There are many kinds of product appearance designs. Texture is one of the factors that affect the product appearance. Different textures can bring different styles and feelings. Let's briefly explain several surface texture realization processes.
1. Embossing
Metal embossing is the process of embossing on the metal plate by mechanical equipment to make the plate surface appear concave convex patterns.
The embossed metal plate is rolled with a work roll with a pattern. The work roll is usually processed with corrosive liquid. The concave and convex depth on the plate varies with the pattern, and the minimum can reach 0.02-0.03mm. After the work roll is rotated and rolled continuously, the pattern repeats periodically, and the length direction of the embossed plate is basically unlimited.
At present, metal embossed plate is suitable for decorating elevator car, subway car, various cabins, building decoration, metal curtain wall and other industries. It is durable, wear-resistant, visually beautiful, easy to clean, maintenance free, impact resistant, pressure resistant, scratch resistant and does not leave fingerprints.
2. Metal wire drawing
Metal wire drawing is the manufacturing process of repeatedly scraping aluminum plates out of lines with sandpaper.
The metal wire drawing process can clearly show every trace of fine wire, so that the metal matt can have a fine hair luster. The product has a sense of fashion and technology. Drawing can be made into straight lines, random lines, threads, ripples and spiral lines according to the decorative needs.
Straight lines: wire drawing refers to processing straight lines on the surface of aluminum plate by mechanical friction.
Random lines: wire drawing is a kind of irregular, matt silk lines without obvious lines obtained by moving and rubbing the aluminum plate from front to back, left to right under the high-speed copper wire brush.
Screw thread: a small motor with a round felt on the shaft is used to fix it on the table, forming an angle of about 60 degrees with the edge of the table. In addition, a carriage with fixed aluminum plates for pressing tea is made, and a polyester film with straight edges is pasted on the carriage to limit the thread race.
Ripple: It is generally made on the brushing machine or the erasing machine. Use the axial movement of the upper group of grinding rollers to grind and brush on the surface of aluminum or aluminum alloy plates to obtain wavy patterns.
Rotary pattern: it is a kind of silk pattern obtained by using cylindrical felt or grinded nylon wheel installed on the drilling machine, mixing kerosene with polishing paste, and rotating polishing on the surface of aluminum or aluminum alloy plate. It is mainly used for decorative processing of round signs and small decorative dials.
3. IML process:
First of all, it is necessary to explain the concept: IMD includes IML, IMF and IMR
IML: IN MOLDING LABEL
IMF: IN MOLDING FILM
IMR: IN MOLDING ROLLER
The surface of IML products is a hardened transparent film, with a printing pattern layer in the middle and a plastic layer on the back. Because the ink is sandwiched in the middle, the product can prevent the surface from scratching and abrasion resistance, and can keep the color bright and not fade for a long time.
The process flow is as follows:
Cutting: Cut the roll shaped film into square blocks with designed size for printing and forming processes.
Graphic printing: according to the required icons and characters, they are made into phenanthrene, and the icons and characters are printed on the cut film square block.
Ink drying and fixing: place the printed film square in the high-temperature oven for drying, so as to fix the IML ink.
Paste protective film: avoid scratching the printed film surface during the process of punching the positioning hole. Sometimes it is necessary to paste a single or double layer protective film.
Punching locating hole: hot formed locating hole must be punched accurately. The positioning hole of the shearing process is sometimes punched in advance.
Hot forming (high pressure or copper mold): After heating the printed film, use the high pressure machine or copper mold to form in the preheating state.
Shearing peripheral shape: cut off the waste of the formed three-dimensional film.
Material injection molding: put the film with the same three-dimensional shape as the front mold on the front mold, and inject the IML finished product.
Textures can be realized: CD grain, brushed wire, fog surface, leather grain, wood grain, and various 3D patterns. However, because the outermost layer is made of film material, the texture has no touch.
Product features: The film production cycle is short, which can show multiple colors; The pattern and color can be changed at any time during production; Excellent scratch resistance; IML production batch quantity is very flexible, and it is suitable for small quantity production of multiple varieties.
Product application: 3C industry, mobile phone windows, mobile phone buttons, mobile phone LOGO, decorative pieces, etc.
4. IMR process:
IMR (in mold transfer printing) This process is to print the pattern on the film, press the film with the mold cavity through the film feeder, separate the patterned ink layer from the film after extrusion, and leave the ink layer on the plastic part to obtain the plastic part with decorative patterns on the surface. There is no transparent protective film on the final product surface, and the film is only a carrier in the production process.
IMR products are not easy to deform, the product edges are completely covered, and the edge adhesion is strong. It is very easy to change the roll of IMR transfer foil. The process is simple, so the defective rate can be controlled within a few points. The process is simple, so the personnel demand can be minimized. The pattern alignment is perfect, and the hardness can reach 2H. The production is highly automated and the cost of mass production is low.
Textures can be realized: wood, bamboo, marble, leather and other textures
Product disadvantage: The printing pattern layer is only a few microns thick on the surface of the product. After the product is used for a period of time, the printing pattern layer is easy to wear off and fade, resulting in a very ugly surface. In addition, the new product development cycle is long and the development cost is high.
Product application: IMR products are widely used because they belong to the surface treatment process of plastic parts. Such as laptop shell, home appliance shell, mobile phone shell, ABS, etc.
5. Water transfer printing process:
Water transfer printing technology is a kind of printing that uses water pressure to hydrolyze the transfer paper/plastic film with color patterns into polymers. With the improvement of people's requirements for product packaging and decoration, water transfer printing is used more and more widely. The principle of indirect printing and perfect printing effect have solved the problem of surface decoration of many products.
There are two types of water transfer technology, one is water mark transfer technology, the other is water drape transfer technology. The former mainly completes the transfer of words and realistic patterns, while the latter tends to complete the transfer of the entire product surface.
The Cubic Transfer technology uses a water-based film that is easy to dissolve in water to carry images and texts. Due to the excellent tension of the water coating film, it is easy to wind on the surface of the product to form a graphic layer, and the product surface has a completely different appearance just like painting.
Covering any shape of workpiece, it can solve the problem of three-dimensional product printing for manufacturers. Curved surface coating can also add different lines on the surface of the product, and it can also avoid the virtual position often seen in general color printing. In the printing process, since the product surface does not need to contact with the printing film, it can avoid damaging the product surface and its integrity.
Product application: automobile instrument panel, control panel and other automobile interiors, 3C electronic products, household appliances, building materials, etc;
6. Hot stamping
Hot stamping is commonly known as "hot stamping". The essence of hot stamping is transfer printing, which is the process of transferring the patterns on the gilded paper to the substrate through the effect of heat and pressure. The pressure of the die causes depression, and the printed words or patterns are not easy to blur, so the patterns, logos, texts or pictures can be firmly adhered to the product surface.
The hot stamping die and foil are two key components of the hot stamping process. The hot stamping die is generally composed of magnesium, brass and steel. Some will use silicone rubber on the surface of the metal hot stamping die for uneven surfaces. Hot stamping die foil mainly includes carrier, release layer, protective layer and decorative layer.
Hot stamping process includes 4 steps:
(1) The hot stamping foil contacts the substrate;
(2) With heat and pressure, the transfer layer is transferred to the substrate surface;
(3) Remove the pressure and peel off the polyester film;
(4) Feed hot stamping foil and replace the substrate to be hot stamped.
Technical application: Hot stamping is applicable to polymer, wood, leather, paper, vinyl, polyester film and other textiles, as well as metals that are not easy to color. The decoration is scratch resistant, wear-resistant and peeling resistant. For retail and cosmetic packaging, books and magazines, car decoration, advertising, consumer goods decoration, information signs, etc.
7. Laser carving (laser carving)
Based on numerical control technology, laser is the processing medium. The physical denaturation of melting and gasification of metal materials under laser irradiation, so as to achieve the purpose of processing. The laser engraving machine can use the laser engraving technology to easily "print" vectorized graphics and texts onto the processed substrate. The advantages of this technology are:
① Precision: the narrowest line width of the material surface can reach 0.015mm, and it is non-contact processing, which will not cause product deformation;
② High efficiency: new products can be obtained in the shortest time, and only the vector drawing files need to be changed for multiple varieties and small batches;
③ Special machining: to meet the special machining requirements, the inner surface or inclined surface can be machined;
④ Environmental protection and energy conservation: no pollution, no harmful substances, higher than the export environmental protection requirements.
8. Metal etching
It is also called photochemical etching. After exposure, plate making and development, remove the protective film on the area to be etched, contact the chemical solution during metal etching, so as to achieve the effect of dissolving corrosion, forming concave convex or hollow molding. General consumer products, patterns on aluminum plates or text LOGO are often made by etching. In addition, etching is often used to make various kinds of metal horn nets.
9. CNC machining
CNC Machining refers to the processing with CNC machining tools. CNC machine tools are programmed by NC machining language to control the feed speed of machining tools, spindle speed, tool changer, coolant, etc., so as to perform physical machining on the surface of the base material. CNC machining has great advantages over manual machining, for example, the parts produced by CNC machining are very accurate and repeatable; NC machining can produce parts with complex shapes that cannot be finished by manual machining.