Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
1~95716
~ he present invention rela-tes to a me-thod
of producing an article having a decorative feature,
and the articles produced therefrom. The invention
is particularl~ suitable to -the producing of
articles of jewellery, drink coasters~ place mats
and moun-table pictures
Heretofore, it has been known to produce
items of decorative jewellery by preparing an
appropriate fitting in the article of jewellery?
painting the base of said fit-ting black, placing
and arranging gem chips on the blackened base
and covering said chips with a clear resin, and
allowing the resin to set and so embed the gem
chips in said jewellery fitting.
It will be appreciated that a black back-
ground is desirable in set-ting gem chips as this
enhances the colour or colours -thereof.
This method of setting the gem chips
directly in articles of jewellery has the obvious
serious disadvantage that it has to be performed
on the actual article of jewellery which is not
always convenient. ~urthe-rmore, it is evident
tha-t each article has to be separately subjected
to the above gem setting procedure, this being
time consuming and therefore uneconomical.
I-t will also be appreciated that gem chips
having a high lustre are expensive. There are
however many gem chips, synthe-tic stones and
the like which, although cheap, because of their
lack of lus-tre and brilliance canno-t be used in
~L~957~6
such jewellery settings. Accordingly if these
cheaper ma-terials could be used in a manner which
enhances the natural character thereof many
articles of jewellery could be produced more in-
expensively.
It has now been found that if a light
diffractive material either alone or as a base
for the gem chips, synthetic stones and the like,
is used a greater degree of brilliance is achieved,
which not only is pleasing in itself but also
sets off gem chips, synthetic stones and the like.
Accordingly -the present invention provides
a me-thod of producing an article incorporating
decorative features comprising placing a light
diffractive sheet material in or on a preformed
backing member, and securing a cover of trans-
parent material to -the backing member to encase
the light diffractive material, so that a decorat-
ive image created by the diffracted ligh-t is
viewable through the cover
The backing member is preferably moulded
from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, however,
any thermoplastic or thermosetting material is
suitable. The plastic materials of the backing
member are preferably dyed with an appropriate
compatible black dye, however in applications with
the light diffractive material covering the entire
base of the mould the black dye is not essential.
The mould may comprise a flat or curved base
portion with a low peripheral lip.
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~09S7~6
It will be appreciated that the base portion
of the mould may have any peripheral shape and this
will naturally be de-termined by the shape of the
article required. When the article is to be used
in jewellery the shape will be influenced by the
fitting provided to hold the setting. ~hus the
shape may be oval, round, square, etc. to suit
complemental fittings aesthetically designed to
suit -various articles such as jewellery. It will
be appreciated that this method enables jewellery
settings to be convenien-tly mass-produced in
standard sizes and shapes determined by jewellery
requirements and accordingly, will obviously
reduce the cost of producing the settingsr
In a more specific embodiment there is
provided a method of producing an article incorp-
orating decorative features comprising placing a
light diffractive ma-terial in a backing member
having a peripheral lip and formed of a synthetic
polymeric plastic material, adding liquid resin
to said backing member to form a transparent
cover over said light diffractive material with
said resin, and allowing said resin to cure to
form an in-tegral assembly comprising said backing
member, said light diffractive material, and
the transparent cover.
The clear resin may preferably be an epoxy
resin and must be capable of curing upon exposure
to the ambient atmosphere. It is preferable,
however, to subject the resin to heat, af-ter
~(39S716
application to the backing member in order -to
expedite -the curing of the resin and to eliminate
trapped air bubbles in the resin.
The preferred ligh-t diffractive material
-to be used is an al~linium foil which has been
embossed in a manner to diffract light. Such
an aluminium foil rnay conveniently be 0.000001
of an inch thick and laminated with a clear
plastic film. The embossed pattern on the foil
is formed by arrangements of lines applied at the
spacing of the order 14000 lines per inch. The
result of the diffraction of light from such a
foil provides a broad spectra of colour.
It is usual to add a small excess of the
clear resin to the mould in order to produce a
convex external surface of "domed" effect~ in
the resin which i-t has set. It is noted that
the clear resin on set-ting in-tensiIies the
brilliance of the alwminiwn foil ~md also protects
the surface of the foil from damage, the alwminium
foil being extremely soft.
It will be understood that -the transparent
cover rnay also be preformed and secured to the
backing member such as by ultrasonic welding.
In a further embodiment it has been dis-
covered that by utilizing the light diffractive
material beneath a masking sheet such as a
negative, or a screen print on a transparent
material, one obtains a picture in shimmering
colours, which changes wi-th movemen-t OI the
lO9S71~i
mounting, through the colours of the spectrum.
One other method of producing such an
effect is for a picture to be drawn, a negative
made of the picture, such that the white parts
are black and the black parts clear; the black
area is screen printed onto a transparent sheet,
and hence the white area, i.eO the actual picture,
being left clear. This is then set in the bac~ing
member and the diffractive material will be
exposed in the clear areas. If desired drawings,
etchings or adhesive transfers may be used -to
replace the negative or even adhered direct to
the light diffractive material prior to cover-
ing with the clear resin. It will be apprecia-ted
that ornamental decoration may also be printed
directly onto the diffractive material.
~ he invention will now be illustrated by
the following Example.
EXAMPLE
.
~ he embossed aluminium foil on a plastic
backing is cut to shape and placed on the base
of an appropria-tely shaped backing member, having
a low peripheral lip and moulded from a styrene
plastic.
A small quantity of eooxy resin is placed
beneath the foil and the resultant assembly heat
for a short period to obtain an even layer of
resin between the backing member and foil. ~his
operation also assists the foil to lay flat on
the backing member.
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~.~9S7~6
Epoxy resin is -then poured into -the mould
covering the foil un-til a satis-factory "domed"
surface is obtained. Tl1e mould is then placed
in a heater set at between 120~F to 165F -to
expedite the curing of the epoxy resin and to
allow the escape of trapped air bubbles. The
curing time is about 70 minutes to 2 hours
(depending on the tempera-ture and ~ize of -the
article) under -these conditions.
In ~nother embodiment opal chips or slices
are arranged individually on top of the foil
prior to addition of the epoxy resin. In yet
another embodiment several small pieces of the
foil cut to any desired shape are placed in a
random or organized arrangement in the mould.
Preferably the mould is black in colour. ~he
epoxy resin is then added to the mould.
If a transparent sheet or film carrying
additional decora-tive material is used a small
quantity of resin is placed on -the foil before
the sheet or film. Again this is heated to
obtain an even layer before the main quanti-ty of
resin is added to form the "domed" cover.
One practical arrangement of -the invention
will now be described with reference to -the
accompanying drawings wherein:-
Figure 1 is an exploded view of adecorative article to be produced by the method
of the present invention and
Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view throug'n
1095716
the finished article.
~ eferring now to the drawings the article
comprises a rnoulded plastic base 1 having an up-
standing peripheral lip la. The height of the lip
is slightly greater than the total thickness of
the corr.ponents 2 and 3 to be located within the
area defined by the lip so -that when these components
are so located, portion of the lip still protrudes
to form a boundary for the area into which the
epoxy resin is to be poured.
The piece of diffractive foil rnaterial 2
is cut so as to neatly fit within the area defined
by -the peripheral lip and is therefore located by
the lip. It will be appreciated that in some
embodiments of the invention the diffractive
material may not be in the form of a single piece
but may be several pieces which are arranged in a
random or preset formation on the base.
The transparent film 3 is screen printed
so that a clear area remains to define an orna-
mental indicia which in this case is the let-ter "T".
It will be appreciated that the provision of a
clear space will enable the diffractive material
2 to be viewed through this clear space in the
finished article. As previously disclosed the
decorative ma-terial placed on the diffractive
foil 2 can be in a wide variety of forms including
both two dimensional and three dimensional forms.
After the diffractive foil sheet 2 and
the transparent film 3 have been correctly loca-ted
1095716
in the base 1, the transparen-t cover is formed
by pouring clear epoxy resin onto the base in a
quantity sufficient to form a "domed" top surface
on the resin and the product so produced is cured
to produce a final integrated assembly having a
cross-section as shown in ~igure 2. ~t will be
appreciated as previously disclosed in the speci-
fication that the -transparent cover may be pre-
formed and subsequently secured to -the base by
ultrasonic welding
~ he article so produced is intended to be
subsequently mounted in a jewellery setting such
settings being commercially produced in a series
of standard sizes and accordingly the articles
of the present invention can be produced in the
same range of sizes to fit the standard jewellery
settings. However it is to be understood that
the invention may be applied -to -the production of
a very wide range of articles examples of which
are coastersupon which drink glasses may be placed~
a wide variety of souvenirs such as ornaments or
key rings and decorative plaques and pic-tures,
place mats and even on a large scale, coffee tables
and ornamental tables
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