JPH0331470A - Golden exterior parts - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] This invention is applicable to watch cases, watch bands, eyeglass frames,
The present invention relates to exterior parts such as jewelry, and particularly to golden exterior parts that exhibit a beautiful golden tone.

[Conventional technology]

Gold or gold alloys have traditionally been used as gold-colored exterior parts. However, it is extremely expensive, so physical vapor deposition is used to form a base layer of titanium nitride on an inexpensive base material, and then a thin surface layer of gold or gold alloy is formed on top of that to form the gold exterior parts. (See, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-26664).

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

With this conventional gold-colored exterior part, even if the surface layer of gold or gold alloy is worn away and the underlying layer is exposed, the underlying layer is gold-colored, so it maintains its golden appearance. I can do it. However, in the case of forming the base layer, the range of conditions for the nitrogen atmosphere gas that gives titanium nitride a golden color tone is narrow, and therefore color unevenness may occur in each part of the base layer formed on the surface of the base material, or a large number of products When manufacturing such products, color unevenness tends to occur in each product, and there is a problem in that the incidence of defective products due to color unevenness is high.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and its purpose is to provide a golden exterior part that can provide a product with an even and constant golden color tone of the base layer.

[Means to solve problems]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention takes the measures as described in the claims above, and its effects are as follows.

[Effect]

In the case of forming the underlayer, there is a wide tolerance range for the nitrogen atmosphere gas conditions that will give the titanium nitride-aluminum-vanadium alloy a golden color. Therefore, even if the nitrogen atmosphere gas conditions vary slightly, the formed underlayer will remain the same. It has a golden color similar to gold.

【Example〕

The drawings showing the embodiments of the present application will be described below.

FIG. 1 is an enlarged view of a part of the golden exterior parts. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a base material, which is made of a material suitable for the characteristics of the exterior parts, such as titanium, which is light and strong, in the case of eyeglass frames. The base material l is not limited to metal, but other materials having good heat resistance such as ceramics or heat-resistant plastics may also be used. Reference numeral 2 indicates a golden coating layer formed on the base material 1. This golden coating layer 2 will be explained below. 3 is a base layer formed on the base material 1, which is a gold-colored layer of titanium nitride-aluminum-vanadium alloy, and its thickness T3 is, for example, 0.2 to 1.0 μm. 4 is a surface layer formed thereon, which is a gold layer, and the thickness T4 is, for example, 0.02 to 0.20 μ-.
Instead of gold, other types of gold alloys such as gold-
Alloys such as nickel, gold-aluminum, gold-copper, gold-nickel-copper, and gold-palladium-copper may also be used.

The golden exterior part having the golden coating layer 2 as described above exhibits a beautiful golden color due to the gold surface layer 4.

Due to the use of golden exterior parts, even if a part of the table 714 is worn and the base layer 3 is exposed there, the base layer 3 will exhibit a golden tone (the degree of change in the golden tone is small), therefore, Appearance-wise, it has a uniform golden color and appears to be completely free of wear.

When the base layer 3 is exposed, since the base layer 3 is highly abrasion resistant, its abrasion progresses slowly, so that the golden exterior component maintains the above-mentioned beautiful golden appearance for a long period of time.

Next is the 2nd V! J schematically shows an apparatus for forming the golden coating layer 2 as described above. This apparatus is a coating apparatus similar to a known coating apparatus (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-177365) that uses ion blasting or sputtering. Briefly explaining its configuration, 10 is a reaction chamber, internal vacuum exhaust and atmospheric gas supply source 11.1
In the reaction chamber 10, it is possible to supply atmospheric gases such as argon gas and nitrogen gas from 2 to 2, respectively.
A holder for holding the base material 1 is provided so that the base material 1 can be moved in a circular trajectory as shown by reference numeral 13. Reference numeral 14 denotes targets of titanium-aluminum-vanadium alloy (hereinafter simply referred to as titanium alloy) used for forming the base layer 3, which are arranged in pairs with a part of the locus 13 sandwiched therebetween. As the titanium alloy, for example, an alloy containing 4% aluminum, 22% vanadium, and the remainder titanium is used. Reference numeral 15 denotes a gold target used for forming the surface layer 4, which is provided in a pair at a different location from the target 14 with a part of the locus 13 interposed therebetween.

Next, the formation of the golden coating layer 2 using the above-mentioned apparatus will be explained using FIG. 3. As an example of the base material 1, after cleaning and drying a titanium eyeglass frame, it is set in a holder installed in the above-mentioned device called sputter ion blating method, and is moved along the above-mentioned trajectory. After evacuating the inside of the chamber 10 to 5XIO'5 bar, 350 SCCM of argon gas is introduced, and the atmosphere is heated to 300°C with a resistance heater, and the surface of the base material 1 is degassed and the base material is heated. Argon gas after 40
03CCM is introduced, 1,300 V is applied to the substrate, and the surface of the substrate is cleaned by ion bombardment.

Next, perform the operation in the section A of Figure 3. That is, argon gas 200SCCM, nitrogen gas 453CC? The target 14 was exposed to a discharge voltage of 600 V in an atmosphere containing
, by generating plasma with a discharge current of 10A and performing sputtering, a bias voltage of -14OV was applied to the base material 1.
A gold-colored base layer 3 of titanium nitride-aluminum-vanadyram alloy is formed thereon to a thickness of 0.5 μm.

Next, perform the operation in the opening section of Figure 3. That is, a gold target 15 is sputtered to form a gold surface layer 4 of 0.1 μm on the base layer 3 described above. The discharge voltage of the gold target 15 was 650V, and the current was 3A.

The atmospheric gas is 1805 CCM of argon.

When the above operations are completed, the operation of the coating device is stopped, and the golden exterior part on which the golden coating layer 2 has been formed is taken out.

The gold-colored exterior parts formed as described above are formed on the base material 1 because the coating layer 2 is continuously formed in one coating device, that is, the coating layer 2 is formed without being exposed to the atmosphere.
Both the adhesion between the base layer 3 and the base layer 3 and the adhesion between the base layer 3 and the surface layer 4 are high.

When forming the coating 2 as described above, the base material l
The rotation speed is, for example, 0.5 to 2 rpm. The film forming rate in this process is, for example, 1 to 3 people/second for titanium nitride-aluminum-vanadium alloy, and 2 to 4 people/second for gold.

In the case of the above operation, the color tone of the underlayer 3 can be adjusted by adjusting the discharge voltage and current of the titanium alloy target 14, the flow rate of the introduced gas, or the bias voltage applied to the base material 1.

Although the color tone of the gold that forms the surface changes slightly depending on the bias applied to the base material 1, etc., it is produced with good reproducibility while retaining the color tone of the gold prepared as the target.

In the above embodiments, the object to be treated was a titanium eyeglass frame, but it is clear that other materials and components can be used.

In addition, in the case of forming the base layer 3 or the surface layer 4, sputtering may be performed with the base material l positioned between each target pair without rotating it along the trajectory 13. In this case, it is preferable to move or vibrate the base material 1 to prevent unevenness from occurring.

Next, the graph in the upper part of FIG. 4 shows the case where the titanium nitride-aluminum-vanadium alloy layer is formed.
It shows the relationship between the flow rate of nitrogen gas and the color tone of the formed titanium nitride-aluminum-vanadium alloy layer. Generally, a good golden color tone is obtained when the six values are in the range of 20 to 25, but in the present case, six such values are nitrogen in the range of about 45 to 533 CCH, which is indicated by the symbol A. It is obtained by the flow rate of gas. On the other hand, the lower graph shows a similar relationship when a conventional titanium nitride layer is formed. As is clear from the graph, the allowable range of nitrogen gas flow rate that allows the above value of b* to be obtained is:
From this point, which is an extremely narrow range of about 49 to 505 CCM, indicated by the symbol °, it can be understood that it is easier to stably produce a good golden color tone in this example than in the conventional example.

Next, FIG. 5 shows a different example of the coating device, in which the base material 1
This shows an example in which the robot is repeatedly moved back and forth along a linear locus 13.

For example, the speed of reciprocating movement is such that the maximum speed at the center is 0.
The speed is 3 to 3.0 m/min.

In this example, when forming the base layer 3 or the surface layer 4,
The base material 1 may be placed in front of a target for forming each layer, or may be moved laterally or vibrated there to form each layer.

It should be noted that parts that are considered to have the same or equivalent configuration as those in the previous figure in terms of function are given the same reference numerals as in the previous figure, and redundant explanations are omitted.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, in the present invention, the coating layer 2 is formed of the base layer 3 and the surface layer 4, and since gold or gold alloy is used for the surface N4, the product has a beautiful golden appearance. It has its features.

Furthermore, even if the surface layer 4 is worn away and the base layer 3 underneath is exposed, the base layer 3 will still shine in a golden color, so that the beautiful golden appearance can be maintained.

Moreover, since the base layer 3 is composed of a titanium nitride-aluminum-vanadium alloy formed on the base material 1 by physical vapor deposition in a nitrogen atmosphere, it is possible to form the base layer 3 on the surface of the base material. No matter which part of the base layer 3 is compared, the golden color tone is uniform, and it has the advantage that all the products manufactured one after another can be mutually uniform. To repeat, when forming the base layer 3, even if the conditions of the nitrogen atmosphere gas vary, the color tone of the base layer 3 will be uniform because the tolerance range is large as is clear from the above explanation regarding the graph in FIG. This has the effect of stably producing a beautiful golden color and extremely reducing the incidence of defective products due to color unevenness.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show examples of the present application, and Fig. 1 is a partially enlarged cross-sectional view of a golden exterior part, Fig. 2 is a schematic horizontal cross-sectional view of a coating device, and Fig. 3 shows the passage of time during coating layer formation. FIG. 4 is a graph showing the relationship between nitrogen gas flow rate and color tone, and FIG. 5 is a schematic horizontal cross-sectional view showing different examples of coating equipment. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Base material, 2... Golden coating layer, 3. Base layer, 4.
··surface. Figure 4 Figure 4 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a golden exterior component in which the surface of a base material is coated with a golden coating layer, the golden coating layer is composed of a base layer formed on the base material and a surface layer formed on the base layer,
The base layer is a titanium nitride-aluminum-vanadium alloy layer formed on the base material by physical vapor deposition in an atmospheric gas containing nitrogen, and the surface layer is a gold or gold alloy layer. Golden exterior parts featuring.