Method of manufacture of identical parts displaying different indicia
AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft
InventorsEgon Edinger, Peter Reiser
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of manufacturing parts which are otherwise identical but which display different indicia such as a typewriter or the like keys which comprises the steps of injection molding a plurality of identical parts of a plastic having a filler material capable of undergoing a color change, and thereafter exposing individually the identical parts to a radiation source for changing the color of localized portions of the part to display the indicia while retaining the molded color of remaining portions.
Claims5
The method of producing identically shaped plastic keys having different readible indicia on a surface thereof which comprises the steps of preparing a mixture of a base plastics material and a filler material, the filler material capable of undergoing a color change by application of energy, molding the keys by injection molding with at least a surface portion of the key formed of the mixture, providing a laser beam, focusing the energy radiation in the beam, moving the key surface and beam with respect to one another in a predetermined pattern whereby the beam plays over the surface in a path corresponding to the desired readible indicia, the beam having a power sufficient to change the color of the filler material in the path area.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.