METHOD OF FABRICATING A DECOR

Abstract

A method of fabricating a dcor for use in a thermopressed panel, the method including applying a first coating onto a substrate, placing an element having a structured surface onto the first coating, curing the first coating to form an intermediate product having a surface texture, removing the element, applying a second coating, and curing the second coating to embed the obtained surface texture. A panel produced according to the method can have a flat outer surface and internal texture showing a visual 3D effect.

Claims

1. A method of fabricating a decor, comprising the steps of: i) providing a substrate; ii) apply a first liquid curable coating onto the substrate of step i); iii) placing an element having a structured surface onto the first liquid curable coating of step ii); iv) curing the first liquid curable coating while contacting the element with the liquid curable coating such that an intermediate product is produced, wherein the cured coating of the produced intermediate product has a surface texture that is embossed with the structured surface of the element; v) removing the element having the structured surface; vi) apply a second liquid curable coating onto the surface texture of the intermediate product; and vii) curing the product of step vi) such that the surface texture obtained in step iv) is embedded in the cured second coating.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein step vi) includes the application of a release layer, the release layer provided with the second liquid curable coating, such that the second liquid curable coating is in contact with the surface texture of the intermediate product.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising the step: viii) removing the release layer from the product cured in step vii).

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the element having a structured surface is selected from the group including textured foil and textured paper.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first liquid curable coating comprises pigments.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second liquid curable coating is a transparent liquid curable coating.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the curing in step iv) comprises a step of partially curing the first liquid curable coating.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first liquid curable coating comprises components selected from the group including thermal and radiation curable components.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second liquid curable coating comprises radiation curable components selected from the group including electron beam curable resins and UV-curable resins.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the curing in step vi) comprises a step of fully curing the first liquid curable coating and the second liquid curable coating.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second liquid curable coating comprises components selected from the group including (meth)acrylates, urethanes and phenol formaldehyde resins, or combinations thereof.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein one or more additional layers of liquid curable coating are applied on the product obtained after vii) and subsequently cured.

13. The method according to claim 3, wherein the outer surface of the product obtained after step vii) is flat.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein in step ii) the first liquid curable coating is applied in a thickness between 20 and 150 g/m.sup.2.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first liquid curable coating is a solvent free curable coating.

16. The method according to claim 1, wherein in step vi) the second liquid curable coating is applied in a thickness between 10 and 100 g/m.sup.2.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein in step i) the substrate is selected from the group including metallic foil, aluminium foil, polymeric foil, polycarbonate foil, paper substrate, kraft paper and decor paper, having a weight range greater than 40 g/m.sup.2 and less than 260 g/m.sup.2.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein in step iii) the element having the structured surface is selected from the group including textured paper, thermoplastic foil and metal foil, and wherein the structured surface is applied to the element by one of printing, coating, brushing, calendaring, embossing and pressing, or any combination thereof, in a depth of 2 to 200 micrometres.

19. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of: apply a third liquid curable coating onto the cured second coating of the composite obtained in vii); placing an element having a structured surface onto the third liquid curable coating; and curing the third liquid curable coating while contacting the element with the third liquid curable coating, wherein the third cured coating has a surface texture that is embossed with the structured surface of the element.

20. A dor a thermopressed panel comprising a dfabricated according to the method of claim 1.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0053] The present invention will be discussed in detail hereafter with reference to the drawings. The examples do not form any limitation on the scope of the invention.

[0054] FIGS. 1A-D are schematic diagrams illustrating a method of fabricating a decor according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0055] FIG. 1A-1D shows an embodiment of the method of fabricating a decor according the invention. In FIG. 1A a substrate 1 is provided with a first liquid curable coating 2. Onto first liquid curable coating 2 is positioned an element 3 having a structured surface 4. Element 3 is in close contact with first liquid curable coating 2. The curing of first liquid curable coating resin 2 takes place while contacting element 3 with liquid curable coating 2 such that an intermediate product is produced, shown in the lower part of FIG. 1 B. The lower part of FIG. 1B can be identified as a so called basis decor, i.e. substrate 1 provided with cured coating 2, wherein coating 2 is provided with texture 5. Texture 5 is the negative of structured surface 4. Thus, cured coating 2 of the produced intermediate product has a surface texture 2 that is embossed with the structured surface of the element 3. In FIG. 1B one can see that element 3 having the structured surface 4 is removed. In FIG. 1C a second liquid curable coating 6 is applied onto the surface texture 5 of the intermediate product. In FIG. 1C the second liquid curable coating 6 is in contact with release layer 7. After applying coating 6 onto the surface texture 5 of the intermediate product a decor with an internal structure is obtained, see FIG. 1D. The final step is to cure the product shown in FIG. 1D such that the surface texture 5 is embedded in the cured second coating 6. In a preferred embodiment the first liquid curable coating 2 comprises pigments (not shown), preferably one or more metallic pigments. The first coating 2 is positioned on the substrate 1 and embedded in the cured second coating 6. By providing a pigmented first coating 2 a 3D effect will be obtained, especially initiated through reflection and orientation of the pigments in combination with the texture of that first coating 2.

EXAMPLE 1

[0056] In this example the process for producing a decor with embedded surface texture comprises a step of providing a substrate, applying a first coat layer and laminating a textured paper into the still liquid coat. As substrate an impregnated 80 g/m.sup.2 kraft paper is used. The kraft paper is impregnated with 60 g/m.sup.2 phenol-formaldehyde resin. The applied coat for first layer is pigmented (white). Because of the covering strength of the white coat a layer 60 micrometre is required for getting the right colour.

[0057] Applied layer thickness for first coat layer in example 1 is 70 micrometres. The texture paper laminated into the coat has a texture with a depth of approximately 5 micrometres. The coat layer thickness is higher compared to texture depth. There is an abundance of coat available for completely fill and embed the texture. The coat layer is cured by EB (electron beam) at 175 kV and a dose of 7kGy.

[0058] After curing the texture paper is removed and a second coat layer is applied. As second coat layer a 23 micrometre thick transparent polyurethane acrylate coat is applied. To create the desired gloss level a foil is laminated in the still wet coat of the second layer. In this sample a medium gloss foil (so called Satin) is used. After lamination the decor is cured by EB at 175 kV and 60 kGy dose. The decor is pressed to a HPL panel using standard HPL process conditions, core materials and press plates. In this example 1 a press plate without any texture is used. This results in a panel having a visual perception of a texture (from texture in first layer) and at the same time having a flat surface and soft touch.

EXAMPLE 2

[0059] The same steps for producing a decor with embedded surface texture as disclosed in example 1 were carried out, except that for the first coat layer a 50 micrometre metallic coloured coat is used. Because of the texture dependent orientation of the metallic particles in that first coat the visibility of the texture in the first coat layer will be strongly amplified.

EXAMPLE 3

[0060] The same steps for producing a decor with embedded surface texture as disclosed in example 2 were carried out, except that a texturized press plate was used in producing the HPL panel. The result thereof is a panel having a texturized outer surface. This outer surface texture is superimposed on top of the visual perception of texture from the first coat layer.