JPH07181270A - Manufacture of exterior parts for time piece - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To form a solid index, etc., by strongly machining a metal material in advance and annealing it at a recrystallization temperature or higher as a metal substrate and then machining the surface, and then forming a resist film at the pattern part, and further etching a metal exposed part without any resist film for exposing a metal crystal pattern and peeling the resist film and then performing surface treatment. CONSTITUTION:A 0.4mm thick brass material which has 0.07% impurity and 33.73% Zn and where the entire part is strongly rolled with 81% roll rate is used as a dial substrate 1, OD cutting is performed to the dial plate shape and center hole cutting is performed, annealing is performed at 520 deg.C for 60 minutes within nitrogen gas atmosphere and then recrystallization is performed for increasing the size of a crystal particle, further dial plate legs 5 are mounted. Then, the entire upper surface of the substrate 1 is subjected to lapping polishing to form a mirror surface and then a protection mask 6 is formed at parts other than a part which becomes a sandy pattern 4. Then, honing is performed from the upper surface to form the pattern 4. Then, the mask 6 is peeled off, the entire surface other than an edged part is covered with a resist film 7 for exposing a metal crystal pattern 2. The film 7 is peeled and plating is performed forward and backward to obtain the dial plate.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a timepiece exterior component such as a dial, bezel and band, and more particularly to a method for manufacturing a timepiece exterior component utilizing a metal crystal pattern.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an exterior part for a watch using a metal crystal pattern, an aluminum plate is partially processed, then annealed at a temperature higher than the recrystallization temperature to coarsen the crystal grains, and further etched to form a metal crystal. There was a timepiece dial that showed the pattern. The above-mentioned timepiece dial is obtained by etching the entire surface of the dial to obtain a metal crystal pattern.
The letters, etc. were made into timepiece dials with a metal crystal pattern by appropriate means such as printing, vapor deposition, typesetting, and bonding of electroformed materials.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional example, since the entire surface of the timepiece dial has a metal crystal pattern due to etching, there is a slight difference in the degree of etching due to the exposed crystal planes. There are irregularities on the surface of the metal crystal pattern. Therefore, when the index, the mark, the character, etc. are formed by printing or vapor deposition, there is a problem that the index, the mark, the character, etc. are distorted and the appearance is deteriorated.

Further, when forming the indexes, marks, characters, etc., if the alignment accuracy is poor, the appearance will be poor as described above, and it will be difficult to form the indexes, marks, characters, etc. on the sloped surface or the curved surface. There was also a problem that it took a lot of time. The present invention solves the above problems and has a metal crystal pattern,
The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a timepiece exterior component that can form three-dimensional indexes, marks, characters, etc. by a simple method.

[0005]

According to the present invention, a part or all of a metal material is subjected to strong working in advance and annealed at a recrystallization temperature or higher to form a metal substrate, and then a mirror surface, sandy surface, Asahi light Etc., at least one type of surface treatment is applied, then a resist film is formed on the part that will be the pattern part such as the index, mark, letter, pattern, etc., and the exposed metal part without the resist film is etched to form a metal crystal. Let the pattern appear,
Further, in the method for manufacturing a timepiece exterior component, the resist film is further peeled off and then surface treatment such as plating and vapor deposition is performed. As the metal material, a material such as pure copper, austenitic stainless steel, or brass in the α-phase single phase is apt to be coarsened and a crystal grain boundary is clearly shown by etching is selected.

[0006]

[Function] Since a resist film is formed on a pattern portion such as an index, a mark, a character, and a pattern and etched, a metal crystal pattern appears on a metal exposed portion other than the pattern portion and is scraped off. become. As described above, since the pattern such as the index, the mark, the character, and the pattern having the three-dimensional effect and the metal crystal pattern can be simultaneously formed by etching, the index, the mark, the character, etc. are printed, vapor-deposited,
Compared to forming by means of typesetting, bonding of electroformed products, etc., the position accuracy is good and there is no distortion and it looks good and the number of manufacturing steps can be reduced.

Further, when the metal material used is pure copper, austenitic stainless steel or brass having an α-phase single phase, the crystal grains tend to become coarse when annealed at a temperature higher than the recrystallization temperature, and when this is etched, the metal crystal pattern becomes large. In addition, it can be sufficiently recognized even with the naked eye, and the crystal grain pattern is more easily etched because the crystal grain boundaries are more easily etched than the inside crystal grains.

Further, it is possible to form a resist film by subjecting a portion of the upper surface of the metal substrate, which is an index and a character, to a mirror surface and the other portion to a sandy surface to form a resist film. It becomes the exterior parts for. The surface processing can partially change the surface processed surface by combining mask processing and processing.

Furthermore, since the resist film can be freely formed on a portion having a sloped surface or a curved surface such as a bezel or a register ring, a metal crystal pattern, a three-dimensional pattern, or a three-dimensional pattern can be formed on a desired portion of any exterior component for a watch. Indicators, marks, which have a feeling
Characters can be freely formed.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view of a timepiece dial of an exterior part for a timepiece according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. In this embodiment, as the material of the dial board 1, an α-phase single-phase brass material is used at room temperature. As shown in the figure, the timepiece dial of this embodiment is composed of a coarse α-phase single-phase metal crystal pattern 2, a mirror surface index 3 and a sand pattern 4, and the index 3 and sand pattern 4 are shown. Is higher than the surface of the metal crystal pattern 2 and has a very three-dimensional effect.

Next, a method of manufacturing the timepiece dial shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 will be described with reference to FIGS. In this embodiment, the dial substrate 1 is made of Cu66.2.
0%, 0.07% of impurities such as Pb and Fe, Zn33.
73m, the whole is strongly rolled at a rolling rate of 81% 0.4m
Using brass material with a thickness of m, punching out the outer diameter and punching the center hole, annealing at 520 ° C for 60 minutes in a nitrogen gas atmosphere to recrystallize and coarsen the crystal grains. By attaching the foot 5, the dial board 1 shown in FIG. 3 was obtained. The structure of the brass used in this example is an α-phase single phase, and the crystal grains are likely to be coarsened by recrystallization, and the crystal grain boundaries are very easily etched.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, a protective mask 6 is formed on the entire upper surface of the dial board 1 after lapping and polishing to make it a mirror-finished surface, and then a protective mask 6 is formed, and honing is performed from the upper surface. To form. The sandy pattern 4 is covered with a resist film when the entire surface is dipped in an etching solution later. Therefore, in consideration of the dimensional accuracy in forming the resist film, the sandy pattern 4 should be slightly larger than the desired size of the sandy pattern. Is good.

Next, as shown in FIG. 5, after the protective mask 6 is peeled off, the resist film 7 is formed on the entire surface other than the portion to be etched.
Then, the metal crystal pattern 2 is exposed at the metal exposed portion by etching as shown in FIG. The etching was carried out by immersing it in a solution of 120 ml of ethyl alcohol, 30 ml of hydrochloric acid and 10 g of ferric chloride for 7 minutes. The type, concentration, and etching time of this etching solution are appropriately selected in consideration of the state of the metal crystal pattern and the amount to be shaved off (how to set the step between the non-etching part such as the index and the sandy pattern). It is something.

Finally, the resist film 7 is peeled off and plated to obtain a timepiece dial as shown in FIGS. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 7, when a transparent resin thin film layer 8 which is flat and smooth is formed by coating a transparent resin on the upper surface and lapping, the metal crystal pattern 2, the index 3 and the sandy pattern 4 are deepened. It has a three-dimensional effect and looks better. In this embodiment, two kinds of surface processing of the dial plate substrate 1 are used, namely, a mirror surface and a sandy pattern 4. However, various combinations such as Asahi Hikari and basis weight may be used. Also, the thickness of the dial board 1 is 0.4
The dial substrate 1 was used as it is, but if the dial substrate 1 has a problem in strength due to annealing for recrystallization, the dial substrate 1 is thinned to a thickness of about 0.1 to 0.2 mm to have strength. It may be attached to another material. In addition to brass, austenitic stainless steel,
If it is not necessary to stick to the material such as pure copper that coarsens the crystal grains easily or the size of the metal crystal pattern, it is possible to apply to any metal material as long as the crystal grain boundaries can be clearly seen by etching. Of course.

Although the timepiece dial has been described as an example in the embodiment of the present invention, the present invention can be applied to a portion having a slope or a curved surface such as a bezel, a register ring, a band, etc. It can be used for things.

[0016]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the metallic crystal pattern and the three-dimensional index, mark, character,
Since patterns and the like can be formed at the same time, the number of manufacturing steps is reduced, and the positional accuracy is good and the appearance is good as compared with the case where the pattern is formed later by printing, typesetting, and laminating electroformed materials. .

In addition, a mirror surface, sand, Asahi Hikari,
By forming surface treatments such as basis weight in appropriate parts and combining indicators, marks, letters, patterns, etc. with the above-mentioned surface treatments in various ways, the indicators, marks, which have a metal crystal pattern and are rich in variety, Since letters, patterns, etc. can be obtained, it will be an exterior part for a watch that looks very good.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a timepiece dial of a timepiece exterior component according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a view showing a manufacturing process of a timepiece dial among the timepiece exterior parts according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a manufacturing process of a timepiece dial of the timepiece exterior component according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a manufacturing process of a timepiece dial of the timepiece exterior component according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a manufacturing process of a timepiece dial of the timepiece exterior component according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a manufacturing process of a timepiece dial of the timepiece exterior component according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 dial plate substrate 2 metal crystal pattern 3 index 4 sand pattern 5 eto foot 6 protective mask 7 resist film 8 transparent resin thin film layer

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A part or all of a metal material is preliminarily subjected to strong working and annealed at a recrystallization temperature or higher to form a metal substrate, and then at least one of a mirror surface, a sandy surface, an Asahi light and a basis weight is formed on the upper surface. Surface treatment is applied, then a resist film is formed on the pattern part such as an index, a mark, a character, and a pattern, and a metal crystal pattern is revealed by etching the exposed metal part without the resist film. A method of manufacturing a timepiece exterior component, characterized in that after the resist film is peeled off, a surface treatment such as plating or vapor deposition is performed. 2. The method of manufacturing a timepiece exterior component according to claim 1, wherein the metal material is austenitic stainless steel. 3. The method for manufacturing a timepiece exterior component according to claim 1, wherein the metal material is α-phase single-phase brass. 4. The method of manufacturing a timepiece exterior component according to claim 1, wherein the metal material is pure copper.