US3267621A - Article decorating - Google Patents

Description

1966 w. F. MEYERS ETAL 3,

ARTICLE DECORATING 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 6. 1963 FIG.

INVENTOR. WILLARD r. MEYERS BY LOWELL J. WELLS ATTORNEYS Aug. 23, 1966 w. F. MEYERS ETAL 3, 7,6

ARTICLE DECORATING Filed Dec. 6. 1963 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 6 INVENTOR.

WILLARD E MEYERS LOWELL J. WELLS M/f. ATTORNEYS Aug. 23, 1966 w. F. MEYERS ETAL 3,

ARTICLE DECORATING Filed Dec. 6. 1963 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR. W\LLARD E MEYERS LOWELL J. WELLS FIG. 13

ATTORN EYS 3, 1966 w. F. MEYERS ETAL 3,267,621

ARTICLE DECORATING Filed Dec. 6. 1963 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR. WILLARD E MEYERS BY LOWELL J. WELLS @FfM ATTORNEYS 3,267,621 ARTICLE DECORATING Willard F. Meyers and Lowell J. Wells, Toledo, Ohio,

assignors to Owens-Illinois Glass Company, a corporation of Ohio Filed Dec. 6, 1963, Ser. No. 328,541 17 Claims. (Cl. 51-312) This invention relates to a method of decorating glass articles such as tumblers by grit blasting the surface.

More particularly, this invention relates to a method of forming decorations on glassware by applying a resist material to the tumbler surface in the pattern of the desired design and then grit blasting the exposed surface prior to removing the resist material.

At the present time, the usual procedure in cutting glassware involves the use of abrasive wheels or other tools, which procedure is accomplished either by hand or by the operation of a machine. The machine operated cutting systems are successful only for making relatively simple geometric designs or cuts in the glassware. The hand cutting of glassware necessarily requires the skill of an artisan and the types and variety of cuts which can be made depends to a great extent upon the skill of the operator. The use of grit blasting as a cutting technique has been used; however, this technique is also dependent on the skill of an operator using a single blasting nozzle which is moved by hand relative to the glass surface. This process obviously is time consuming and, therefore, very expensive. It has also been proposed in the past to cut other surfaces, such as stone, by using rubber stencil sheets in which the design has already been cut and the sand or grit blast is directed against the stencil sheet and will cut the uncovered areas. This technique of placing a rubber stencil against the surface of 1a tumbler was tried and found to be unsuccessful for producing cuts which have good definition in glassware.

It will readily be appreciated that when making a stencil of rubber which has portions thereof cut out prior to placing the stencil over the article to be decorated, that there are serious limitations on the designs that can be chosen due to the fact that island areas necessarily must have bridging portions which connect the main part of the stencil to the islands and these bridging portions naturally will appear as uncut areas in the design. In order to overcome this drawback, it has been suggested that several stencils be used with successive grit blastings of the surface through the various stencils. In this manner it may be possible to cut glassware with designs in which islands will appear totally surrounded by cut portions. However, this procedure requires multiple periods of grit blasting and also requires the use of a plurality of stencils. Another serious drawback with the use of rubber stencils for cutting of glassware is that the stencils, after only a few successive uses, lose the rigidity necessary to provide for good definition, particularly in the bridging area and after a few exposures to grit blasting the rubber stencils tend to vibrate with respect to the surface and this vibration obviously permits the grit blast to reach areas which the stencil is intended to mask.

A further known process for grit blasting designs on articles has been the technique of applying a complete sheet of blast resistant material to the area in which the design is to be cut and then having the desired design portions of the sheet removed by hand by an artist. With this particular technique, it is possible to have islands without bridging portions. However, this technique requires the skill of a technician to remove or cut out those areas of the mask or stencil in the desired pattern. This procedure also is time consuming and expensive. Furthermore, depending upon the technique used for apnited States Patent 3,26 7,62 l Patented August 23, 1966 plying the masks to the article, there are possibilities that islands will be loosened and removed during the blasting by the grit and thus produce articles having undesirable cuts which lack definition.

Furthermore, it depends on the skill of the artist as to whether successively produced articles will have the same design.

In view of the foregoing, it can be seen that there are serious drawbacks either from an expense standpoint or from the standpoint of operability and reproducibility of results in the known processes utilized for grit blasting designs in articles.

Applicants have found that present silk screen decorating techniques which are used in the glass industry for applying ceramic coatings of various designs to glassware produce designs having good definition, even to the point that half tones may be reproduced on glassware. Ap plicants have also found that by using the silk screen technique to apply a resist material, having a definite pattern, to the articles which it is desired to decorate, for example a tumbler, in a sort of reverse image from that which would be normally used for ceramic decoration, an effective, closely adhering mask can be provided on the glassware surface and that with the application of grit blast to the surface, the glass may be cut in depth depending upon the time, grit size, nozzle diameter and pressure of the grit blast. Further, intricate designs may be cut into glassware which have an appearance resembling that of finely cut ware which can be produced at present only by hand techniques with the added advantage that a plurality of articles may be cut which will have iden tical patterns of design and which will have extremely accurate and precise definition.

With the foregoing in view, it is an object of this invention to provide a method of grit blasting intricate designs in glassware in which artistic skill of an operator is not necessary.

It is an additional object of this invention to provide a method of decorating glassware and cutting designs in the glassware which is rapid and requires but a single period grit blasting.

It is an additional object of this invention to provide a method of decorating glassware in which a resist ma terial of a selected design is adhered to the surface of the glassware and may be easily removed after grit blastmg.

It is a still further. object of this invention to provide a method of applying a grit blast mask to glassware in the form of a film applied by the silk screen technique.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a method of grit blasting or carving a design in bas-relief in the surface of a glass article which is of selective depths.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide a method of applying a mask of resist material to a tumbler or other glass article which has a time dependent resist function with respect to grit blasting thereagainst.

Other and further objects will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the annexed sheets of drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a typical screen decorating machine capable of applying a resist material of selected design to glassware;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a tumbler with a resist screened thereon with a single grit blast nozzle directed toward the resist coated surface;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of an article of glassware with a simple design thereon;

FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view taken at line 4-4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view, similar to FIG. 4, illustrating the period following the grit blasting;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view, similar to FIG. 4, after removal of the resist from the glass surface;

FIGS. 7, 8 and 9 are sectional views similar to FIGS. 4, and 6, illustrating an alternative method of grit blasting where the depth of cut is greater;

FIG. 10 is an elevational view of a tumbler with an outline resist screened thereon;

FIG. 11 is a sectional view taken at line 11-11 of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is an elevational veiw of a tumbler with two layers of resist thereon;

FIG. 13 is a sectional view taken at line 13-Il3 of FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 is a sectional view, similar to FIG. 13, illustrating the completion of the grit blasting;

FIG. 15 is a sectional view, similar to FIG. 13, with the resist removed;

FIG. 16 is an elevational view of a tumbler with its surface cut to two different depths;

FIG. 17 is a partial sectional view taken at line l7l7 of FIG. 16; and

FIGS. 18-20 are sectional views, similar to FIG. 17, illustrating the three steps involved in producing the cut shown in FIG. 17.

The process of the invention basically involves the steps of applying a resist material to the tumbler or other glass article by the silk screen method so that a relatively thin resist material which is both tough and resilient enough to withstand grit blasting for a period sufiicient for the glass substrate to be cut to desired depths. Furthermore, the material should be of such a nature that it can be readily removed from the ware upon the completion of the grit blasting.

With reference to FIG. 1, there is shown a typical silk screen apparatus utilized for applying a ceramic color to the surface of a tumbler. FIG. 1 is merely to illustrate one of the well-known decorating machines which are presently on the market and details of such a machine may be found in United States Patent No. 2,304,725 of T. S. Bauman issued December 8, 1942.

As is illustrated, the machine basically comprises a base 10 provided at its forward end with a pair of roller cradles 11 which serve to support the tumbler on its side with its upper side wall substantially horizontal. This cradle is also intended to permit the tumbler to rotate. Overlying the upper wall of the tumbler is a screen 12 which carries the design which it is desired to have applied to the wall of the tumbler. The screen 12 is supported by an arm 13 which oscillates about a vertical axis so that the screen is swung through an are relative to the tumbler surface. It will be understood that in the normal screening the screen will have the material to be screened on its upper surface and a squeegee 14 is fixed with respect to the screen so that it is substantially vertically above the point where the screen contacts the wall of the tumbler. Thus it can be seen that as the screen 12 oscillates, the squeegee l lwipes the ink or decorating medium through the screen and onto the tumbler. The squeegee 14 is mounted on an arm 15 which in turn is connected to pivot about a shaft 16 so that in actual practice the squeegee is lifted adjacent the end of the travel of the screen so that it will, upon return to the screen, have decorating material or ink in front thereof so that on the return travel of the screen, when another decoration is made, sufficient ink will be present in front of the squeegee so that it will be forced into the screen to transfer ink onto the tumbler.

With the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, it can readily be seen that the material which is capable of being screened can be applied to the surface of a tumbler in any desired pattern, depending on the make-up of the screen. It should be pointed out that the screen technique has been developed to the extent that fairly intricate designs may be readily applied to tumblers and that this technique provides a system for applying patterns on tumbler walls which reproduces itself each time successive tumblers are screened so that a particular pattern may be applied to a plurality of tumblers in a minimum amount of time.

As explained above, many techniques have been used which involve the placing of stencils or masks over an article and then grit blasting the masked area to provide cuts in the article. However, with the present invention, by using the silk screentechnique of applying the mask, the thickness of the mask may be controlled, as well as the forming of relatively intricate patterns, which pattern is limited only by the detail which can be achieved by the customary sink screen decorating method.

FIG. 2 illustrates a tumbler which has had a resist material applied to the wall thereof in a particular pattern and also illustrates the positioning of a grit bast nozzle 17 in relation to the tumbler. This figure also illustrates, by the arrows thereon, one method of moving the nozzle so that it will cover the portion of the tumbler which it is desired to grit blast.

Applicants have found that a suitable material which may be screened onto a tumbler is polyvinyl chloride plastisol ink. A single screening of polyvinyl chloride ink using a typical mesh decorating screen will provide a coating on the tumbler which has a thickness 1.5-3.5 mils. it should be understood that the thickness of the coating may be varied depending upon mesh size of the screen and thickness of the screen. Obviously, as the screen openings increase size definition tends to become less. This thickness of resist on a tumbler whose side wall is to mils in thickness, was adequate to enable grit blasting through the entire thickness of the side wall of the tumbler without affecting the glass covered by the resist. Thus it can be seen that with an overall thickness of resist of 4-5 mils, a depth of cut in the glass of approximately 25-30 mils may be made without disturbing the resist which results in bringing out highlights due to light reflection on sides of cut. As an actual example, a 180 mesh grit of aluminum oxide under 35 pounds per square inch air pressure, directed toward an article having the resist thereon for a period of ten seconds is sufiicient to make out depths in the glass of 25-30 mils. Furthermore, nozzle size is extremely important as is distance of nozzle from tumbler wall. In this case a diameter nozzle at 5-5 /z distance was necessary. Obviously, other pressures may be used for longer and shorter.

periods of time, depending upon the depth of cut desired. For example, when operating with 180 grit aluminum oxide at 30 pounds per square inch pressure for as long as fifteen seconds, the resist coating withstood the blast without failure. As another example, a grit (silicon.

carbide) was delivered from a /8 inch orifice at 45 psi.

spaced a distance of six inches from the ware and operated.

for ten minutes and it was found that the glass was completely cut through and the resist material was still intact.

While the cuts may be made with polyvinyl chloride plastisol as the resist material applied directly to the glass substrate, it was found that in some instances the resist would be blasted away from the tumbler in a tearing fashion, with the resultant degradation in the resist material causing lack of definition in the resultant cut. To overcome this problem of lack of adherence of a plastisol to a tumbler, it was found that the application of a thin, transparent adhesive film of poly (vinylpyrrolidone) from a 1% solution in water would serve as an adhesive over which the plastisol resist may be applied.

With the adhering film first applied and then the plastisol applied thereover, it was found that the plastisol would tenaciously adhere to the tumbler and serve as the resist and would not fail at a blast of 35 psi. for a period of fifteen seconds. Obviously, the precise pressure, grit size and time of blasting would depend upon the depth of cut desired and the above figures are merely for purposes of illustration rather than limitation.

With reference to FIGS. 3-6, one example of the process of the invention will be explained. A first coating or film 13 of thin transparent adhesive is applied to the wall of the tumbler and the polyvinyl chloride resist layer 19 is screenedonto the adhesive coating with those areas which it is desired to cut being left open, as specifically illustrated in FIG. 4.

FIG. 3 shows a complete design in a plastisol coating on a tumbler. However, it should be understood that this is purely for illustrative purposes and that any design desired may be applied by screening of the resist material on the tumbler wall. It should be understood also that the illustrated thickness of the coating 18 is considerably exaggerated, it being understood that it is extremely thin and merely serves as an adhesive and does not enter into the grit blasting resistance.

FIG. 5 illustrates the next step in the process where grit blasting of the design area has been carried out to produce a fairly shallow cut, it being understood that one layer or one screening of resist is not normally sufficient to permit extremely deep cuts.

FIG. 6 illustrates the same area as in FIGS. 4 and 5, after the removal of the adhesive coating and the resist layer, thus providing a tumbler surface with a sharply defined cut therein.

While the adhesive film 18 of poly (vinylpyrrolidone) is found satisfactory as an adhesive for adhering the polyvinyl chloride to the glass, other adhesives which are soluble in aqueous solutions would also be suitable such as copolymers of polyvinyl acetate with poly (vinylpyrrolidone) or polyvinyl chloride. Furthermore, other adhesives which are solvent soluble may be used, it being understood that removability would be more difficult and expensive than water soluble adhesives. In order that the plastisol resist may be screened onto the tumbler a relatively short time after the application of the adhesive film, it is found necessary to dry the adhesive film. The drying may be accomplished by forced draft, infrared heating or other suitable means. With the adhesive dry, the polyvinyl chloride plastisol is silk screened to form an image 19, whose open areas are to be cut away by blasting, over the adhesive and the coated article may then be placed in a convection oven for six minutes at 400 F. to fuse the plastisol to the tumbler. The fusing also may be accomplished by use of an infrared heater with the exposure less than one minute. After the polyvinyl chloride plastisol is fused, the next step of the process is the grit blasting using Carborundum, aluminum oxide or corundum grits of selected size at suitable pressures, distances and blasting equipment to attain the desired cut depth (for example, as shown in FIG. 2). After the grit blasting has been completed, the plastisol is easily removed from the tumbler by soaking or agitating hot Water over the film which will cause it to peel away. The complete removal may be assisted with the use of mechanical brushing techniques, or, as a simple expedient, it is convenient to place the blasted tumblers in a commercial washing machine using hot water.

It should be kept in mind that the methods of applying adhesives may take many forms such as, roller application dipping or spraying, it only being necessary that a thin, transparent layer of the adhesive be applied to that area of the tumbler which is to receive the plastisol resist.

While the technique outlined above is satisfactory for producing grit blasted designs on tumblers, which design is of relatively shallow depth, it was found that the screening of plastisol on the tumbler in some instances provided a coating which was too thin to withstand blasting over a period of time sufiicient to obtain a deeper cut and in order to overcome this situation, it was found necessary to apply two separately screened coatings of plastisol on the tumbler. This technique is used in those situations where a tumbler cut is desired as illustrated in FIGS. 7, 8 and 9, wherein adhesive film or coating 18 is first applied as in the previous example and the first resist layer 19 is screened on and a second resist layer 20 is' applied in registration with the first screening to provide a resist layer which is twice as thick as that normally obtained by a single screening. As would be expected with a double layer 19 and 20 protecting the portion of the tumbler which it is desired not to cut, grit blasting for a longer period may be carried out so that a depth of cut, as illustrated in FIGS. 8 and 9, may be substantially greater.

As is well known, the thickness with which a coating may be screened onto a substrate, depends on the thickness and spacing of the screen with respect to the tumbler. In the normal silk screening process, the screen is pressed against the tumbler.

As an alternative method to that previously described with respect to FIGS. 7-9, it was determined that a double layer of resist could be applied in a somewhat different manner. This alternative technique is illustrated in FIGS. 1015. In particular, the first screening is designed to give the general outline of the decorating pattern desired. This first resist layer is specifically illustrated in FIGS. 10 and 11 where only the first layer 19 has been applied. This first layer 19 is sufficient to serve as a bridging coating so that upon the application of the second layer 20 of plastisol by the silk screen technique, the screen would be held away from the tumbler an amount depending upon the thickness of the first film, thus resulting in the application of a single thicker layer at 21 on the second screening to previously uncovered areas. This is shown in FIG. 13. This was found advantageous from the standpoint that the fine details desired in the cut pattern could be applied by the second or detail layer 20 of resist when properly registered with the pre vious layer 19. In order to successfully apply the second layer it was found necessary to partially cure the first layer before the application of the second layer of plastisol and as a specific example, partially curing the first layer in an oven at C. for two minutes was sufficient to permit screening-on of the second layer. After grit blasting the surface to provide a cut of the desired depth, the tumbler is washed in hot water which removes the adhesive and plastisol as illustrated in FIG. 15.

An additional feature of the invention is that several different depth cuts in the glassware may be made by a single grit blast operation through the use of plural, thin screenings of plastisol on the tumbler. This method is illustrated in FIGS. 16-20. In this method the first screening provides a layer which has a pattern with open areas which are to be cut the deepest and the second screening provides a layer 20 which covers a less area than the first. With this technique a single grit blasting of the area will cut the completely exposed areas first and simultaneously wear away the first plastisol layer 19 in those areas where it is exposed by the openings in the second plastisol layer 20 and result in the cutting of the glassware to two different selective depths.

It can readily be seen that the first layer has a time dependent resistance to the blasting and that after a certain period of exposure to the grit blast will have worn completely away and permit the grit to reach the glass surface thereunder and to cut into the glass while at the same time the completely exposed areas are receiving additional cutting. The area which has the two layers of plastisol thereon will be completely protected from the blasting and serves to define the outline for the second-to-be-cut area. This last method is clearly illustrated in FIGS. 18 and 19 which show the two steps involved in applying the resist layers to the glass substrate. FIG. 19, it will be noted, shows the period where the grit blasting has been carried out for a short time to illustrate the beginning of the cut of the completely exposed area. FIG. 20 shows the same section after completion of the grit blasting. FIG. 16 illustrates the decorative effect achieved by a two-depth grit blasting on a glass tumbler and FIG. 17 is a sectional view through the same portion of the completed cut as is illustrated in FIGS. 1820.

In addition to the detailed processes set forth above,

applicants have found that a particularly pleasing decoration for glassware may be achieved by applying a colored ceramic decoration on the ware and firing or fusing this ceramic prior to the screening of the resist material on the Ware. Subsequent to the application of the resist the grit blasting of the surface is carried out and after removal of the resist an article of ware is produced which is pleasing in appearance.

Throughout the specification, the term silk screen decorating technique has been used to designate a Wellknown, presently used method of applying decorations, such as inks, to various articles wherein the decoration has or may have fairly intricate designs. It should be pointed out, however, that the term is not limited to the specific use of silk as the screen, in that it is a wellknown practice at this time to use screens which are formed of stainless steel, copper and other metals. Therefore, the foregoing description, when using the term silk screen technique, is intended to include the use of screens other than silk while following the general techniques involved in the utilization of screens to form images and outlines in decorations on surfaces.

While the above description relates to the making of single and double depth cuts in glassware, it should be obvious that the same technique may be employed to cut designs in materials other than glassware and that more than two-depth cuts may be made by applying the resist in more than two layers in the proper manner following the teachings of this application.

In summary, it can be seen that applicants have described four methods of cutting designs in glassware in which the first described is for making shallow cuts, the second and third for making deeper cuts and the fourth for making multiple depth cuts. It should also be pointed out that in every method described only a single period of grit blasting is involved.

Other and further modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

We claim:

1. Method of decorating glassware comprising, applying a ceramic decoration to the surface of the glassware, heating the glassware to fire the ceramic, applying an adhesive to the entire surface to be decorated, applying a coating of resist material having open areas of a predetermined design over the adhesive, grit blasting over the entire coated surface and then removing the resist material and cleaning the ware.

2. Method of decorating glassware such as tumblers or the like comprising, screening a ceramic decoration onto the surface of the tumbler, heating the ware to fuse the ceramic coating, applying a 1% solution of poly (vinylpyrrolidone) to at least the areas to be further decorated, screening a resist material onto the surface with a preselected pattern corresponding to the desired decoration, heating the coated tumbler to dry the resist material, grit blasting the surfaces of the tumbler which have the resist material coating thereon, and washing the adhesive and resist material from the tumbler.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the resist material is a polyvinyl chloride plastisol.

4. Method of carving a design in bas-relief in the side wall of a clean glass article comprising, the steps of applying a thin transparent water soluble adhesive film to the surface of the article, drying the adhesive, applying a polyvinyl chloride plastisol by the silk screen method to form an image whose open areas are to be cut away by blasting, grit blasting the plastisol covered surface for a predetermined time and at a selected pressure depending upon the depth of the cut desired, and removing the plastisol and adhesive film by washing the article with hot water.

5. The method of carving a design in an article, comprising the steps of applying a thin adhesive film to the surface area to be carved, drying the adhesive, screening on a polyvinyl chloride plastisol over the adhesive film to form uncovered areas corresponding to the image of the desired design, applying a grit blast to the area to cut the article in the uncovered areas, and removing the plastisol and adhesive thereby to provide an article having a cut decoration therein.

6. The method of carving a design in the side wall of a glass article, comprising the steps of applying a thin soluble adhesive film to the surface area to be carved, drying the adhesive, screening on a polyvinyl chloride plastisol over the adhesive film to form uncovered areas corresponding to the image of the desired design, applying a radially directed grit blast to the area to cut the glass in the uncovered areas, and applying a solvent to the coated area to remove the plastisol and adhesive by solvent action on the adhesive thereby to provide a glass article having a cut decoration therein.

7. The method of carving a design in the side wall of a glass article comprising, the steps of applying a thin adhesive film to the surface area to be carved, drying the adhesive, screening a polyvinyl chloride plastisol over the adhesive film to form a resist coating having uncovered areas corresponding to the image of the desired design, screening a second layer of polyvinyl chloride plastisol over the first coating in registration therewith, thereby forming a relatively thick resist coating, applying a grit blast to the area to cut the design to the desired depth, and removing the plastisol and adhesive thereby to provide a glass article having a deeply cut design in the wall thereof.

8. The method of carving a design in the surface of an article comprising, the steps of applying a thin adhesive film to the surface :area to be carved, drying the adhesive, screening a polyvinyl chloride plastisol over the adhesive film to form a resist coating having uncovered areas corresponding to the outline of the image of the desired design, screening a second layer of polyvinyl chloride plastisol over the first coating in registration using a screen having both the outline and detail images, applying a grit blast to the area to cut the design and removing the plastisol and adhesive thereby. to provide an article having a surface with a cut design therein.

9. The method of claim 8 including the added step of partially fusing the first layer of resist material prior to application of the second layer.

10. The method of claim 9 includingthe added step of fully fusing both layers of resist material prior to grit blasting.

11. The method of carving a design in the side wall of a glass article, comprising the steps of applying a thin adhesive film to the surface area to be carved, drying the adhesive, screening a resist material over the adhesive film to form uncovered areas corresponding to the image of the design desired, applying a grit blast to the area to cut the design and removing the resist material and adhesive thereby to provide a glass article having a cut decoration therein.

12. The method of carving a design in the side wall of a glass article comprising, the steps of applying a thin adhesive film to the surface area to be carved, drying the adhesive, screening a resist material over. the adhesive film to form uncovered areas on the surface corresponding to the outline of the desired design, screening a second coat of resist material in registration with the first to cover additional areas, applying a grit blast to the area to cut the design and removing the resist material and adhesive thereby to provide a glass article hav-. ing a cut decoration therein.

13. The method of carving a design in a glass article comprising, the steps of applying a thin adheisve film to the surface area to be carved, drying the adhesive, screening a first thin layer of resist material over the adhesive film to form uncovered areas on the surface which correspond to the design which is to be cut the deepest,

screening a second layer of resist material over the first layer to form additional areas which are covered only by the first layer in a selected pattern, applying a grit blast to the surface area for a time suflicient to wear away the uncovered first layer and abrade the surface therebeneath, and removing the layers of material and adhesive thereby to provide a glass article having a cut design therein which has two depths of cut.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the resist material is a polyvinyl chloride plastisol.

15. The method of claim 14 including the added step of partially fusing the first layer of resist material prior to application of the second layer.

16. The method of claim 15 including the added step of fully fusing both layers of resist material prior to grit blasting.

17. Method of decorating a selected surface area of an article comprising the steps of applying a thin, adhesive film to the surface area to be decorated, screening a resist material over the adhesive film with a preselected image pattern corresponding to a predetermined design, grit blasting over the surface area to cut the design and then removing the resist material and adhesive thereby to provide an article having a surface cut decoration therein.

References Cited by the Examiner LESTER M. SWINGLE, Primary Examiner.

Claims (1)

17. METHOD OF DECORATING A SELECTED SURFACE AREA OF AN ARTICLE COMPRISING THE STEPS OF APPLYING A THIN, ADHESIVE FILM TO THE SURFACE AREA TO BE DECORATED, SCREENING A RESIST MATERIAL OVER THE ADHESIVE FILM WITH A PRESELECTED IMAGE PATTERN CORRESPONDING TO A PREDETERMINED DESIGN, GRIT BLASTING OVER THE SURFACE AREA TO CUT THE DESIGN AND THEN REMOVING THE RESIST MATERIAL AND ADHESIVE THEREBY TO PROVIDE AN ARTICLE HAVING A SURFACE CUT DECORATION THEREIN.

Images