Thermoformable conductive laminate and process

An exterior automotive plastic body panel having a primed outer surface adapted for application of an electrostatically spray painted exterior automotive paint coat, comprising:

• a thermoformable semi-rigid polymeric face sheet made of a thermoplastically formable polymeric material which has been thermoformed into a three-dimensionally contoured shape,
• an electrically conductive thermoformable polymeric primer coat paint transfer film to an contoured surface region of the thermoformed polymeric face sheet, the conductive dry paint transfer film comprising a thermoplastically formable polymeric material containing a dispersed conductive material providing electrical conductivity to an outer surface of the film,
• the conductive dry paint transfer film having regions thereof which have been subjected to elongation in forming the contoured face sheet, the outer surface of the conductive dry paint transfer film having a retained Ransberg resistivity value of at least about 110 units for providing an electrostatically sprayable surface resistivity to the contoured outer surface of the sheet,
• a molded polymeric substrate panel bonded to the thermoformed face sheet, and
• an exterior automotive quality paint coat with a Class "A" finish applied to the outer surface of the primer coat.

A shaped plastic automotive body part having a primed outer surface adapted for application of an electrostatically spray painted paint coat, the body part comprising:

• a semi-rigid thermoformable polymeric face sheet made of a thermoplastically formable polymeric material which has been thermoformed into a three-dimensionally contoured shape,
• an electrically conductive thermoformable polymeric primer coat comprising a dry paint transfer film bonded to an exterior contoured surface region of the thermoformed polymeric sheet, the conductive dry paint transfer film comprising a thermoplastically formable polymeric material containing a dispersed conductive material providing electrical conductivity to an outer surface of the conductive film,
• the conductive dry paint transfer film having regions thereof which have been subjected to elongation in forming the contoured face sheet, the conductive dry paint transfer film having a retained Ransberg resistivity value of at least about 110 units for providing an electrostatically sprayable surface resistivity to the contoured outer surface of the sheet, and
• an exterior automotive quality paint coat with a Class "A" finish applied to the outer surface of the conductive film.

A plastic body panel having a primed outer surface adapted for application of an electrostatically spray painted paint coat, the body panel comprising:

• a semi-rigid thermoformable polymeric face sheet made from thermoplastically formable polymeric material which has been thermoformed into a three-dimensionally contoured shape, the face sheet having a thickness in the range from about 10 to about 200 mils,
• an electrically conductive thermoformable polymeric primer coat comprising a dry paint transfer film bonded to an exterior contoured surface region of the thermoformed polymeric sheet, the polymeric material containing a dispersed conductive material providing electrical conductivity to an exposed outer surface of the film,
• the outer surface of the conductive dry paint transfer film having a microroughness transferred to it from replicating contact with a carrier on which the dry paint transfer film is formed,
• the conductive dry paint transfer film having regions thereof which have been subjected to elongation in forming the contoured face sheet, the conductive film having a retained Ransberg resistivity value of at least about 110 units for providing an electrostatically sprayable surface resistivity to the contoured outer surface of the sheet.