Decorated natural leather

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11801700-B2
Application number	US-201917056149-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 16, 2019
Priority date	May 24, 2018
Publication date	Oct 31, 2023
Grant date	Oct 31, 2023

Abstract

A manufacturing method of decorated natural leather including the steps of: attaching a crusted leather (45) with its corium side by an adhesive (46) to a temporary carrier (47); inkjet printing the crusted leather (45) on its grain side with one or more pigmented inkjet inks; wherein the surface area of the temporary carrier (47) is larger than the surface area of the crusted leather (45).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of manufacturing decorated natural leather comprising the steps of:
attaching a crusted leather ( 45 ) by its corium side with an adhesive ( 46 ) to a temporary carrier ( 47 ); and
inkjet printing the crusted leather ( 45 ) with a decorative image on its grain side with one or more pigmented inkjet inks;
wherein the surface area of the temporary carrier ( 47 ) is larger than the surface area of the crusted leather ( 45 ).

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the temporary carrier ( 47 ) includes
an identifier ( 9 ) containing alphanumeric data or a machine readable code; and/or
one or more positioning markers ( 10 ).

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the temporary carrier ( 47 ) is a paper foil or a plastic foil.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the temporary carrier is a plastic foil and the plastic foil is a transparent or translucent plastic foil.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the adhesive is applied by coating or spraying.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a step of scanning the temporary carrier ( 47 ) with the attached crusted leather for determining a printable surface on the crusted leather ( 45 ).

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the temporary carrier ( 47 ) comprises markings for positioning the temporary carrier with the attached crusted leather on an inkjet printer so that the decorative image ( 43 ) is printed on the printable surface.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the adhesive ( 46 ) exhibits a higher adhesion to the temporary carrier ( 47 ) than to the crusted leather ( 45 ).

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein a base coat ( 44 ) is applied on the grain side of the crusted leather ( 45 ) before the step of inkjet printing.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the base coat ( 44 ) comprises a polymer or copolymer based on polyurethane.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the base coat ( 44 ) is also applied on the temporary carrier coated or sprayed with the adhesive.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the adhesive ( 46 ) is a pressure sensitive adhesive.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more pigmented inkjet inks are one or more UV curable pigmented inkjet inks.

14. An assembly ( 40 ) of a decorated natural leather ( 41 ) attached by an adhesive ( 46 ) to a temporary carrier ( 47 ) as obtained by the method of claim 1 .

15. An identification method of using an identifier containing alphanumeric data or a machine readable code on a temporary carrier ( 47 ) whereon a decorated natural leather ( 41 ), having a base coat ( 44 ) applied on a grain side of a crusted leather ( 45 ) and having a decorative image inkjet printed on the base coat using one or more pigmented inkjet inks, is attached by an adhesive ( 46 ) for at least one of the following purposes:
a) identifying the leather article manufacturer;
b) identifying a leather article to be manufactured using the decorated natural leather by a leather article manufacturer for a customer;
c) cutting the decorated natural leather ( 41 ) into leather pieces;
d) identifying the customer of the leather article;
e) authentication of the leather article; and
f) delivering the leather article to the customer.

Assignees

• Agfa Nv

Inventors

• Lenaerts Jens
• Jancart Dieter
• Loccufier Johan
• Cloots Tom

Classifications

• B41M5/0076 Primary

  on wooden surfaces, leather, linoleum, skin, or flowers · CPC title

• B41M5/0047 Primary

  by ink-jet printing · CPC title

• B41M5/5281

  Polyurethanes or polyureas · CPC title

• B41M7/00

  After-treatment of prints, e.g. heating, irradiating, {setting of the ink, protection of the printed stock (pre-treatment or treatment during printing B41M5/0011; printers for treating or overcoating copy materials before, during or after printing B41J11/0015)} · CPC title

• C09D11/101

  Inks specially adapted for printing processes involving curing by wave energy or particle radiation, e.g. with UV-curing following the printing · CPC title