CN1153680C - Method for transferring artistic pattern of sublimable dye onto curved surface of billiard ball - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for transferring a sublimable dye art pattern onto the outer curved surface of a billiard ball. First, a non-white polyester billiard ball having at least one recess is molded, and the recess has a first predetermined structure on its outer curved surface. Then, a plug having the first predetermined structure is inserted into the recess, and the plug is heat-set in the recess, while a first lithographic art pattern formed of a sublimable dye is formed on an auxiliary carrier, and the outer edge of the pattern is substantially the same as the first predetermined structure. Incisions extending inward are formed around the outer edge. Finally, the first lithographic art pattern with sublimable dye is heat-pressed and transferred onto the outer curved surface of the plug.

Description

Method for transferring a sublimable dye art pattern onto the outer curved surface of a billiard ball

technical field

The present invention relates to a method involving thermal transfer of a sublimable dye pattern, and more particularly to a method of applying such a pattern to the curved surface of a billiard ball.

Background technique

A variety of surfaces can be modified by sublimation transfer printing. Such transfer methods consist of a first step: full-color lithographic printing on paper using so-called "dissipating" dyes that have the property of sublimating or evaporating into a gas when heated. Second step: The printed pattern is transferred to a substrate receptive to sublimable inks under the action of heat and pressure usually in a transfer press. Inks can be applied to paper by lithography using a gravure press cylinder and standard lithographic paper, allowing for the high quality full-color reproductions obtained by these techniques.

Sublimation transfer printing has previously been found to be particularly suitable for printing full-color reproductions onto polyester fabrics. Excellent color quality and effective transfer can be obtained on such fabrics, but if they are printed on non-materials such as wood, particle board (particle board), plastic board, leather, rubber and other organic or natural materials On textile items generally poorer results are obtained. Also, transfer printing on fiberglass, glass sheets, metal surfaces, marble or other inorganic materials is simply not possible. The present inventors in their own US Patent No. 4,395,263 provide a method for transferring sublimable inks to any of the substrates described above, whether organic or inorganic.

In attempting to thermally transfer lithographic artwork of sublimable dyes to the curved surface of a billiard ball under the guidance of US Patent No. 4,395,263, certain difficulties were encountered.

In an attempt to print lithographically printed artwork in the shape of hearts or spades (of playing cards), much larger than 1.905-2.540 cm (3/4-1 inch) in diameter, on standard billiard balls, lithographic paper Wrinkles during heat transfer operations and can produce unsatisfactory jagged edges on transferred graphics. Lithographic printing presses cannot do this, and there are no flexible or elastic paper stocks that can solve this wrinkling problem.

Contents of the invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel method of transferring a sublimable dye fine art pattern onto a curved surface of an object.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel method of transferring sublimable dye art patterns onto the curved surface of a billiard ball.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method for transferring sublimable dye art patterns onto the outer curved surface of a billiard ball without the resulting pattern being wrinkled due to lithographic printing paper during the heat-pressing operation. A novel approach to unsatisfactory jagged edges.

The present invention relates to a method of transferring a sublimable dye art pattern to the outer curved surface of an object such as billiard balls, golf balls, tennis balls, bowling balls, telephones, toys and the like. A preferred embodiment concerns the thermal transfer of sublimable dye art graphics onto billiard balls.

The present invention was developed as a result of the development of the game of pocket billiards (PokerPool) invented by George Emery. The game requires the billiard balls to have patterns corresponding to the four sets of cards in a deck. Therefore, a pattern of hearts and spades must be applied to the outer curved surface of the billiard ball.

In work to overcome wrinkling during thermal transfer printing on curved surfaces it was found that this problem can be overcome. This is done by dye-cutting with a steel ruler a heart or spade art pattern slightly larger than the printed pattern, and providing a cut extending approximately 0.15875-0.635 cm (1/16-1/4 inch) inward from the outer edge , so in the thermal transfer process, the parts between the cuts will only overlap without wrinkling. Due to the sublime nature of the sublistatic printing process, there is no perceptible trace from the incision on the paper due to the perfectly even blending of the hearts or spades and, moreover, no traces due to A jagged edge caused by crumpling paper.

Another problem that had to be overcome was that of providing a suitable surface on the billiard ball for the transfer of dyes by sublimation from the lithographic paper support. In the particular case of billiard balls, different colors can be used including black. In order to print hearts, spades, and multi-color art patterns on the surfaces of these different colors, it is necessary to have a stopper with a white background. This is accomplished by first molding a spherical polyester billiard ball having at least one recess, wherein the billiard ball has a predetermined configuration of hearts or spades formed in its outer surface. This billiard ball is made of non-white material. In the next step, a plug made of polyester resin material is inserted or molded into the recess, and the plug should have a corresponding heart-shaped or spade-shaped configuration. As a variation and simplification of this method which is more cost effective, since the black backside of the lithographic art pattern of spades is printed black on any color sphere without the need for a background color of white stoppers, all other in the art pattern The colors of all the white plugs need the background color of the white plug, so all the white plugs can be made into a heart-shaped structure. Next, the plug is thermoset within the recess, whereby the billiard ball has a generally spherical outer surface. The plug can be made of an opaque white material. Then, a glossy alkyd and melamine formaldehyde resin is applied to the surface of the stopper.

In a separate operation, lithographic artwork of hearts and spades was formed on a secondary carrier. The lithographic fine art pattern is formed from sublimable dyes. The outer edge of the heart or spade lithographic design should have inwardly extending cutouts around the outer edge of the lithographic artwork perimeter. These lithographic artworks were then applied to the outer surface of the stopper, whereupon a heat press transfer operation of the lithographic artwork was performed, whereby the sublimable dye was printed on the outer curved surface of the stopper.

While this labor-intensive method yields the best results, it is obtained by fabricating or inserting heart or spade titanium dioxide colored styrene polyester stoppers within colored billiard balls in place of the polyester resin support layer described above. Another variant and simplified form of . The surface of the polyester resin stopper may then be coated with glossy alkyd and melamine formaldehyde resins and thermoset to provide a dye layer which is transferred by sublimation from the lithographic paper support.

Yet another variation and simplification of the method can be provided by varying the titanium dioxide white mixture in the styrene polyester resin stopper. This was achieved by reducing the amount of pigment to 8 ± 6 parts per 100 parts resin, enough to make it translucent, so that the topmost glossy alkyd and melamine formaldehyde resins could be removed. While this simplified approach does not produce the brightness and depth of color in photographic prints as produced by the optimal laminate combination of a top clear layer and a very white base layer, the hues obtained by this simplified approach are acceptable , and this simplification is beneficial to economic benefits.

Still another problem that had to be overcome was the precise imprinting of hearts or spades onto the white plugs in the various colored balls. As long as the red heart is exactly the same shape and size as the white heart stopper and can be printed with absolute perfection, there is no problem. But even if a slight omission occurs in any direction on any color ball other than red, some white areas and some dark borders will be exposed on the ball (for example, on a blue ball, red and blue will be produces a purple border, while on a green ball, red plus green produces a black border, etc.)

Making the heart blot smaller than the white plug eliminates the undesirable color border problem, but leaves an unpleasant white border around the heart blot. This problem can be solved by providing a border of Sabri Stetic ink of a color around the undersized heart blot to match the color of the sphere to be printed on it. The border should be wide enough to print the matching color into the white plug area and to overprint the matching color into the area of the ball immediately outside the white plug area. As a variation and simplification of this method which is more cost effective, for various art patterns, the border could be black for all color balls (instead of a color matching the color of the ball it is printing on) . The black border then prints black onto the white plug, and simultaneously prints black onto all colored balls where it overprints the colored areas.

The same basic approach can be used for the oversized spades art pattern except that since the oversized black Sabri Stetic ink art pattern prints black onto the ball of any color as well as the white stopper, the inside of the ball It is not necessary to have a spade-shaped white plug insert. In this case, there is no problem of omission, and the oversized spade art print of the spade onto the inserted white heart plug includes enough black borders to cover any omissions.

Description of drawings

Figure 1 is a front perspective view of a billiard ball with recesses formed in its outer curved surface;

Figure 2 is a front perspective view of the billiard ball with a plug inserted in its recess;

Figure 3A is a front view of a heart-shaped lithographic fine art pattern of sublimable dye;

Figure 3B is a side view of a heart-shaped lithographic artwork of the sublimable dye;

Figure 4 is a front view of a spade lithographic fine art pattern of sublimable dye; and

Figure 5 is a front perspective view in which a lithographic artwork has been transferred to the stopper.

Detailed ways

A method of transferring a sublimable dye art pattern onto the curved surface of an object such as a billiard ball will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1-5. Billiard ball 10 is molded from a non-white polyester resin material. It can be yellow, green, red, etc. The billiard ball 10 is formed with a heart-shaped recess 12 . The depth of the recess is 0.0508-0.2032 cm (0.02-0.08 inches). Figure 2 shows a white plug 14 inserted into the recess of the billiard ball.

Figure 3A is a front view of a first heart-shaped lithographic artwork. It has a central portion 18 and a black border 20 extending around the perimeter of its outer edge. A number of cutouts 22 extend inwardly from the outer edge of the lithographic artwork around its entire perimeter. The length of these incisions is L1, which is 0.15875-0.635 cm (1/16-1/4 inch). FIG. 3B is a side view of the lithographic artwork 16 mounted on a carrier 26 .

A lithographic graphic art pattern 30 in the shape of spades is shown in FIG. 4 . It is black in color and has a cutout 32 extending inwardly around its entire circumference. It is also mounted on a carrier board.

The finished billiard ball 10 is shown in FIG. 5 with the transferred red heart pattern 40 covering the white plug 14 .

Claims (20)

1. but one kind is transferred to the lip-deep method of billiard ball outcurve with the sublimation dye artistic pattern, comprises the following steps:

(a) molded spherical polyester billiard ball with at least one recess, described recess has first predetermined structure in the curved surface outside it, and described billiard ball are made by non-white material;

(b) will be inserted in described at least one recess by the made stopper of white styrene mylar thermosetting material, described stopper has described first predetermined structure;

(c) on the outer surface of described stopper, coat bright alkyd resins and melamine resin then;

(d) follow described stopper and coating and carry out thermosetting in described recess, described thus billiard ball have spherical outer surface;

(e) on auxiliary support plate, form the first lithographic printing artistic pattern, but the described first lithographic printing artistic pattern formed by sublimation dye, the external margin of the described first lithographic printing artistic pattern is consistent with the shape of described first predetermined structure;

(f) external margin around the described first lithographic printing artistic pattern girth forms some otch that extend internally; And

(g) but described first lithographic printing artistic pattern and described sublimation dye hot pressing are transferred on the described outer curved surface of described stopper.

2. the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, described first predetermined structure is heart-shaped.

3. method as claimed in claim 2 is characterized in that, described lithographic printing artistic pattern is a red heart.

4. method as claimed in claim 3, it is characterized in that, the undersized of the described first lithographic printing artistic pattern is in described heart-shaped stopper, and Saab Li Sitaidike printing ink border is arranged around the red heart pattern of described undersize, the color of the spheroid that the color on this border and described lithographic printing artistic pattern will be printed is complementary, the width on described border is enough to color with described coupling and prints in the described stopper region and go, and the color cover of described coupling is printed to the described spheroid that is close to described stopper region outside gets on.

5. the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, described first predetermined structure is the spade shape in the playing cards.

6. the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, described mylar stopper contains the Chinese white that described stopper is white in color.

7. the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, described otch extends 0.15875-0.635 centimetre distance from external margin.

8. the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, described concave depth is 0.0508-0.2032 centimetre.

9. the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, described white styrene mylar thermosetting material contains titanium dioxide white pigment.

10. method as claimed in claim 9 is characterized in that, described first predetermined structure is heart-shaped.

11. method as claimed in claim 10 is characterized in that, described lithographic printing artistic pattern is a red heart.

12. method as claimed in claim 11, it is characterized in that, the undersized of the described first lithographic printing artistic pattern is in described heart-shaped stopper, and Saab Li Sitaidike printing ink border is arranged around the red heart pattern of described undersize, the color of the spheroid that the color on this border and described lithographic printing artistic pattern will be printed is complementary, the width on described border is enough to color with described coupling and prints in the described stopper region and go, and the color cover of described coupling is printed to the described spheroid that is close to described stopper region outside gets on.

13. method as claimed in claim 9 is characterized in that, described first predetermined structure is the spade shape in the playing cards.

14. the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, the titanium dioxide white pigment in the described white styrene mylar thermosetting material is adjusted and reduced to per 100 parts of resins 8 ± 6 parts of pigments, so that it is enough to is translucent.

15. method as claimed in claim 14 is characterized in that, described first predetermined structure is heart-shaped.

16. method as claimed in claim 15 is characterized in that, described lithographic printing artistic pattern is a red heart.

17. method as claimed in claim 16, it is characterized in that, the undersized of the described first lithographic printing artistic pattern is in described heart-shaped stopper, and Saab Li Sitaidike printing ink border is arranged around the red heart pattern of described undersize, the color of the spheroid that the color on this border and described lithographic printing artistic pattern will be printed is complementary, the width on described border is enough to color with described coupling and prints in the described stopper region and go, and the color cover of described coupling is printed to the described spheroid that is close to described stopper region outside gets on.

18. method as claimed in claim 14, it is characterized in that, the undersized of the described first lithographic printing artistic pattern is in described heart-shaped stopper, and have its width and be enough to printing black on any part of the described white stopper that exposes, and on any coloured moiety that is close to described white stopper region outside the Saab Li Sitaidike black border of printing black.

19. method as claimed in claim 14 is characterized in that, described first predetermined structure is the spade shape in the playing cards.

20. method as claimed in claim 14 is characterized in that, described first predetermined structure is the red heart shape in the playing cards.

Images