WO2008105577A1

WO2008105577A1 - Plastic card having a metal decoration

Info

Publication number: WO2008105577A1
Application number: PCT/KR2007/003456
Authority: WO
Inventors: Seung Hyun Ahn; Sung Gwan Kang; Eun Joo Choi
Original assignee: Gk Power Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 2007-02-27
Filing date: 2007-07-16
Publication date: 2008-09-04

Abstract

A plastic card having a metal decoration is disclosed. The plastic card has a multilayered structure, in which plastic sheets are layered on top of one another, with transparent coating sheets layered on the upper and lower surfaces of the multilayered plastic sheets and thermally adhered to the plastic sheets. A thin metal decoration, which is cut into a predetermined pattern, is placed on any one of the plastic sheets and is thermally adhered at the time of adhesion of the upper and lower coating sheets such that the metal decoration is embedded in the plastic card.

Description

PLASTIC CARD HAVING A METAL DECORATION

Technical Field

[1] The present invention relates, in general, to plastic cards and, more particularly, to a plastic card having a metal decoration, in which the metal decoration, having a plated thin sheet shape or a thin film shape, is adhered between a plurality of plastic sheets, constituting the plastic card, or to the upper surface of a plastic sheet of the plastic card, thus improving the beauty of the plastic card. Background Art

[2] As well known to those skilled in the art, a variety of plastic cards, such as credit cards, which are preferably used in place of cash in markets, and smart cards, which have embedded therein IC chips having mass storage capacity and which are preferably used as ID cards or for various kinds of membership cards, such as clinic membership cards, have been widely used in recent years.

[3] Such membership cards are coming to be recognized as life necessities. As the demand for such membership cards increases, card management companies tend to issue different cards to their members according to credit rating, thus capturing the interest of members and constituting part of the process of marketing.

[4] Thus, decorated plastic cards, which are provided on plastic sheets with overlay films, printed with a variety of color patterns or color characters through offset printing, and which have beautiful distinct appearances and capture the interest of members, unlike conventional plastic cards, having simple sheet shapes, have been proposed.

[5] However, conventional decorated plastic cards are configured such that the appearance of the cards is decorated with films having images printed thereon, so that the improvement of the beauty of the cards which can be improved by forming a unique texture on the cards or making the appearance of the cards distinct is limited.

[6] Thus, in an effort to improve the beauty of the cards, a plastic card, which expresses a unique texture using a metal sheet which is attached to a plastic sheet, has been proposed. Here, the plastic card having a metal sheet is configured such that a metal sheet and a plastic sheet, which are made of different materials, are attached together through simple thermal fusion, so that it is problematic in that the metal sheet may be removed from the plastic sheet, fade, or degrade in quality after repeated use of the plastic card over a lengthy period of time. Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem [7] Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the related art, and is intended to provide a plastic card having a metal decoration, in which the metal decoration improves the beauty of the plastic card and is less likely to be removed from the plastic card, fade, or degrade in quality despite repeated use of the plastic card over a lengthy period of time. Technical Solution

[8] In an aspect, the present invention provides a plastic card having a metal decoration, and comprising a plurality of plastic sheets layered to form a multilayered structure, with transparent coating sheets applied on upper and lower surfaces of the multilayered structure of the plastic sheets and thermally adhered to the plastic sheets, wherein a thin metal decoration, cut into a predetermined pattern, is thermally adhered at a time of adhesion of the upper and lower coating sheets in a state in which the metal decoration is placed on any one of the plastic sheets.

[9] Here, when the plastic sheets are transparent plastic sheets, the metal decoration may be thermally adhered at the time of adhesion of the upper and lower coating sheets in a state in which the metal decoration is placed on any one of lower plastic sheets.

[10] In the plastic card, the metal decoration may be formed as a decoration having a metal film thereon by cutting a plastic sheet into a predetermined pattern and by plating the cut plastic sheet with metal. Further, to secure high adhesive strength between the metal decoration and the plastic sheet, the metal decoration may be a sticker type decoration having an adhesive surface on the back thereof or an adhesive may be applied to the back of the metal decoration.

[11] To improve the beauty of the plastic card, an auxiliary decoration, such as precious metal, may be attached to the upper surface of the metal decoration.

Advantageous Effects

[12] According to the present invention, a metal decoration is thermally adhered at the time of adhesion of upper and lower coating sheets in a state in which the metal decoration is placed on a plastic sheet or between other plastic sheets of a plastic card, so that the metal decoration is covered with the coating sheets. Thus, the plastic card of the present invention is advantageous in that the intrinsic brilliance of the metal decoration is emitted to the outside through the coating sheet at various angles, thus improving the beauty of the plastic card. Further, the metal decoration is less likely to fade or decrease in quality despite repeated use of the plastic card over a lengthy period of time, thus improving the quality and reliability of the plastic card. Brief Description of the Drawings

[13] FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating the construction of a plastic card having a metal decoration according to the present invention; [14] FIGS. 2 and 3 are an exploded perspective view and a side sectional view of a plastic card according to an embodiment of the present invention, respectively;

[15] FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the assembled plastic card according to the embodiment of the present invention;

[16] FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of a plastic card according to another embodiment of the present invention; and

[17] FIG. 6 is a perspective view illustrating another embodiment of the metal decoration used in the plastic card of the present invention.

[18] <Description of reference characters of important parts>

[19] 10: plastic card 11, 15: coating sheet

[20] 12, 13, 14: plastic sheet 20: magnetic tape

[21] 21 : IC chip 22: antenna coil

[22] 23: hologram 30: metal decoration

[23] 31: release sheet 32: auxiliary decoration

Mode for the Invention

[24] Hereinbelow, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[25] FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating the construction of a plastic card having a metal decoration according to the present invention. As shown in the drawing, the plastic card 10 according to the present invention is characterized in that it is provided with a metal decoration 30 therein such that the metal decoration 30 can be shown from the outside through the upper surface of the card 10, thus improving the texture and beauty of the card 10. The construction of the plastic card according to the present invention will be described in more detail hereinbelow.

[26] FIGS. 2 through 4 are views of a plastic card according to a first embodiment of the present invention, in which FIGS. 2 and 3 are an exploded perspective view and a side sectional view of the plastic card according to the embodiment of the present invention, respectively, and FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the assembled plastic card according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[27] As shown in FIGS. 2 through 4, the plastic card 10 according to the present invention comprises an upper coating sheet 11, which is made of thin plastic material, a plurality of plastic sheets 12, 13 and 14, and a lower coating sheet 15. A metal decoration 30 is placed between the upper coating sheet 11 and the uppermost one of the plastic sheets 12, 13 and 14.

[28] The upper and lower coating sheets 11 and 15 are made of a thin transparent plastic material having a film shape, while the plastic sheets 12, 13 and 14 are made of an opaque plastic material having a predetermined thickness. The metal decoration 30 has a thin plate shape and is produced through metal etching, plating, casting, sheet metal working, cutting, or injection molding to form it into a predetermined pattern. Further, the size of the metal decoration 30 is set such that it exceeds neither the size of the plastic sheets 12, 13 and 14 nor the size of the upper and lower coating sheets 11 and 15.

[29] In the embodiment, to secure high adhesive strength between the metal decoration

30 and the plastic sheet 12, the metal decoration 30 may be a sticker type decoration having an adhesive surface on the back thereof. Further, although it is not shown in the drawings, the metal decoration is preferably processed through thermal adhesion in a state in which the metal decoration is securely adhered to the plastic sheet 12 using an adhesive, so that the metal decoration can be protected by both the upper and lower coating sheets 11 and 15.

[30] Further, one or more auxiliary decorations 32, for example, precious metal, such as gold or silver, or sapphire is preferably attached to the upper surface of the metal decoration 30, as shown in FIG. 6, thus improving the beauty of the plastic card.

[31] Hereinbelow, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the production process of the plastic card according to the embodiment.

[32] First, the upper coating sheet 11, the metal decoration 30, the plastic sheets 12, 13 and 14, and the lower coating sheet 15 are sequentially layered from top to bottom, and then they are neatly arranged to form a multilayered structure. When the plastic sheets 12, 13 and 14 are transparent sheets, the metal decoration 30 may be placed on either of the lower plastic sheets 13 and 14. In other words, in the present invention, the metal decoration 30 may be placed on any one of the plastic sheets 12, 13 and 14 without limitation.

[33] Secondarily, the multilayered structure, in which the above-mentioned elements are sequentially layered on top of one another, is processed through multistage hot rolling and hot pressing, thus forming an integrated sheet structure having a thickness of about 0.82 mm. Here, the number of plastic sheets 12, 13 and 14 is set to two, three or four. Thus, four, five or six plastic sheets, which include the plastic sheets 12, 13 and 14 and the coating sheets 11 and 15, are layered on top of one another, thus forming an integrated sheet structure.

[34] Thereafter, the integrated sheet structure is cut through punching into a predetermined standard size, thus forming a unit plastic card having one or more metal decorations 30 therein. The unit plastic card is subjected to inspection, and thus the quality is checked prior to completion of the process of producing the plastic cards.

[35] In the drawings, the reference numeral 20 denotes magnetic tape, which is attached to the lower surface of the lower coating sheet 15, the numerals 21 and 22 denote an integrated circuit (IC) chip and an antenna coil, respectively, which are attached to the plastic sheet 13, and the numeral 23 denotes a hologram, which is attached to the upper coating sheet 11. Further, the numeral 31 denotes a release sheet, which is attached to the back of the metal decoration 30 so as to protect an adhesive surface when the decoration 30 is configured as a sticker type decoration having the adhesive surface on the back thereof.

[36] The magnetic tape 20, the IC chip 21, the antenna coil 22 and the hologram 23 may be selectively used in plastic cards according to the classes of the cards, and are generally used in the related art, and further explanation thereof is thus not deemed necessary.

[37] As apparent from the above description, in the plastic card according to the present invention, a metal decoration 30 is thermally adhered at the time of adhesion of upper and lower coating sheets 11 and 15 in a state in which the metal decoration 30 is placed on a plastic sheet 12 or between other plastic sheets 13 and 14, so that the metal decoration 30 is covered with the coating sheets 11 and 15. Thus, the intrinsic brilliance of the metal decoration 30 is emitted to the outside through the coating sheet 11 at various angles, thus improving the beauty of the plastic card and capturing the interest of customers. Further, the metal decoration 30 is less likely to fade or degrade in quality despite repeated use of the plastic card over a lengthy period of time, thus improving the quality and reliability of the plastic card.

[38] Although the embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.

Claims

[1] A plastic card having a metal decoration, and comprising a plurality of plastic sheets (12, 13, 14) layered to form a multilayered structure, with transparent coating sheets (11, 15) applied on upper and lower surfaces of the multilayered structure of the plastic sheets (12, 13 and 14) and thermally adhered to the plastic sheets, wherein a thin metal decoration (30), cut into a predetermined pattern, is thermally adhered at a time of adhesion of the upper and lower coating sheets (11, 15) in a state in which the metal decoration is placed on any one of the plastic sheets (12, 13, 14).

[2] The plastic card having the metal decoration according to claim 1, wherein, when the plastic sheets (12, 13, 14) are transparent plastic sheets, the metal decoration (30) is thermally adhered at a time of adhesion of the upper and lower coating sheets (11, 15) in a state in which the metal decoration is placed on any one of the lower plastic sheets (13, 14).

[3] The plastic card having the metal decoration according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the metal decoration (30) is formed by cutting a plastic sheet into the predetermined pattern and by plating the cut plastic sheet with metal.

[4] The plastic card having the metal decoration according to claim 3, wherein the metal decoration (30) is a sticker type decoration having an adhesive surface on a back thereof.

[5] The plastic card having the metal decoration according to claim 3, wherein the metal decoration (30) is thermally adhered at a time of adhesion of the upper and lower coating sheets (11, 15) in a state in which the metal decoration is adhered to a surface of any one of the plastic sheets using an adhesive applied to a back thereof.

[6] The plastic card having the metal decoration according to claim 3, further comprising: an auxiliary decoration (32) attached to an upper surface of the metal decoration (30).