Decoration of Plastics

• The surface of a plastic article, film or sheet may be coated,

marked, mechanically finished or otherwise altered for
appearance or performance reasons.

• The decorating process might be performed in line with other

processes and the rate of decorating should not slow down
the operation.

• A plastic part may be of irregular shape, as many injection

molded parts are, or it can be processed in the form of a film
or sheet.

• The choice of decorating method might be determined by the

shape of the surface.
 Decorating Methods

i. Painting
ii. Printing
iii. Vacuum coating techniques
iv. Plating
v. Dyeing
vi. Labels & Decals
vii. Mechanical surface changes
 Decorating Methods…
Painting

Painting involves application of a

liquid coating onto the plastic
surface. The coating is dried or
otherwise solidified after it has
been applied to the surface in the
required manner and at the required
thickness.
Printing

It is the application of a
liquid coating over a
relatively small surface
area. It is identical to the
painting process except that
different application
techniques are used.
 Decorating Methods…

Vacuum coating Techniques

Where a coating, usually metallic,

is applied as a vapor or as small
particles to the surface.

Plating

Plating, which involves deposition

of metal by either electrolytic or
electroless processes
 Decorating Methods…

Dyeing Labels and Decals

Labels and decals, which involves
Dyeing, where
dye molecules affixing of a predecorated material
to the plastic surface.
penetrate below
the surface

Mechanical surface changes Decal: a design prepared on special

paper for durable transfer on to
another surface such as glass or
porcelain.
Mechanical surface changes, such
as polishing, grinding and
embossing.
 Coatability & coating adhesion

Good adhesion between the coating or printing ink and the

plastic substrate is required in order to obtain a lasting
product. Coating adhesion is often tested by the tape test.

Tape Test, in which an adhesive tape is

applied over the coating and peeled away at
a sharp angle. Poorly adhered coatings are
removed by the tape. This test is a useful
and simple qualitative method to eliminate
poorly adhered coatings
 Coatability & coating adhesion…

Several quantitative methods are also

used to test the coating adhesion. These In order to obtain a good coating adhesion
tests involve adhering a probe to the between the coating and the substrate, the
coating surface and then measuring the coating must wet the substrate. Wettability
force required to pull away the probe, or is determined by the difference between the
employing a probe to scratch the surface tension of the liquid coating and the
surface of the coating. surface energy of the solid substrate.

Probe - a blunt-ended (not having sharp edge) surgical

instrument used for exploring a wound or part of the body.

The coating viscosity must be low enough to

allow the coating to flow. Usually the coating is
applied by some mechanical means, and thus is
spread over the surface by the forces acting
during coating.
 Surface Treatment

A plastic surface might require cleaning if it has become contaminated

during processing. The removal of release agents used in molds might
be necessary. Surface cleaning treatment may be carried out by various
means as listed below

• Water washing
• Solvent cleaning and etching
• Mechanical abrasion
• Chemical etching Chemical Etching: Treatment of plastic surface
• Priming by exposure to solutions of reactive chemical
• Flame treatment compounds, usually oxidizers. It may cause
• Plasma treatment chemical change of the plastic surface.
• Ultraviolet and other irradiation

Priming is a deposition of a thin coating of

another polymer between the plastic surface
and the paint to improve the paint’s adhesion.
 Surface Treatment…

• Plastic surfaces are easily electrically charged, and such static

charges attract dust and dirt.

• The elimination of such surface charges is required in order to

minimize the contamination of plastic surfaces.

• Ionized air blowers are used to remove the surface charges and to
clean accumulated dust form the surface.

• Charge development is minimized at high humidity conditions

and plastics cleaning and painting area might be humidified by
water spray
 Coated Products

• Many of the molded plastics used in automobile

industry are painted or metallized.

• Structural foam is used very widely for electronic

equipment housing and similar applications. The
surface of such rigid foams often inhibits swirl and
other imperfections and requires extensive
finishing including priming and painting.
 Coating Techniques

• Spraying

• Dip coating

• Flow coating

• Curtain coating

• Roll coating

The choice of the most suitable technique is determined by the

geometry of the plastic part (the irregularly shaped part require
different coating methods from those used for flat films or sheets)
 Roll Coating

Doctoring
Application In roll coating the coating reservoir
Roll
Roll lies between the smaller doctoring
roll and the application roll, the
sheets are run between the applicator
and the supporting roll.

Roll coating is suitable for low

viscosity fluids and for the
Supporting application of relatively light weight
Roll coatings.

Roll Coater
 Printing

Printing is a variation of the coating process in which ink or paint is

deposited in small selected areas over the plastic surface.

Methods of printing

• Screen printing

• Flexographic printing

• Gravure printing

• Pad printing
 Screen Printing

Screen printing is widely used for plastics decorating for

several reasons such as

• The equipment is simple and inexpensive

• Good quality multicolor printing is possible

• Includes coverage of large surface area

However the process is slow and mainly suited for short

runs.
 Screen Printing…
• The screen, which is the most important component of the screen printing equipment,
consists of a stencil bonded to a fine weave fabric and tensioned in a frame.

• Ink is pushed through the screen openings by a squeegee (press softly) and deposited
onto the plastic surface.

• The squeegee is simply a shaped flexible blade in a wood or metal holder.

• Polyurethane elastomers are most often used to make squeegees.

Mechanics of the screen printing process

 Screen Printing…
Screen printers can be flat bed, rotary or cylinder
configurations and they can be simple, manually operated
units or completely automated machines. An automated
machine can print above 8000 items per shift.

Mechanics of the screen printing process

 Screen Printing…

 Automation may include automatic feed and take off,

nest carriers to hold objects to be printed, and other
accessories.

 Various ink types are used. Screen inks are specially

formulated to behave as a solid and not drop when placed
on the screen. The ink should flow easily through the
screen when a force is applied by the squeegee and it
should level well after its deposition.

 Solvent borne inks require drying and the printing unit

usually is followed by a dryer unless air drying is possible.

 UV- radiation curable inks also used for screen printing,

because of their rapid cure.

 Screen printing may be applied over flat or cylindrical

surfaces, but it is not suitable for the printing of irregularly
shaped surfaces.
 In-mold Decoration

• Plastic parts may be decorated by various in

mold processes that eliminating a separate
decoration step.

• In mold decorating may consists of decorating

the mold wall prior to molding or incorporating
the pre - printed insert or label.
 Vacuum Metallizing

Vacuum metalizing of plastics is a process

widely used to deposit a thin aluminium layer
over the surface of many different plastic
products like

Jewelry components, automotive

interior parts, bottle caps, plumbing
accessories, trophies, etc
 Vacuum Metallizing…

• A metallic coating can be deposited on an

exposed surface or it can be deposited on the
second surface of a transparent plastic item. In
the later case, the metallic coating is protected
by a layer of plastic.

• In order to obtain a smooth and glossy

coating, the plastic surface may be undercoated
with a lacquer.

• It also may be over coated with a transparent

top coating to improve its abrasion resistance.

•The metallic coating is usually aluminium but

other metals also can be deposited by
evaporation.
 Vacuum Metallizing…

• The metallization takes place in

vacuum in order to allow the metal vapor
to reach the plastic surface before the
vapor is oxidized by the oxygen in air.

• The metal is heated to the point at which

it will vaporize under vacuum conditions.

• The substrate is at a sufficiently low

temperature to allow the condensation of
metal vapor.

• Parts to be metalized are held in an

appropriate fixture that might rotate in
order to expose all surfaces to be
metalized.
Schematic diagram of a vacuum evaporation system
 Vacuum Metallizing…

 Several metal evaporation sources are used.

Resistance heated tungsten filaments are used
most often for applying decorative coatings.

 Plastics films are vacuum metalized for

packaging uses as well as for hot stamped foils.