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US 2013/0075296 A1Published application
Marking of Can Ends And/Or Pull Tabs Using Photonically Sensitive Ink
AssigneeCrown Packaging Technology, Inc.
InventorsChristopher Paul Ramsey, Stephen Miles Colville
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for laser marking can ends, especially pull tabs, includes coating a portion of the can end and/or pull tab with a lacquer having a photonically active material and directing a laser to the lacquer to alter the appearance of the of the photonically active material to form an image, especially a high resolution image. The decorated can end and/or tabs may have a high resolution image.
Claims38
A method of decorating can ends comprising the steps of:
- providing a can end substrate of a material comprising a metal;
- coating at least a portion of the can end substrate with a lacquer that includes a photonically active component;
- and
- applying a laser to the coated substrate to change an appearance of at least a portion of the photonically active component substantially without burning, etching, or ablating the lacquer, thereby forming an image.
1 more element
A decorated can end comprising:
- an end shell and a pull tab, each one of the end shell and the pull tab comprising a metal and a coating, the coating comprising a lacquer and a photonically active component;
- and
- an image applied to at least one of a center panel of the end shell and the pull tab, the image formed by application of a laser that changes an appearance of at least a portion of the photonically active component substantially without burning, etching, or ablating the lacquer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.