Appliance Design - September 2008 - (Page 50) DECORATION the process for nameplates, badges, moldings, and other decorative pieces. Its client list includes Siemens Home Appliances, based in California, and The Netherlands-based Royal Philips Electronics. Philips used it for a shaver that utilized colored chrome films. Because of the film’s translucency, they were able to backlight certain indicators such as the shaver’s battery charge levels. Previously, Philips had to cut out the sections where light was coming through in a secondary machining operation. Soliant’s Fluorex bright films come in traditional chrome, matte, satin, color, and brushed chromes. The topcoat of the film can be custom formulated to offer increased scratch resistance and other improved mechanical properties. The film consists of a fluoropolymer-based clear coat, a metal layer, and an adhesive layer that can be bonded to a thermoformable ABS, PC, PVC, or TPO backing sheet. The film laminate is designed for use in low-stretch applications. Stretching it beyond about 40 percent can cause the film to distort and change color. On a steep 3D part, such as a button on a cell phone, this would translate to a maximum stretch of about a centimeter. Soliant’s films are adhered to the substrate in a number of ways. It can come in the form of a decal in a post-part processing operation. Typically, however, it is processed with thermoforming, extrusion, or molding equipment. When thermoformed, the film is heated to about 300 DegC to become pliable, but not molten. It is then placed over a mold and drawn down by vacuum into the shape of the desired part. It can be thermoformed with vacuum, heat and vacuum, or with high pressure forming, which Pieter van der Ster, business director for The Netherlandsbased Soliant says offers the best way to register the graphics. This is important if using the bright film with graphics such as a numeric keypad on a mobile phone. The films can also be insert injection molded. In this method, the film is thermoformed and the preformed film is trimmed to fit into the mold tool cavity. The thermoformed inserts are placed into the injectionmolding machine and the plastic resin is shot around it. Once ejected, the part is essentially in finished form, with little or no secondary processing required, van der Ster says. To decorative a profile with chrome strips, extrusion lamination is the preferred choice, says van der Ster. In this method, the film is adhered to the substrate as it exits the die in an extrusion process, laminating them together. One advantage of using decorative laminate films is that it allows for multiple film pieces to be used simultaneously. Currently, Soliant is working on a project that uses six pieces of film on one component. Compare this to the electroplating process in which the decorative part is separately chrome plated, and then later mounted to the main assembly. For parts made solely of plastics, a third alternative is to use a resin masterbatch from Ampacet, Tarrytown, N.Y. The internal coloring approach for plastics offers the ability to produce parts quickly and with less part assembly required, says Doug Brownfield, strategic business manager for Ampacet. Instead of having to chrome plate a decorative element and then mount it to another part, the injection molding process allows it to be molded as one piece. Ampacet’s product is called LiquidMetal and includes the raw pigments, resins, and additives that have been compounded into dry pellet form. The pellets can be compounded in a variety of resins including polypropylene, polycarbonate, polyamide, ABS, polystyrene, and polyethylene. The resins can be used 2107 SERIES Diaphragm Pumps and Compressors • • Oil-less operation Die-cast aluminum housings and heads Balanced for smooth, low vibration operation Field service capability 115/60/1Hz – 110/50/1Hz 220/50/1Hz Flow to 1.65 CFM • • • • • For more information on the 2107 Series, or our complete line of Diaphragm pumps and compressors, visit gd-thomas.com The Philips shaver uses decorative film laminates that are backlit to reveal indicators such as battery charge levels. The Fluorex bright film from Soliant allowed Philips to reduce secondary machining operations. 50 applianceDESIGN AD06084Thom.indd 1 September 2008 4/23/08 1:44:09 PM www.applianceDESIGN.com http://gd-thomas.com http://www.appliancedesign.com
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