A method fabricates a transparent polymer plate or film. The method incudes applying an acrylate ink to a transparent substrate and illuminating the polymeric substrate and the acrylate ink with a light source to cause photopolymerization. The photopolymerization creates micro-louvre structures inside the transparent polymeric plate or film.

A method of making a monolithic multi-tone audio speaker cover and the product made thereby. The method involves creating a hole pattern in a blank; providing a ditch inside a periphery of the blank; forming a shape in the blank to make a shaped blank; treating or painting at least some of the surface of the shaped blank with a primary treatment or color to prepare a treated or painted shaped blank; masking an area of the treated or painted shaped blank with a masking material along a portion of the ditch to cover at least a portion of the treated or painted shaped blank; and applying a secondary color to the unprotected area. The audio speaker cover made thereby has a distinct unwavering separation between the respective treated areas that is visually pleasing.

The color strength of a colored batch containing effect pigments can be measured and corrected using one or more non-uniformly weighted factors to determine, at a plurality of combinations of illumination angles and measurement angles, and at one or more wavelengths, the color and intensity of light reflected or absorbed by a coating film made from the batch in comparison to a reference color strength. Based on such comparison, let-downs or batches may be passed, rejected, mixed or otherwise dispersed. The composition of such let-downs or batches may also or instead be adjusted by adding non-effect pigments, effect pigments, binder, carrier, binder, or non-effect or effect pigments dispersed in either or both of a carrier and binder, in order to correct the let-down or batch color strength to within a desired tolerance of the reference color strength.

The invention relates to a device for producing security elements (03) on a substrate (02), said device having a first printing couple (21; 22), by means of which substrate (02) being conveyed along a transport path is and/or can be printed with a plurality of first print image elements (12) spaced apart from one another using a first coating medium (11) that contains magnetic particles; a first magnetic cylinder (41), arranged downstream of the first printing couple (21; 22) in the transport path and comprising magnetic elements (43) on its outer circumference; a second magnetic cylinder (42), arranged downstream of the first magnetic cylinder (41) in the transport path and likewise comprising magnetic elements (43) on its outer circumference; and a drying and/or curing device (52), associated with or positioned downstream of the second magnetic cylinder (42) in the transport path, by means of which at least the coating medium (13) of a plurality of second print image elements (14), printed onto the substrate (02) and spaced apart from one another, is and/or can be dried and/or cured at least superficially and/or at least each partially, wherein in the transport path between the first and the second magnetic cylinder (41; 42) a second printing couple (31; 32) is provided, by means of which the substrate (02) is and/or can be printed with the spaced-apart second print image elements (14; 12) using the second coating medium (13) that contains magnetic particles, and wherein a drying and/or curing device (51) positioned upstream of the second printing couple (31; 32) is associated with or positioned downstream of the first magnetic cylinder (41) in the transport path, by means of which device the coating medium (11) containing magnetic particles of the first print image elements (12) printed by the first printing couple (21; 22) is and/or can be dried and/or cured at least superficially and/or at least each partially.

The present invention relates to a method for producing water-insoluble quantum dot patterns on and/or within a substrate. The method comprises a step of depositing a deliquescent salt, quantum dots and an acid or salt thereof onto at least one surface region of a substrate such that the deliquescent salt, the quantum dots and the acid or salt thereof are at least partially contacted to form said at least one water-insoluble pattern.

The invention relates to the field of the protection of security documents such as for example banknotes and identity documents against counterfeit and illegal reproduction. In particular, the present invention provides methods for producing optical effect layers (OELs) exhibiting one or more indicia (x30) on a substrate (x20), said method comprising a step of exposing a coating layer (x10) comprising non-spherical magnetic or magnetisable pigment particles to a magnetic field of a magnetic-field generating device so as to orient at least a part of the magnetic or magnetisable pigment particles; a step of applying a top coating composition on top of the coating layer (x10) and in the form of one or more indicia (x30), and a step of at least partially curing the coating layer (x10) and the one or more indicia (x30) with a curing unit (x50).

A method for decorating a translucent container including cleaning an exterior surface of the container and applying a silver layer to the exterior surface followed by a black layer applied over the silver layer. Portions of the silver and black layers are selectively removed to form one or more shapes using a laser. A translucent protective layer is applied over the entire exterior of the container.

A deposition device may deposit, on a substrate, a binder layer that includes a first set of magnetic flakes and a second set of magnetic flakes and may cause, when a temperature of the binder layer satisfies a temperature threshold (e.g., a Curie temperature of the first set of magnetic flakes), a magnetic field to be applied to the binder layer to cause the first set of magnetic flakes and the second set of magnetic flakes to be oriented according to the magnetic field. The deposition device may cause, when the temperature of the binder layer ceases to satisfy the temperature threshold, another magnetic field to be applied to the binder layer to cause only the second set of magnetic flakes to be oriented according to the other magnetic field.

A method for imparting an optical element with at least one light influencing property in a gradient pattern. The method includes (a) providing an optical substrate having first and second surfaces; (b) depositing a first composition over the first surface of the optical substrate so as to provide a first treated surface region and an untreated surface region, the first composition including a material which provides a light influencing property; (c) depositing a second composition over the optical substrate of (b) to provide a second treated surface region over the untreated surface region and over a portion of the first treated surface region to form a first overlap region; and (d) spinning the optical substrate of (c) thereby providing the optical element having a light influencing property in a gradient pattern.

The present invention relates to a method for determining the composition of a multi-layer system showing a predetermined colour flip-flop effect, wherein the multi-layer system comprises from bottom to top a) a substrate, b) at least one first colour layer containing a colourant, which is arranged on the substrate a), c) on the at least one first colour layer an effect layer containing at least one platelet-shaped effect pigment, and d) on the effect layer c) at least one second colour layer containing a colourant, wherein each of the at least one first colour layer and of the at least one second colour layer contains a colourant being no platelet-shaped effect pigment, wherein the method comprises the following steps: i) specifying a first target value for the colour shade and/or colour brightness of the top side of the multi-layer system seen at a first observation angle, ii) specifying a second target value for the colour shade and/or colour brightness of the top side of the multi-layer system seen at a second observation angle, wherein the second observation angle is different from the first observation angle, and wherein the second target value is different from the first target value, iii) specifying a colourant system comprising at least one colourant and further comprising one effect pigment layer recipe being suitable for forming the effect layer c), iv) providing at least one empirical model of the relationship between the colour shades and/or colour brightness at least two different observation angles comprising at least the first observation angle and the second observation angle specified in step ii) of the top side of a first number of multi-layer systems, at least 90% of which comprising at least one first colour layer b) having at least one colourant as specified in step iii), at least one second colour layer d) having at least one colourant as specified in step iii) and an effect layer c) made of the effect pigment layer recipe specified in step iii), and v) determining—making use of the at least one empirical model provided in step iv)—the composition of a multi-layer system (10) having within a predetermined tolerance the first target value specified in step i) and the second target value specified in step ii), or, if none is found, specifying a new tolerance for the first target value specified in step i) and/or the second target value specified in step ii), or specifying in steps i) and ii) a new first target value and/or new the second target value, or repeating the method by specifying in step iii) a different colourant system, which preferably covers more different colourants than the colourant system used before, wherei