IL23925A - Embossed sheet materials - Google Patents

Description

PATENTS AND DESIGNS ORDINANCE -S P R C I.F.I. C_ A TIO N "IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO EMBOSSED SHEET ecoaasaooeaaaooeaoaoe a MsAasTeEeResIAesLaSe"asasestBeasosasaostsa We, HICKS AND OTIS PRINTS, INCORPORATED, a corporation incorporated under the laws of the State of Connecticut, United'States of America of Wilton Avenue, Norwalk, Connecticut, United States of America DO HEREB Y DECLARE the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following Case The present invention relates to embossed sheet materials and methods of making the same..

The sheet materials which are used have voids therein and are, for example, foamed polyurethane of either the polyester or polyether type and various forms of f brous batting such as batting made from nylon fiber, polyester which has been treated with an fiber, or in fact from any adhesive compourid IsSs&!e s ch as, for example vinyl acetate or acrylic resin.

According to the invention, there is provided a sheet of material having voids therein and having a surface embossed in a predetermined pattern, wherein the depressed areas of said pattern comprise fused portions of said sheet, said fused portions having substantially no voids therein.

There is also provided the method of embossing a pattern in a sheet of material having voids therein, wherein one protects areas which are to be the raised areas in the finished product from heat by covering said areas with heat resisting material and thereafter exposes the surface of said sheet to a heat source through said protective covering to thereby fuse the sheet and reduce the voids thereof to form depressed areas of the pattern.

The material is preferably embossed by printing with water and thereafter passing it through a flame to cause the unprinted, and hence unwetted, areas to be fused aion of a surface thus giving a sculptured or embossed surface .

Material thus embossed may be laminate d to fabric to produce an article having- a fabric surface which is a lso embossed in the same pattern as the underlying surface and may also be decorated by pigmenting the ra ised areas or in some instances by printing the fabric with water containing' dye material so that the base material is colored by the same material which renders the desired areas resistant to the flame and thus unf used..

Selected areas may be depressed to different extents to increase the sculptured effect and to provide more pleasing patterns „ When a fabric is laminated to the sheet material, the fabric may be adhered to the sheet material by applying the fa ic;. ^ still tacky, thus causing the fabric to be adhered to the sheet material and to be embossed in tile same pattern.

One may also print with water on material having voids therein and having a fabric already laminated to the under surface thereof and thereafter pass the printed fabric through a flame permSttdrg ths flane to penetrate deeply enough to melt the - i.derd materia 1 subs t ant ially to the laminated back thus forming a sheet having fine lines extending to the full depth of the material ,, This renders the material extremely flexible and capable of being used, for example y in the clothing industry where in many instances the material must be capable of being readily draped.

The depth of the embossed pattern may be varied by regulating either the a mount pf heat absorbing liquid printed on the material or the length of time during which the. material is exposed to the flame or both.

Other features of the invention will be a arent when the following description is considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which; Figure 1 is a perspective view of a foam sheet embossed in accordance with the invention, a portion of the embossed sheet being shown with a fabric covering laminated thereto and having the same embossed form as the underlying sheet ; Figure 2 is a diagrammatic side elevation showing a means for feeding a sheet of foam material between a pair of rollers , one of which prints a desired pattern upon the upper surface of the sheet with water or other heat absorbing liquid. This view also shows a plate upon which the shee of foam material lies as it passes from the first or printing rollers to a second set of feed rollers and likewise shows a flame which extends across the sheet in the area between the rollers ¾ and Figure 3 is a top plan view of the mechanism of Figure 2.

As indicated in the above description of the figures, foam material is considered hereinafter in describing the mode of embossing. This is done merely for convenience, it being understood that the fibrous batting material may be equally well utilized in performing the method.

As shown in Figure 1, the finished article comprises a sheet 10 of foam material which, as indicated,, may be polyurethane foam of either polyester or polyether type havin a attern in the form of a rid of depressed areas 11 therein. It will of course be understood that the grid pattern indicated is for illustrative . purposes only and that any desired pa^ ern ma be forttfed The depresd'pd' areas .ull '«re areas in which the foam material has bee melted and fused and the air expelled from the cells, thus causing collapse of the material and a fusing which causes these areas to be depressed as stated.

Referring now to Figure 2 there is shown therein a simple apparatus for performing the printing and exposure to flame which, as discussed above, results in the article of Figure 1.

The unembossed foam sheet which may be, for example, a quarter inch thick is passed between the rollers 12 and 13 , thence over a plate 11+. and into the bight of a second pair of rollers lj? and 16. Above the plate llj. is a perforated pipe 17 through which fuel is conducted to form the flame 18 which plays upon the upper surface of the sheet 10. Also, as shown in this figure, printing roller 12 has small holes 20 of predetermined depth drilled or otherwise formed therein and bears against the surface of the material 10.

The roller 12 is wetted with water by means of a trough formed by a doctor blade 21 which extends longitudinally of the roller 12. As is clearly indicated in Figure 3, the holes 20 of the printing roller 12 are arranged in the desired pattern.

As will be obvious, the foam material is printed with a block pattern defined by the areas 3 on the printing roller 12 as the material passes between the rollers 12 and 13. The water utilized and deposited in the holes 20 may, if desired be combined with a thickenin a ent such as starch; or methyl cellulctse to facilitate the printing and to control the depth to which the water or other agent may be impregnated. Also, as indicated hereinabove, the water or other heat absorbing liquid may have dye material incorporated therein so that the areas which are to be raised will be colored.

As the material passes from the printing rollers 12 and 13 to the takeup rollers 1 and 16 , it passes beneath the flame 1.8.·. ' Since the areas which have been impregnated with water by the printing roller have their temperature reduced due to the latent heat of vaporization 'of the liquid, these areas are. heat resistant and retain their original cellular s ructure. The unprinted areas, however, become heated to a sufficient temperature (with the material mentioned approximately k50° P.) to fuse the polyester thereby breaking down the cellular structure in the desired areas to a regulated depth and collapsing the material so that the. surface thereof lies beneath the surface in the water impregnated areas. The takeup rollers 1 and 16 are normally placed sufficiently far from the flame 18 so that the fused material has reset and lost its tacky characteristic and thus has no tendency to adhere to the roller 15.

However, if desired, the' rollers 15 and 16 may be placed somewhat closer to the flame 18 and a fabric sheet indicated in dotted lines at 2k, Figure 2 , be laminated to the surface of the foam material. As will be obvious, this fabric sheet, will adhere to the foam material only in the grid pattern formed by the lines or areas 22 of the printing roller or cylinder 12 , Thus the overlying fabric layer 2k "will likewise be embossed since it will follow the con- ( tours of the underlying foam material 10 and will, in the instance illustrated, have the grid pattern of the lines 11 of Figure 1 visible therein.

Although the simple apparatus described is sufficient to form the article as set forth above, it will be understood that the water or other heat resisting material may be printed on the foam by- conventional rotogravure printing methods as described, for example in '{J.S. patent No. 3,070,1.76. It is also obvious that although the laminating of the fabrio to the upper surface of the material has been shown as being performed by a single roller, it may be done in the usual manner by a series of rollers .

Moreover, if desired, the foam or batting base material may be maintained in a stretched position during the lamination of the fabric thereto/to thereby assure that sufficient fabric is present to permit the base materiel to return to its normal shape, that is, sufficient fabric so that the foam or batting is not maintained in a compressed condition due to the fabric being taut between the areas of adhesion. In some instances, the base material may be stretched sufficiently so that when it is released and returned to its normal form, a slack portion is left in the overlying fabric forming small folds and enhancing the decorative effect of the material.

Also, particularly when the water has been suitably thickened by the incorporation of agents mentioned hereinabove, the amount of liquid printed on the sheet may be varied resulting in different degrees of depression of the various areas since the foam having lesser amounts. of water thereon will be melted to a greater degree than will those having greater amounts and of course material having no water impregnation will be melted away or fused to the greatest depth.

The variation in amount of water deposited may also be accomplished by varying the depth of the small capillary holes 20 in the printing roller 12 thus varying the amount of water deposited upon the base sheet.

In some instances, it is desirable to produce embossed foam sheeting having a fabric backing' laminated thereto and having the embossed areas of a depth extending substantially or completely to the backing material. As is. readily understood, this can be easily accomplished by impregnating the printed areas to a considerable depth with liquid so that the melting and fusing of the unprotected areas extends substantially to the backing material thus resulting in a sheeting having "stripes" of foam material laminated thereto forming "hinges" between the stripes rendering the material flexible and readily draped for use in clothing and the like.

Although we have referred above only to protecting the areas of the foam material which are to become raised by means of printing with water or other heat resisting material to absorb heat and prevent fusing of the material in these areas it will be obvious that other methods of accomplishing this result might be utilized. For example, the flame l8 might be on the axis of a cylinder which carries the desired pattern as cut-outs in its surface, this cylinder being made of heat absorbing or heat resistant material.. As a result the flame would reach only those areas where the cylinder was cut away and' would not cause fusion of the material in the areas protected by the solid portions of the cylinder.

If desired, the cylinder could be cooled by water or other liquid or fluid as it rotates ., the cooling medium being applied opposite the area at which the flame was directed or any other suitable portions of the cylinder. Additionally of course, in place of a cylinder, a belt might be utilized, and in either instance if the pattern was such as to require it, a pair of synchronously moving cylin-ders or belts might be utilized.

Claims (12)

Case ίχ Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said . invention and . in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we claim isJ

1. A sheet of material havin voids therein dnd having a surface embossed in a predetermined pattern, wherein the depressed areas of said pattern comprise fused portions of said sheet, said fused portions having substantially no voids therein.

2. An embossed sheet according to claim 1, wherein said fused portions have predetermined surface depressions and predetermined thicknesses .

3. An embossed sheet according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: a fabric is laminated to said embossed surface, said fabric being adhered to the surface of said fused portions of said sheet only.

4. An embossed sheet according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the material from which the sheet is formed is selected from the group comprising batting of nylon fibers, batting of polyester fibers, fibrous batting having a thermoplastic binding, polyester polyurethane foam, polyether poly-urethane foam, natural rubber, synthetic rubber and vinyl plastic.

5. >. The method of embossing a pattern in a sheet of material having voids therein, wherein one protects areas which are to be raised areas in the finished product from heat by covering said areas with heat resisting material and thereafter exposes the surface of said sheet to a heat source through said protective covering to thereby fuse the sheet and reduce the voids thereof to form depressed areas of the pattern.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein one uses a flame as ; said heat s ource . .

7. The method according to claim £ or 6 , wherein one prints a pattern on said sheet with said heat resistant material .

8. The method according to any one . of cla ims $ to 7# wherein one uses a heat resistant fluid as the covering material .

9. The method according: to claim 8, wherein one uses water as the heat resistant fluid.

10. Thej method according to any one of cla ims $ to 9* wherein one, feeds said sheet, between a pair of . printing rollers and simultaneously prints a pattern on one surface of said sheet with said heat resisting material, then passes sa id sheet through a flame under the urging of a pair of takeup rollers , and regulates the speed of sa id printing and takeup rollers to cause said flame to fuse the sheet material in the ;unprinted portions., thereby reducing the voids of said sheet and depre ssing the surface below the surface of the printed areas , the speed be ing such that the printed areas rema in unfused and contain voids .

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein one laminates a fabric sheet to said flamed surface as said sheet passes through the takeup rollers , said rollers being sufficiently, close ly spaced to the flame , so that the fused areas remain tacky as said fabric is fed through said rollers with said shee't .

12. A sheet of material having voids therein and having a surface embossed in a predetermined pattern, constructed and arranged substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings .