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US 7,547,372 B1Granted
Thermally reactive ink transfer system
OwnerDonald D. Sloaninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An ink transfer system including an ink transfer decal that is transferable to a final substrate, such as a bare metal or pre-painted autobody part, without use of a separate adhesive. The transferred ink decal is capable of withstanding temperature elevations common during automotive paint baking without significant thermal degradation, discoloration, shrinkage or pealing.
Claims27
A method of creating and transferring a solid ink design to a substrate comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a decal that does not include a separately applied adhesive, said decal comprising
- (i) a flexible backing sheet having a surface adapted to releaseably receive polymer resins,
- (ii) an ink transfer coating comprising one or more ink layers and, optionally, a transparent base coat, each of said one or more ink layers and optional base coat being printed onto said sheet as a liquid comprising a thermoplastic polymer resin, a UV stabilizer to inhibit photo degradation of polymers formed from said resin, an antioxidant to inhibit oxidative degradation of polymers formed from said resin, and a solvent system, said liquid from which any of said one or more ink layers and optional base coat are formed being capable of drying on said sheet by solvent evaporation upon being allowed to dry for one hour at ambient conditions, and
- (iii) a removable transfer medium coating deposited upon said dried ink transfer coating to form a film that will not strongly adhere to said ink transfer coating;
- (b) removing said flexible backing sheet from said decal to expose a surface of said ink transfer coating and applying said exposed surface to said substrate;
- and
- (c) stripping said transfer medium coating from said ink transfer coating with said ink transfer coating remaining on said substrate.
4 more elements
A method of creating and transferring a solid ink design to a substrate comprising the steps of:
- (a) creating a decal that does not include a separately applied adhesive by
- (i) applying an ink transfer coating comprising one or more ink layers and, optionally, a transparent base coat to a flexible backing sheet having a surface adapted to releasably receive polymer resins, each of said one or more ink layers and optional base coat being printed onto said sheet as a liquid comprising a thermoplastic polymer resin, a UV stabilizer to inhibit photo degradation of polymers formed from said resin, an antioxidant to inhibit oxidative degradation of polymers formed from said resin, and a solvent system, each of said one or more ink layers and optional base coat capable of drying on said sheet by solvent evaporation upon being allowed to dry for one hour at ambient conditions, and
- (iii) depositing a removable transfer medium coating upon said dried ink transfer coating to form a film that will not strongly adhere to said ink transfer coating;
- (b) removing said flexible backing sheet from said decal to expose a surface of said ink transfer coating and applying said exposed surface to said substrate;
- and
- (c) stripping said transfer medium coating from said ink transfer coating with said ink transfer coating remaining on said substrate.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.