Color fan deck with paper blades painted on both sides

Abstract

A color display fan deck which illustrates paint colors and a method for making the color display fan deck is described. The color display fan deck includes paper blades which has paint applied on each sized paper surface of each side of the blade. A plurality of planar swatch bearing blades is pivotally joined together at one end to form a deck or fan deck of paper blades painted on each side. The method includes sizing and painting a paper web on both sides with a water based paint having selected heat resistant pigments.

Claims

1. A color display fan deck comprising a plurality of individual fan blades and a fastener which provides pivotal rotation around the fastener, each side of the blades comprising twice sized paper, the paper having a caliper of from about 8 to about 10 mils, paint applied on both sized surfaces of the paper blade, the paint comprising a curable reactive binder and pigment without heavy metals.

2. The color display fan deck of claim 1 wherein the paint is water based paint.

3. The color display fan deck of claim 2 wherein the water based paint has an acrylic binder resin which includes an acrylic polymer or copolymer.

4. A color display fan deck comprising a plurality of individual fan blades and a fastener which provides pivotal rotation around the fastener, each side of the blades comprising twice sized paper, the paper having a caliper of from about 6 to about 12 mils and a basis weight of from about 80 pounds to about 160 pounds, paint applied on both sized surfaces of the paper blade, the paint comprising a water based polymer or copolymer binder and at least one pigment without heavy metals, which pigment will not change color in a way which is discernible to a normal human eye under the same illuminant after being exposed to a temperature of at least about 200 F. for 10 minutes.

5. The color display fan deck of claim 1 wherein the paper has a basis weight of from about 120 to about 145 pounds.

6. The color display fan deck of claim 1 wherein the paint is not a painted sheet of polymeric film or painted polymeric swatch laminated to the blades.

7. The color display fan deck of claim 3 wherein the paint has a ratio of pigment to acrylic binder resin to provide a color variance as measured by a delta E of not greater than about 2.3 when exposed to a temperature of at least about 185 F. for 10 minutes compared to the paint prior to being exposed to the temperature.

8. The color display fan deck of claim 7 wherein the delta E is not greater than about 1.

9. The color display fan deck of claim 4 wherein the paper has a basis weight of from about 120 to about 145 pounds and has a thickness of from about 8 to about 10 mils.

10. The color display fan deck of claim 4 wherein the paint is not a painted sheet of polymeric film or painted polymeric swatch laminated to the blades.

11. The color display fan deck of claim 4 wherein the paint has a ratio of pigment to water based polymer or copolymer binder to provide a color variance as measured by a delta E of not greater than about 2.3 when exposed to a temperature of at least about 200 F. for 10 minutes compared to the paint prior to being exposed to the temperature.

12. The color display fan deck of claim 11 wherein the delta E is not greater than about 1.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

(1) FIG. 1 is a top view of a fan deck with the individual blades precisely aligned on top of each other.

(2) FIG. 2 is a top view of a color fan deck with the blades rotatably or pivotally moved so that the color on each side of the blade can be seen.

(3) FIG. 3 is a side view of an individual fan blade.

(4) FIGS. 4A-4C individually comprise partial views that together according to the legend in FIG. 4C comprise a schematic view of the arrangement of equipment used in the method of making individual fan blades which are paint coated on both sides, the equipment including the gravure sizing rolls, sizing drier, paint over roll coater and paint drier.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(5) As illustrated in FIG. 1, a fan deck 50 includes a painted paper blade 20 with paint applied to both sides of a base paper 30 sized and painted on both sides. The fan deck 50 also includes an attachment opening 40 through which a screw or other suitable fastener may be put to hold a plurality of individual blades together so that the blades may be pivoted around the fastener as described below. The fan deck permits the use of relatively large paint coated swatches which can be used to provide a realistic display of paint color. Ideally, the individual fan blades 10 (FIG. 2) will be about 2 inches by about 8 inches or even larger.

(6) Referring to FIG. 2, a fan deck 50 includes a plurality of individual blades 10 which are attached through attachment opening 40 for pivotal rotation to open (and close) and fan the blade and the display color on both sides of the paint coated paper blades. As noted above, any type of fastener device such as a screw, rivet, nut and bolt, and the like may be inserted through the attachment opening 40 to secure the paint coated blades 10 together. With fanning or opening the fan deck, different fan blades in the deck may be viewed by pivotally rotating individual blades.

(7) FIG. 3 illustrates a side view of an individual blade 10 of the fan deck 50. A flat base paper 30 has sizing 25 in the form of two sizing layers 25a and 25b on both of its sides and has painted layers 28 on both sides of the sized base layer. The paint used to make the fan is a water dispersible or solvated with water. In an important aspect, the water based paint has an acrylic polymer or copolymer binder. For dark colors the amount of pigment relative to the amounts of binder resin (the resin which forms the film when the paint dries) is reduced (such as to provide a pigment to binder ratio of about 1 to about 5 for black) over that generally used for lighter colors (such as a pigment to binder ratio of about 1 to about 2 for white and a pigment to binder ratio of about 1 to about 3 for red) where the ratios of amounts of pigment to binder are effective to minimize transferring color to a lighter chip interfacing with the darker chip of an interfacing blade such that the colors will not deleteriously vary to provide a color variance as measured by a delta E of not greater than about 2.3 and preferably not greater than about 1. It has been found that without this aforedescribed technique, interfacing colors of paint coatings may transfer to one another and most particularly from dark to light paint.

(8) In making the fan deck and as shown in FIGS. 4 A through 4 C, a paper web is supplied as a large sheet or web 102 in a roll 106 which is unrolled as at 108 and positioned and tensioned by a plurality of tensioning rolls 109. Sizing is supplied by reservoirs 110 and 112 and is applied by gravure printing roll pairs 114 and 116 to the surface of the unrolled paper web substrate. The sizing is applied such that each roll pair applies between about 0.0002 to about 0.0004 inches of sizing. The sizing is dried by transmitting the sized web through a short sizing oven 118 that has a temperature in the range of from about 130 F. to about 160 F. with the sized web running through the oven at a rate of from about 58 to about 72 feet/minute to expose the web to the latter temperatures for about 24 to about 30 seconds. After the web, with the dried sizing emerges from oven 118, a plurality of tensioning rolls 120 move the dried sized web to a knife over roll coater 122. The surface of the web at 121 has paint applied thereto through lines 125 into spaces defined by fixtures or dies which are behind the knife 124. This creates a stripe effect with the paint. Excess paint is collected in reservoir 126. The paint on the surface of the web is spread by knife 124 as it passes between under roll 128 and knife 124. Paint is applied such that about one gallon of paint covers about 250 square feet to about 500 square feet of the paper web. Alternatively, a roller coater may be used in lieu of a knife coater.

(9) After the water based paint is applied at the knife over roll coater, it is moved to a long oven 130 having a temperature of from about 185 F. to about 220 F., preferably from about 185 F. to about 200 F. and is moved through the oven at a speed of from about 58 feet/minute to about 72 feet/minute. The length in the oven is such that the web will spend from about 3.5 to about 5 minutes, preferably 4 minutes (per painted side) in the oven. The web is transmitted through the oven on belt 132 which is coated with a fluoro polymer having a coefficient of friction of less than about 2 and generally from about 0.05 to about 0.2. As the dried painted web exists the oven for the first time, it is wound around a plurality of tensioning rolls 136 and the painted web 138 is wound into roll 140. Thereafter the roll is moved to the beginning of the process line for unrolling, painting and paint drying to produce a dried paint layer on the reverse side of the web that had just been painted as described above.

(10) The paint is water based paint with an acrylic binder resin which uses an acrylic polymer or copolymer binder. Generally this type of water based paint is a water-latex emulsion having high gloss, good block resistance when applied so that the paint chip surfaces will not stick to one another at a temperature of about 120 F., will not transfer color when applied and dried on fan blades when interfacing with each such that delta E will not be greater than about 2.3, and preferably not greater than about 1. The resin used to make to paint binder should have a relatively high glass transition temperature (Tg) of from about 25 C. to about 100 C. at which a water-latex emulsion will form a film with external coalescence and a solids content of from about 40 to about 50 weight percent. An important water based paint includes a water-latex emulsion is a methylmethacrylate-butylmethacrylate copolymer water-latex emulsion E-1630 sold by the Rohm and Haas Co., Philadelphia, Pa. This water latex emulsion has high gloss, good block resistance and a Tg of 50 C., a solids content of from about 44.5% to about 45.5% by weight and a specific gravity of 1.035. The methylmethacrylate-butylmethacrylate copolymer water-latex emulsion E-1630 sold by the Rohm and Haas Co., Philadelphia, Pa., has high gloss, good block resistance and a Tg of 50 C., a solids content of from about 44.5% to about 45.5% by weight and a specific gravity of 1.035.

(11) An emulsion system which forms the paint binder is formed by combining the emulsion with a dispersant or dispersing agent forming from about 0.5 to about 1.5% by weight of the emulsion system; a non-ionic surfactant forming from about 0.2 to about 0.8% by weight of the emulsion system; a defoamer forming from about 0.25 to about 0.75% by weight of the emulsion system; a coalescent forming from about 2.5 to about 4.5% by weight of the emulsion system; an alkaline activator such as dimethylamino ethanol or ammonia to adjust the pH of the emulsion system to within a range from about 8.8 to about 10, wherein the alkaline agent generally forms about 0.4% by weight of the emulsion system; and water as is necessary to bring the emulsion system to 100% where the emulsion, such as the previously mentioned E-1630 water-latex emulsion, forms from about 40 to 60% by weight of the emulsion system. The dispersant such as Tamol 731 (which is a product of Rohm and Haas Co.), or others as are known in the art, reduces the tendency of the pigments to agglomerate. The surfactant such as Triton GR-7, Triton CF-10 (which are products of the Rohm and Haas Co.), or others as are known in the art, provides color and pigment stability. The coalescent, such as Texanol (which is a C12 ester alcohol and product of the Eastman Kodak Company), butyl benzoate, dimethyl adipate, or others as are known in the art, promotes the coalescence of the particles of the emulsion into a paint film. The defoamer such as Foam Master DS and AP defoamer (which are products of the Diamond Shamrock Company, Dallas, Tex.) or others as are generally known in the art, reduce the amount of air or foam in the emulsion paint. Other additives may optionally be added to the emulsion system such as a solvent selected from the group consisting of methylcarbitol, ethylene glycol, propylene glycol and mixtures thereof forming from about 2 to about 4% by weight of the total emulsion system; tinting pigments, as are known in the art, forming from 0 to about 5% of the emulsion system; preservatives, as are known in the art, forming about 0.25% by weight of the emulsion system; and thickeners forming about 2 to about 4% by weight of the emulsion system, such as RM-5 (which is an acrylic copolymer product from the Rohm and Hass Co.), hydroxyethylcellulose, carboxymethylcellulose, or others as are known in the art. The methyl carbitol solvent controls the speed of drying with fast drying being desired.

(12) A useful sizing includes a nitrocellulose resin solution in a blend of organic solvents having resin solids content of between 12 and 25 percent by volume.

(13) Heat stable pigments are important to the products and methods described herein. Yellow pigment should be heat stable at least as much as Y155 (where Y155 is a color index name). The orange pigment should be heat stable at least as much as O36 and the red pigment should be heat stable at least as much as R254. The pigments should be stable to heat and not change color in a way that is discernable to the normal human eye under the same illuminant (delta E less than or equal to about 2.3, and preferably less than about 1) when exposed to a temperature of at least about 185 F. for 10 minutes, preferably at least about 200 F. for at least about 10 minutes. Yellow and orange pigments are not generally stable, but particularly useful pigment for use in formulating various colors of custom paint for use on the fan blades include a yellow pigment that will resist burning at temperatures of less than about 240 F. A particular useful yellow pigment is YELLOW 74, C I NAME: PIGMENT YELLOW 74, C.I. NO.: 11741, CAS NO: 6358-31-2, P.H.: 7.0 TO 9.0, BULK VOLUME: 2.25 to 3.50 cc/gm, WATER SOLUBLE: 2.00% Max, OIL ABSORPTION: 302 gm/100 gm, MOISTURE CONTENT: 1% Max, SPECIFIC GRAVITY: 1.40. The pigments used in the processes described herein are distinguished from pigments that used heavy metals as part of their composition. These pigments are no longer used as they are considered toxic. These heavy metals include lead, cobalt, chromium, manganese, nickel, arsenic, cadmium as well as transition metals, lanthanides and actinides. Many of the pigments which used heavy metals were heat stable, but with toxicity precluding their use, a problem was created in achieving a double sided fan blade as described herein.

(14) After painting the paper web on both sides as described above, the painted web then is cut to into individual color display blades which are then collated and joined at one end using known techniques. Fastener openings may be cut in the color cards before or after collating. A deck of color cards is fastened together by inserting a fastener device through the color cards such that they are pivotally attached.