JPH04329864A - Exterior parts for watches - 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]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plastic watch exterior part coated with a ceramic coating.

0002

[Prior Art] Conventional exterior parts for watches made of plastic include those that use the plastic base material without any surface treatment, those that undergo wet plating such as gold or gold alloy plating, or white Pd plating, and those that undergo wet plating such as gold or gold alloy plating, or white Pd plating, and those that are painted. The main ones were those that did this, and those that combined these.

0003

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, products that use plastic substrates as they are have a rich variety of color tones, but are inferior in terms of luxury and decorativeness. In addition, wet plating gives a high-class and decorative appearance, but the color tone is limited, and the base material is plastic, which is relatively soft, so there are issues with the durability of the surface treatment layer. have. The paint has the drawback of lacking a sense of luxury.

[0004] The present invention solves these problems.
The purpose is to provide a plastic watch exterior part that is luxurious, highly decorative, has a wide range of colors, and is durable.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The exterior parts for a watch of the present invention are made of oxides or carbides of one or more metals selected from Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Ta, W, Nb, and Cr. A ceramic film containing nitride, oxycarbide, carbonitride, oxynitride, or oxycarbonitride as a substantial component is applied to the base material by a dry film forming method such as ion plating method, sputtering method, or vacuum evaporation method. It is characterized by being formed partially or entirely on the top layer of plastic.

[0006]

[Function] The top layer ceramic coating is typically made of compounds such as Ti and Zr, but nitrides thereof provide a golden color similar to that of gold plating. Also, the pressure of the reaction gas,
By changing conditions such as type, coatings with various tones can be obtained. Furthermore, these coatings are often chromatic in color with metallic luster, and have high coating hardness and toughness.

[0007] Therefore, by forming the above-mentioned ceramic coating, it is possible to obtain a plastic watch exterior part that has a high-class feel, is excellent in durability, and has a rich color tone.

[0008] When forming a ceramic coating on a plastic substrate, it is necessary to form one or more base plating layers. This is to impart conductivity to the plastic and to improve adhesion. In addition, plastics that can be plated are mainly thermoplastic resins,
The most commonly used resin is ABS resin.

[0009] Therefore, the method for forming a ceramic film is as follows:
It is important to select a method and process that can be processed at as low a temperature as possible, so that damage to the base material due to heat can be reduced.

0010

EXAMPLES The present invention will be explained in detail below based on examples.

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of one embodiment of the exterior part for a timepiece according to the present invention. After etching the ABS resin 1 as the base material, Pd catalyst nuclei were provided. Next, it was immersed in a sulfuric acid aqueous solution to form Pd nuclei. Next, a nickel layer 2 was formed by electroless nickel plating. Thereafter, a nickel strike layer 3, a copper plating layer 4, a nickel plating layer 5, and a palladium-nickel plating layer 6 were sequentially formed by electroplating.

[0012] Next, the above-mentioned exterior part for a watch was placed in a vacuum chamber of an ion plating apparatus, and after evacuation, argon gas was introduced to perform ion bombardment to clean the surface.

Thereafter, reactive ion plating was performed by introducing nitrogen as a reactive gas and using titanium as an evaporation source to form a titanium nitride ceramic coating 7 as the top layer. The resulting exterior parts had a golden color similar to gold plating, showed almost no wear or scratches in practical mobile tests, and had a luxurious feel and excellent durability.

Although only nitrogen was used as the reaction gas in the above example, acetylene was added to the reaction gas using exactly the same processing method to obtain ceramic coatings at various gas ratios and gas pressures. Table 1 shows a comparison between the obtained timepiece exterior parts of the present invention and the conventional timepiece exterior parts. Appearance was visually judged, and abrasion resistance was determined by observing whether or not the base was exposed after 30,000 reciprocating movements with a load of 500 g on the back side of the cowhide. ○ indicates no exposure, △ indicates partial exposure, and × indicates that the base is largely exposed.

[Table 1] As can be seen from the results in Table 1, by forming a ceramic film on the top layer of a plastic base material, it has a luxurious feel, excellent durability, and a wide variety of color tones. Exterior parts for watches can be obtained. Furthermore, in this example, a method was described in which a titanium-based ceramic film was formed by the ion plating method, but Zr, Hf, V, etc. other than titanium can be similarly applied, and the film formation method can also be performed using the ion plating method. The method is not limited to the method, and dry film forming methods such as sputtering method and vapor deposition method can be applied.

[0015]

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to obtain a plastic-based exterior part for a watch that has a wide variety of color tones, has a luxurious feel, and has excellent durability. becomes.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a main longitudinal sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ABS resin 2 Nickel layer 3 Nickel strike layer 4 Copper plating layer 5 Nickel plating layer 6 Palladium-nickel layer 7 Ceramic coating

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Ta, W, Nb,
Ion plating method to prepare a ceramic film containing a substantial component of oxide, carbide, nitride, oxycarbide, carbonitride, oxynitride, or oxycarbonitride of one or more metals selected from Cr An exterior part for a watch, characterized in that it is formed partially or entirely on the top layer of a plastic base material by a dry film forming method such as a sputtering method or a vacuum evaporation method.