US3525633A - Method of producing decorative sheet material - Google Patents

Description

E. T. IGLER Aug. 25, 1970 METHOD OF PRODUCING DECORATIVE SHEET MATERIAL Filed Dec. 15, 1966 FIG.I

8282 @EEIQ FIG.6

IN VEN TOR. Emma/1th T /g/er Affomey United States Patent 3,525,633 METHOD OF PRODUCING DECORATIVE SHEET MATERIAL Emmerich T. Igler, 120 W. 12th St.,

New York, N.Y. 10011 Filed Dec. 15, 1966, Ser. No. 602,020

Int. Cl. B44c 3/08 US. Cl. 117-8 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE To produce decorative sheet material having a relief effect, initially flat metal foil is printed or coated 'with coloring material and then dried, followed by crushing or crumpling of the material, and finally spreading out or smoothing to achieve the final product.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The field of invention to which the present subject matter relates is the processing of certain sheet materials to impart thereto a unique ornamental effect for use in commercial applications and as an element of fine art.

It is known in the prior art to print, paint or other- Wise color the surface of metal foil, such as aluminum foil, in generally the same manner that canvas, bristolboard and like materials are employed. In all such work, particularly where paint is applied to produce a dappled or variegated design, the artist or decorator attempts to achieve a grained or three-dimensional relief effect by means of his skill. It has been very difficult to achieve this effect realistically working with smooth or flat sheet material, and no ready means of producing the desired grained or relief effect has been available in the prior art. Various prior art teachings involve producing creped, corrugated or other deformed sheet material along with coloring or other decorating procedures, but these processes generally produce only a monotonous and uniform design effect which will not meet the needs of a highly varied artistic colored grained or relief surface. The present invention satisfies the need for such a decorative or artistic material which has been made available by the prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the invention process, an initially smooth sheet of thin metal foil or other sheet material, such as various types of relatively stiff or stiffened paper, is painted or printed on one surface thereof, preferably in such a manner that a dappled or variegated color design is produced. Following this, after sufficient drying, the sheet material is crushed or crumpled to a desirable degree, after which the same material is smoothed out partially or spread to a rough planar condition to produce the final article which possesses a striking permanent three-dimensional grained or relief effect, greatly enhancing the appearance of the product. The process may be practiced manually or by the use of certain apparatus components and the uses of the product are manifold and should be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is an actual photographic plan view of a section of smooth metal foil having paint in a variegated pattern on one surface thereof;

FIG. 2 is a vertical section taken on line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a photographic plan view similar to FIG. 1 showing the same section of painted foil after the latter has first been crumpled and then partially smoothed or spread to produce the desired grained relief effect;

3,525,633 Patented Aug. 25, 1970 ice FIG. 4 is a vertical section taken on line 44 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a partly diagrammatic elevational view showing the material of FIG. 1 in a crumpled or crushed condition prior to smoothing out; and

FIG. 6 is a digrammatic plan view of apparatus for use in the practice of the method on a commercial scale.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the accompanying drawings wherein like numerals designate like parts, attention is direction first to FIGS. l-5 inclusive which illustrate an article produced in accordance with the most simplified form of the method which may be practiced manually. In FIG. 1, the numeral 10 designates a small section of the invention material in the initial phase of the process. This material 10 com prises a smooth body portion of sheet 11 of aluminum foil or some other similar metal foil which may be quite thin. An ordinary grade of commercial aluminum foil commonly used in the home kitchen is quite adequate for the purposes of the invention. Certain types of paper or other sheet material may be used instead of the metal foil provided these sheet materials have the ability to retain the necessary permanently wrinkled or grained relief effect after crumpling or crushing followed by smoothing. Other types of webbing or sheet material, such as conventional paper of various weights, may be substituted for the metal foil backing sheet, so long as it is characterized by sufficient body to retain the threedimensional distortion after the smoothing operation. The requisite body may be an inherent characteristic provided in the manufacture of the sheet material, such as relatively heavy sheets of paper, or result appreciably from the decorative coating applied to a surface thereof, e.g., thin tracing paper appreciably stiffened by the dried coating of paint. The contouring remaining in the painted surface after the spreading or laying out of the previously crumpled or folded sheet to generally planar form may be characterized by relatively deep offsetting from front to back of the order of about an appreciable fraction of an inch to a full inch, or even deeper if desired, depending on the final ornamental effect desired. The term partially smoothing used herein identifies any such spreading or laying out operation, in addition to that resulting from a more complete flattening wherein the remaining contouring is of relatively shallow depth, or even should it involve passing the previously crumpled or folded sheet through nips or beneath rollers to flatten the creases or folds to compacted wrinkles where-by the major portions of the painted surface are finally disposed closely to a generally common plane.

On one face of the foil sheet 11 there is applied a coating of acrylic plastic paint 12 or some other form of plastic paint, oil paint or like coloring composition. Ordinary water colors may be employed with a considerable degree of success and the one surface of the sheet 11 may be printed in various known Ways, if preferred. However, it is thought that the acrylic plastic paint and similar compositions are ideally suited to-the needs of the invention.

Preferably, although not necessarily, the paint 12 is applied to the foil sheet 11 in multiple colors and in a dappled or variegated pattern. Such a multicolored variegated pattern is depicted in FIG. 1. If preferred, a more regular design pattern may be employed and the process may even be applied to landscape scenes, portraits and the like, employing the required color combinations.

The paint 12 is allowed an adequate time to dry substantially and the material 10 is then subjected to crushing or crumpling as depicted in FIG. 5. The material may be worked into a ball-like mass by hand and the desired amount of crushing pressure is applied to the mass. Such a condition of the material is shown in FIG. 5. It should be noted here that the relative fineness of the grained relief effect in the final product is dependent somewhat upon the degree of crushing or crumpling pressure applied to the material and this pressure can be controlled and varied to produce a larger relief grain or a smaller relief grain in the final product. Increased pressure on the crumpled material reduces grain size and reduced pressure results in a larger grain size for the finished product. The relief or grained effect referred to herein designates the permanently wrinkled condition imparted to the material by the crumpling or crushing step of the invention.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the final step of the method comprises partially straightening out or smoothing of the crumpled mass to a generally flat or planar condition but with the aforementioned permanent wrinkles present. In the smoothing process, even though considerable pressure is applied to the sheet material by hand or otherwise, a significant degree of wrinkling and a resultant grained three-dimensional relief effect will always remain in the final product and this effect is shown clearly in FIGS. 3 and 4 where the opposite surfaces of the sheet material are very irregular.

The above method steps of coating or painting the initially smooth sheet material, followed by the steps of crumpling or crushing and then partially smoothing out the material impart to it a very striking decorative effect on the painted surface 12. The material so produced may be used in a variety of ways for commercial decorating and artistic effects.

Diagrammatic FIG. 6 shows apparatus for use in the practice of the method on a commercial or mass scale. The invention concept remains the same as in the previous simplified manual embodiment. In FIG. 6, the numeral 13 designates a supply roll for a continuous strip 14 of aluminum foil or other like material. Following the supply roll 13 is a multicolor printing or painting machine 15 of a known type. Spaced from the machine 15 is a suitable drier 16 for the now decorated material and following the drier, at a convenient point, is a crumpler or crusher 17 having an inlet guide 18. The crumpled material emerges from the crumpler at 14 and then passes through a spreader or smoothing device 19 from which it emerges as the finished grained or relief product 14a to be wound up on a suitable takeup roll 20. Variations in the apparatus are also contemplated within the scope of the invention.

The essential method steps in FIG. 6 remain basically the same as previously described for the manual method. The initial sheet material 14 is smooth. The desired color pattern is placed on one face thereof by the machine 15. The decorated material passes next to the drier 16 and then to the crumpler 17 and to the smoother 19, after which it is rolled onto the takeup roll 20. The sheet material may move continuously at a slow rate. The final product 14a will exhibit in general the same ornamental or decorative qualities as the finished material 10 in FIG. 4.

An important adaptation of the invention resides in providing pads or tablets of metal foil which would be similar to drawing and writing paper pads. The individual sheets would then be utilized by an artist or decorator in accordance with the foregoing teachings of the invention. This is a highly convenient and economical way of supplying the basic material to those who wish to practice the invention method.

A number of typical uses of the finished material produced in accordance with the method include gift Wrapping, decorative underlays for glass top tables, framed or unframed decorative wall plaques, decorative coverings for various receptacles or ornaments and the like.

When the material is furnished in roll form, it may be in a plain unprinted or unpainted condition or it may be predecorated with paint or printing so that the user need only crumple the material and partially smooth it prior to usage.

It is to be understood that the forms of the invention herewith shown and described are to be taken as preferred examples of the same and that various changes in the shape, size and arrangement of elements may be resorted to, without departing from the spirit of the invention or scope of the subjoined claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A method of producing decorative sheet material comprising the steps of applying coloring material in a random pattern to at least one side of a substantially smooth and wrinkle-free web of metal foil, drying the web of metal foil with the coloring material thereon, crumpling the web after drying and thereby permanently wrinkling the web having the coloring material thereon, and then smoothing and spreading the crumpled web into a substantially flat condition and imparting to the web a permanent grained relief appearance, said grained relief extending over colored areas of the web.

2. The method as defined by claim 1, and the additional steps of moving the web of metal foil longitudinally during the application of coloring material, drying, crumpling and smoothing and simultaneously drawing the Wrinkle-free web from a supply roll, and winding up the finished decorative material on a takeup roll.

3. The method as defined by claim 1, and wherein said coloring material consists of multiple colors applied to the Web in a random pattern.

4. The method as defined by claim 3, and wherein said multiple colors are applied to the web by a multicolor printing apparatus.

5. The method as defined by claim 1, and wherein said applied coloring material is in the form of a coating of paint.

6. The method as defined by claim 5, and said paint is an acrylic plastic paint.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,481,567 l/1924- Senseney 1l7l1 X 3,054,762 9/1962 Rees. 3,082,510 3/1963 Kelly et al. 117-8 X ALFRED L. LEAVITT, Primary Examiner C. K. WEIFFENBACH, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 117-652, 66

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