Decorative coating excluding a base hard-coat

Abstract

The disclosure refers to a method for producing a coated plastic article, the method comprising: nnnnn. providing a plastic substrate having at least a first and second surface; ooooo. depositing on the plastic substrate a decorative coating comprising a metal or metal alloy layer, using physical vapor deposition; and ppppp. applying a protective coating to at least the first surface of the plastic article, wherein there is no plasma pre-treatment of the plastic substrate prior to deposition of the decorative coating. Further, the disclosure refers to a coated plastic article comprising; a plastic substrate having a first and second surface, a decorative coating comprising a metal or metal alloy layer deposited directly on the plastic substrate and a protective coating applied to the first surface of the plastic article, wherein the residual stress of the decorative coating is tensile, and the coated plastic article passes the SAEJ2527 accelerated UV test.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.