. In this embodiment, the weight percentage of the average water content of the plastic film 11 Preferably, it is less than or equal to 5%, more preferably less than or equal to 3%. Then, the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12 and the transparent adhesive layer 13 are formed on the plastic film 11 that has undergone the drying operation. The aforementioned drying operation can be a hot pressing method, but other methods can also be selected to perform the drying operation, so as to remove the water content of the plastic film 11 as much as possible, so that the surface of the plastic film 11 is as flat as possible. The plastic film 11 that has not been dried usually has a problem of unevenness on the surface due to high water content. This problem will affect the quality of the final transfer film, and the quality of the transfer film will affect the use of transfer The surface of the film presents an effect. The surface of the plastic film 11 after the drying operation is relatively flat, and the quality of the transfer film 1 made on this basis is relatively better. Wherein, the aforementioned hot pressing method can be as shown in FIG. 2, the plastic film 11 is hot-pressed with one or more pairs of hot rollers 10 with flat wheel surfaces. This is limited.

Furthermore, the plastic film 11 will be finally torn off from the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12 (to be described later). In order to make the plastic film 11 easy to tear off, the plastic film 11 preferably has a release capability, for example, Choose a plastic material with good release characteristics to make the plastic film 11, or form a release layer (not shown in the figure) on the surface of the plastic film 11 relative to the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12. At this time, release The layer is located between the plastic film 11 and the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12, and the thickness of the release layer is preferably about 10-15 μm.

FIGS. 3 to 5 are used to help illustrate the use of the transfer film 1 of the present invention in a vacuum transfer process. In the figure, two articles 5 are shown, and only one article 5 is illustrated. First, as shown in FIG. 3, the article 5 is fixed to a jig 32 on a lifting platform 31. The article 5 can be metallic or non-metallic, such as various articles made of aluminum, plastic, glass, wood, leather, cloth, glass fiber, or carbon fiber. In this embodiment, the article 5 It is a mobile phone case, but not limited to this. Above the lifting platform 31 is a transfer film 1 of the present invention, and the transfer film 1 has been clamped around its periphery by a clamp 6. The lifting platform 31 has a plurality of pores (not shown in the figure) penetrating the upper and lower platform surfaces, and the lifting platform 31, the transfer film 1 and a heating device 4 located above the transfer film 1 are all located in the same vacuum Inside cabin 2. Among them, the heating device 4 heats the transfer film 1 so that the transfer film 1 is softened and easily stretched. In this embodiment, the transparent adhesive layer 13 is made of hot melt adhesive, so the heating device 4 can also provide the heat energy required by the transparent adhesive layer 13 at the same time. However, the transparent adhesive layer 13 can also be made of other types of adhesives, such as ultraviolet curing adhesives.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, the lifting platform 31 is raised to make the article 5 abut the transfer film 1, and then, as shown in FIG. 5, the lower half of the vacuum chamber 2 is evacuated (arrow in the figure) Indicates the air flow direction during vacuuming), so that the transfer film 1 is tightly attached to the surface 51 of the article 5. At this time, the transfer film 1 has been firmly bonded by the transparent adhesive layer 13 On the surface 51.

After that, the vacuuming is stopped, and the transfer film 1 on the article 5 is irradiated with ultraviolet light with an ultraviolet lamp (not shown in the figure), so that the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12 is cured to become the transparent hardened layer 12a in FIG. 6 . Then, tear off the plastic film 11 to obtain the article 5 with the transparent hardened layer 12a, as shown in FIG. 6.

Since the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12 and the transparent adhesive layer 13 are formed on the flat surface of the dried plastic film 11, the produced ultraviolet light reaction layer 12 and the adhesive layer 13 will be quite flat, so that this After the two layers are transferred to the article 5 by the above process, the surface 51 (high-gloss metal mirror surface) of the article 5 is separated from the transparent hardened layer 12a and the transparent adhesive layer 13, but still can provide a good reflection effect ( As shown in Figures 7-8), that is, the surface 51 of the article 5 presents a high-gloss almost mirror-like surface, and even achieves a mirror-like effect. 7 to 9 show the photo of the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12 and the transparent adhesive layer 13 of the transfer film 1 of the present invention transferred to the back of a mobile phone case. The back is a silver high-gloss metal mirror surface. The ultraviolet light reacts The layer 12 has been cured to become a transparent hardened layer, wherein the left side of each photo shows a part of the mobile phone shell and the image formed on it, and the right side is the actual object corresponding to the image.

In addition, FIG. 10 shows that another transfer film 1'of the present invention includes a plastic film 11', an ultraviolet light reaction layer 12', an adhesion layer 13' and a high-gloss metal mirror layer 14'. Wherein, the plastic film 11' is provided on an upper surface of the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12', and the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12' can be peeled from the upper surface, and the high-gloss metal mirror layer 14' is formed on the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12' The lower surface of the layer 12', the adhesive layer 13' is formed on the lower surface of the high-gloss metal mirror layer 14'.

The plastic film 11' and the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12' correspond to the same as the plastic film 11 and the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12 described above. When the plastic film 11' has a release layer (not shown), the release layer is located between the plastic film 11' and the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12'. The adhesive layer 13' can be the same as the transparent adhesive layer 13, but other opaque adhesives can also be selected. The color of the high-gloss metal mirror layer 14' can be gold, white gold, chrome or silver, but it is not limited to this. The high-gloss metal mirror surface can be formed by evaporation, non-conductive vacuum coating (NCVM), anodizing or electroplating, but it is not limited to this.

As shown in FIG. 11, the other transfer film 1'can also transfer the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12', the high-gloss metal mirror layer 14' and the adhesive layer 13' to an article 5'by the above-mentioned vacuum transfer process. A surface 51' of the object 5', wherein a transparent hardened layer 12a' on the article 5'is formed by curing the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12' after being irradiated with ultraviolet light. Since the plastic film 11' also undergoes the above-mentioned drying operation first, the layers of the other transfer film 1'are quite flat, so that the ultraviolet light reaction layer 12', the high-gloss metal mirror layer 14' and the adhesive layer 13 After being'transferred to the surface 51' of an article 5', the article 5'can exhibit a high gloss almost mirror-like or even a mirror-like effect through the high-gloss metal mirror layer 14' and the transparent hardened layer 12a'.

1, 1’: Transfer film 11, 11’: Plastic film 12, 12’: UV light reaction layer 12a, 12a’: transparent hardened layer 13, 13’: Transparent adhesive layer 14’: High-gloss metal mirror layer 10: Hot roller 31: Lifting table 32: Fixture 4: heating device 5, 5’: Item 51, 51’: Surface 6: Fixture

Figure 1 shows a schematic cross-sectional view of the transfer film of the present invention. FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a plastic film 11 of the transfer film of the present invention being dried. 3 to 5 show schematic diagrams of the transfer film of the present invention used in a vacuum transfer process. 6 shows a schematic cross-sectional view and an enlarged view of an article 5 produced by a vacuum transfer process using the transfer film of the present invention. Figures 7 to 9 show photos of a mobile phone case using the transfer film of the present invention to show the high-gloss mirror effect obtained from the transfer film. Figure 10 shows a schematic cross-sectional view of another transfer film of the present invention. FIG. 11 shows a schematic cross-sectional view and an enlarged view of an article 5a produced by the vacuum transfer process using another transfer film of the present invention.

1: transfer film

11: Plastic film

12: UV light reaction layer

13: Transparent adhesive layer

Claims (12)

A transfer film, including: An ultraviolet light reaction layer, which will be cured to form a transparent hardened layer after being irradiated with ultraviolet light; A plastic film arranged on an upper surface of the ultraviolet light reaction layer and capable of tearing off the ultraviolet light reaction layer from the upper surface, wherein the weight percentage of the average water content of the plastic film is less than or equal to 5%; and A transparent adhesive layer is formed on the lower surface of the ultraviolet light reaction layer. The transfer film according to claim 1, wherein the plastic film is a polyvinyl alcohol film. The transfer film according to claim 3, wherein the plastic film has a thickness of 30-100 μm, the ultraviolet light reaction layer has a thickness of 10-20 μm, and the transparent adhesive layer has a thickness of 20-30 μm. An article having a high-gloss metal mirror surface, and comprising the transparent adhesive layer taken from the transfer film of any one of claims 1 to 3 and the transparent hardened layer formed by curing the ultraviolet light reaction layer , The transparent adhesive layer is adhered to the high-gloss metal mirror surface. A transfer film, including: An ultraviolet light reaction layer, which will be cured to form a transparent hardened layer after being irradiated with ultraviolet light; A plastic film arranged on an upper surface of the ultraviolet light reaction layer and capable of tearing off the ultraviolet light reaction layer from the upper surface, wherein the weight percentage of the average water content of the plastic film is less than or equal to 5%; A high-gloss metal mirror layer formed on the lower surface of the ultraviolet light reaction layer; and An adhesive layer is formed on the lower surface of the high-gloss metal mirror layer. The transfer film according to claim 5, wherein the plastic film is a polyvinyl alcohol film. The transfer film according to claim 6, wherein the plastic film has a thickness of 30-100 µm, the ultraviolet light reaction layer has a thickness of 10-20 µm, and the adhesive layer has a thickness of 20-30 µm; wherein the plastic film has the largest thickness, the The high-gloss metal mirror layer is the thinnest. An article having a surface and comprising the adhesive layer, the high-gloss metal mirror layer, and the ultraviolet light reaction layer formed by curing from the transfer film of any one of claims 6 to 9 Transparent hardened layer, the adhesive layer adheres to the surface. A method for manufacturing a transfer film, including: Provide a plastic film; Perform a drying operation on the plastic film to reduce the water content of the plastic film; and A plurality of layers are formed on the plastic film after the drying operation, the layers include an adhesive layer and an ultraviolet light reaction layer, the ultraviolet light reaction layer is located between the plastic film and the adhesive layer, and after being irradiated with ultraviolet light Will cure to form a transparent hardened layer. The method for manufacturing a transfer film according to claim 9, wherein the layers include a high-gloss metal mirror layer, and the high-gloss metal mirror layer is located between the ultraviolet light reaction layer and the adhesive layer. The method for manufacturing a transfer film according to claim 9, wherein the plastic film is a polyvinyl alcohol film. A transfer film manufactured by the method according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein the weight percentage of the average water content of the plastic film after the drying operation is less than or equal to 5%.

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