JPH0441663A - External ornament part and its production - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain black external ornament parts excellent in decorativeness and durability by forming a film consisting essentially of black silicon carbide on the surface of a heatresistant base material with a reactive ion plating method using Si to be the vaporized material and gaseous hydrocarbon as the reactive gas. CONSTITUTION:A vacuum chamber 1 is evacuated and Si in a vaporizing crucible 3 is vaporized and ionized by the use of a hollow-cathode electron gun 2. Gaseous hydrocarbon such as acetylene, methane as the reactive gas is introduced to the chamber 1 by a specified partial pressure. Then, a shutter 4 is opened and a gray or black film layer consisting essentially of silicon carbide is formed on the surface of a heat-resistant base material 5 such as metal, ceramics, for a wristwatch case or the like, which is mounted on a rotating tool. Thereby, black external ornament parts excellent in decorativeness and durability can be obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field 1] The present invention relates to exterior parts that require decoration, such as watch cases, watch bands, eyeglass frames, and accessories, and to methods for manufacturing the same.

[Summary of the Invention 1 The present invention provides for exterior parts such as watch cases, watch bands, eyeglass frames, and accessories, in which the base material is a heat-resistant base material such as metal, ceramics, or plastic, and the surface thereof is entirely or partially coated. The present invention relates to an exterior component having a coating mainly composed of gray or black silicon carbide, and a method for manufacturing the same.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, as gray or black exterior parts, so-called black chrome plating or black paint, or plastics or ceramics with pigments added, have been widely used.

[Problems to be solved by the invention] However, black chrome plating applied to a conductive base material such as metal or coating the base material had problems with its abrasion resistance, corrosion resistance, durability, etc. .

In addition, plastics with pigments added or dyed felt outdated. Furthermore, blackening the ceramic itself poses a problem in terms of cost.

[Means for Solving the Problems 1] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, it is possible to provide black exterior parts by producing a black coating mainly composed of silicon carbide on a heat-resistant base material. can. Further, as a method for forming a film mainly composed of black silicon carbide, a reactive ion plating method is used in which silicon is used as an evaporative substance and a hydrocarbon such as acetylene or methane is used as a reactive gas.

[Action J] Some silicon carbide has a- and β-type crystal structures, and the color tone is brown to greenish-yellow at -119, but when carbon or silicon is in excess or when it becomes amorphous, It can be blackened while taking advantage of silicon carbide's excellent characteristics such as hardness and corrosion resistance, making it possible to react to decorative items such as exterior parts, and expanding the range of applications by forming the film on exterior parts. becomes possible.

In addition, as a formation method, a reactive ion plating method is used in which silicon is used as an evaporated substance and a hydrocarbon such as acetylene or methane is used as a reaction gas, so that a film that spreads easily at low temperatures and has excellent decorative properties can be obtained. This is possible.

[Example] As an example of the present invention, an example will be described in which a black film containing silicon carbide as a main component is formed on a stainless steel wristwatch case, which is a front-like exterior part, by a reactive ion plating method.

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of a hollow cathode type reactive ion plating apparatus for forming a black film containing silicon carbide as a main component.

First, after evacuating the vacuum chamber l to 10-' Torr, silicon is evaporated and ionized from the evaporation crucible 3 using the hollow cathode electron gun 2, and the acetylene partial pressure in the vacuum chamber l is 5X10-'' The output of the hollow cathode type electron gun 2 at this time, in which acetylene was introduced so as to become Torr, was 150 Torr.
cc/min, voltage and current are 25V and 100A, respectively.
And so. After stabilization, the shutter 4 was opened and a film of 3 μm mainly composed of silicon carbide was formed on the surface of the watch case 5 attached to the rotating jig for 30 minutes. Niha, 13.56MH
2 high frequency power of 100W (approximately 0
．． A power density of 1 W/cm” was applied.The temperature was 2.
00"C.

When the formed film was examined by xIJi diffraction, it was found to have an amorphous structure, but the hardness was 2500 kg/mm' in terms of micro-Vickers hardness, and it was a black film with a decorative luster. The adhesion and coverage are at a level that does not pose any problem as a decorative item, and the corrosion resistance does not cause any functional problems such as rust or discoloration, even after an 8-hour 3% salt water spray test. There was no.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an exterior component having a black color with excellent decorative properties and a method thereof.

That is, by applying a film containing silicon carbide as a main component to an exterior component, a black exterior component with excellent decorativeness and durability can be obtained.

Furthermore, conventionally, in order to obtain a silicon carbide film, CVD
In this case, the material to be treated is
℃ or higher, and it was necessary to limit the material of the workpiece, but by using the reactive ion plating of the present invention, the temperature can be lowered, and the material of the workpiece has to be limited. The range can be expanded. In other words, as in the past, stainless steel,
This makes it possible to process materials that could not be treated with brass, plastic, etc.

In the example, a stainless steel watch case was used as the exterior part, but other materials such as metal materials such as cemented carbide and brass, ceramics such as zirconia and alumina, and other plastics may also be used. It is clear that this can also be applied to materials. Furthermore, although acetylene was used as one of the reaction gases, hydrocarbons such as methane and propane may also be used.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a hollow cathode type reactive ion plating apparatus in which a coating mainly composed of silicon carbide having a black color is formed according to an embodiment of the present invention. Vacuum chamber hollow cathode type electron gun crucible shutter watch case high frequency power supply and above Applicant Seiko Electronics Industries Co., Ltd. Agent Patent attorney Toshiyuki Hayashi Suke 5 Umeda 1-Najukin-Mata No. 7851 To Sun Moon/)! For M.1 history.・f-pi AR
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Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) An exterior component characterized in that the material is a heat-resistant base material such as metal or ceramics, and has a gray or black coating layer mainly composed of silicon carbide on the surface thereof. (2) The coating layer mainly composed of silicon carbide having a gray or black color as described in item 1 is produced by a reactive ion plating method using silicon as an evaporation substance and a hydrocarbon gas such as acetylene or methane as a reaction gas. A method for manufacturing exterior parts, characterized by: