PROCEDE POUR REALISER DES IMAGES POUVANT ETRE REPORTEES EN PARTICULIER SUR DES MURS

PROCESS FOR THE REALIZATION OF TRANSFERABLE IMAGES SPECIALLY FOR WALLS

Abrégé français

L'invention concerne un nouveau procédé permettant d'obtenir des images pouvant être reportées en particulier sur des murs. Ce procédé consiste tout d'abord à traiter une image par ordinateur, puis à l'imprimer (à l'envers) sur des supports ou du papier à report, avant de déposer un liant adhésif sur un mur, le support ou le papier report étant appuyé contre ce mur pour être imprimé à l'endroit. On peut ainsi obtenir des images originales parfaitement reportées sur un mur, celui-ci ayant été prétraité. Le procédé de cette invention présente notamment l'avantage de ne pas avoir à employer des pochoirs ou des processus de production traditionnels, chaque application étant originale, dans la mesure où elle est créée par l'utilisateur lui-même à l'aide de son ordinateur.

Abrégé anglais

The invention is a new process for obtaining transferable images specially for
walls in which the image is first processed by computer,
printed (upturned) on supports or on transfer paper, then an adhesive binder
is laid off the chosen wall, the support or the transfer paper
leant against the wall is plugged back to front. Original images perfectly
transferred on the pre-treated wall are obtained. This process
has the advantage that neither stencils nor standard production are required
but each application is original since it is created by the user
himself by means of a computer.

Revendications

6
Claims:
1. Process for the realization of transferable images on a
surface such as a wall, using a transfer paper onto which the image
is printed in a specular way, the printed side of which is then
pasted on said surface by means of an adhesive, whereupon the
transfer paper is removed, characterized by the following steps:
a. processing the image in a computer;
b. printing the image in reverse onto said transfer paper;
c. spreading a layer of adhesive on the printed side of the
transfer paper;
d. spreading a thin layer of binding agent on the surface to be
decorated by the image;
e. positioning the printed transfer paper on the surface;
f. pressing the transfer paper against the surface; and
g. removing the transfer paper.
2. Process according to claim 1, wherein the image transferred
to the surface is coated by a transparent varnish.
3. Process according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the printing step
is performed by means of an electrostatic printer.
4. Process according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the
adhesive in step c) contains polyvinyl alcohol.

Description

CA 02353729 2001-05-31
WO 00/32421 PCT/IT99/00389
I
TITLE
PROCESS FOR THE REALIZATION OF TRANSFERABLE
IMAGES SPECIALLY FOR WALLS
DESCRIPTION
This patent relates to the field of decorations and particularly
regards wall decorations. Generally, the walls of houses, gardens
or buildings are usually painted with one or more continuos
colours for each wall. In some valuable houses or premises the
walls are decorated with simple, complex, monochrome or
polychrome drawings. The simple decorations such as hems, lines,
strips or simple figures are firstly drawn with a fine pencil stroke
which can be erased (or are drawn with the same colour of the
figure) and then are filled with the colour by means of a brush or a
spray gun.
In case of decorations with brush and always in case of
decorations with spray gun the outlines of the figure to be drawn
are circumscribed by stencils so as to prevent the colour from
smudging and to avoid haloes.
As for the more complex decorations, such as strips with
geometric or curvilinear patterns some stencils are being used,
they are laid on the wall and coloured. The paint goes through the
shaped holes of the stencil colouring the vvall with the exact shape
of the stencil.

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In order to realize drawings with two or more colours it is
necessary to use one stencil for each colour shortly after that the
previous one is dried.
This kind of decorations is to be carried out by professional
painters with the help of several stencils owing to the considerable
exactness and ability required. In any case, even using the stencils
it is impossible to carry out small decorations or to soften the
colours. Said softened or small decorations have to be carried out
manually by an expert painter or decorator.
Transfers are well known, that is, drawings painted on a
sheet of transfer paper. These drawings can be heat-transferred on
various kind of materials by means of presses or calenders, but
they can neither be transferred on rough surface or have wide
dimensions.
In order to overcome to the above cited drawbacks a new
process for decorations has been studied and carried out, said
process allows to perform decorations with drawings, photographic
images and processing-images realized by computers completely
personalized.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One aspect of the present application is a process for the
realisation of transferable images on a surface such as a wall, using
a transfer paper onto which the image is printed in a specular way,
the printed side of which is then pasted on said surface by means of
an adhesive, whereupon the transfer paper is removed,
characterized by the following steps:
a. processing the image in a computer;
b. printing the image in reverse onto said transfer paper;

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c. spreading a layer of adhesive on the printed side of the
transfer paper;
d. spreading a thin layer of binding agent on the surface to be
decorated by the image;
e. positioning the printed transfer paper on the surface;
f. pressing the transfer paper against the surface; and
g. removing the transfer paper.
The process for carrying out decorations or images
transferred on a wall consists of the following phases.
Firstly, the image or the decoration to transfer on the wall is
drawn by means of a computer. This phase can be performed
scanning an existing image or modifying an existing image or
realizing the image required by computer.

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The digital image obtained is then processed, that is, its colours
are corrected to balance the various chromatic differences
between the monitor and the inks used, then the image is
overtumed in a specular way and if its dimensions are wide it can
be divided into parts.
The image processed or divided is printed by means of proper
electrostatic printer on transfer-paper roll using four colour inks
(black, blue, red, yellow).
The images is not colour printed on suppcirts or on separated sheet
but all the colours are printed on the same support or transfer
sheet.
An adhesive, preferably with polyvinyl alcohol, is laid off the
toner spread on the transfer, whereas, on the surface in which the
image is to be painted, a thin adhesive bir.ider layer having suitable
chemical physical specifications - preferably equal or similar to
the which ones of the inks used for the print of the image - is laid
off.
Each support or transfer paper is placed on the wall in the right
position so that the side with the image is turned towards the
wall.
A pressure (plugging) is performed on the back to front, that is,
on the support or on the transfer paper in order to get the ink of
the image to adhere perfectly to the configuration of the wall and
to transfer at the same tirne all the ink on the wall.

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When the plugging is complete the suppoirt or the transfer paper is
removed leaving the image, or the ink composing the image, on
the adhesive binder spread on the wall, that is, on the wall itself.
If the image consists of many parts the process to be used for the
other parts is the same as described until now.
Once that all the parts of the image are; applied on the wall, a
transparent varnish is laid off the whole image so as to protect the
ink and the image from dust and scratches and make the unage
more luminous.
The process above described offers mamy advantages as far as
time, costs, resolution and dimensions are concerned.
The necessary time is limited to process the image by computer,
to print it on a roll or on a transfer support, and to apply it on the
chosen wall.
The costs for the image are moderate as it: is not necessary to have
expensive stencils or expensive printing systems.
The resolution obtained is very high as the digital printers can
print continuos shading and single-coloured dots in the order of
some split millimetres, this cannot be obtained by means of a
normal typographic process and not even by a manual execution
of the wall painting.
The actual dimensions of the image can be huge as the images
with huge dimensions are being split up in several parts with
smaller dimensions easier to handle.

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The new process allows even a person who is not familiar with
colours to obtain images with a simple application.
The new process allows to obtain complex decorations in a quick,
simple and easy way, as well as photographic copies, and any
simple and/or polychrome image, even with minute details,
processed by computer; all these decoralions and images can be
perform on rough masonry surface.
If the decoration has to be removed, it can be easily covered with
the same paint used for the wall or with a different one according
to the user's preferences.
The above are the basic outlines of the invention, on the basis of
which the technician will be able to provide for implementation;
therefore any change which may be necessary upon
implementation is to be regarded as completely protected by the
present invention.
With reference to the above description the following claims are
put forth.