Golden rigid decorative member

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9469765-B2
Application number	US-201314385166-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 28, 2013
Priority date	Mar 19, 2012
Publication date	Oct 18, 2016
Grant date	Oct 18, 2016

Abstract

A golden rigid decorative member in which scratch resistance and abrasion resistance are significantly improved and deterioration of appearance quality due to a flaw, abrasion, or the like is suppressed, and which has a pale color with a high quality feel is stably provided. A single layer or several layers of a coating including a reaction compound of an alloy of Ti and one or two or more metals selected from Nb, Ta, and V, and of one or two non-metallic elements mainly including nitrogen and selected from carbon and oxygen are stacked on a base.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A rigid decorative member comprising:
a base; and
a rigid decorative coating with plural layers containing a reaction compound of an alloy of Ti and one or two or more metals selected from Nb, Ta, and V, and of one or two or more non-metallic elements selected from nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon on the base, wherein
the plural layers include an adhesion layer stacked on a substrate, a gradient adhesion layer stacked on the adhesion layer, an abrasion-resistant layer stacked on the gradient adhesion layer, and a golden adjustment gradient layer stacked on the abrasion-resistant layer;
a non-metallic element in the adhesion layer is low-concentration oxygen;
a non-metallic element in the gradient adhesion layer, that of the abrasion-resistant layer, and that of the golden adjustment gradient layer mainly comprise nitrogen and are selectively selected from carbon and oxygen;
the content of a non-metallic element in a reaction compound included in the gradient adhesion layer is increased in a gradient manner in a thickness direction with departing from the substrate; and
the content of a non-metallic element in a reaction compound included in the golden adjustment gradient layer is increased or decreased in a gradient manner in a thickness direction with departing from the substrate.

2. The rigid decorative member according to claim 1 , wherein the non-metallic element in the coating mainly comprises nitrogen.

3. The rigid decorative member according to claim 1 , wherein the alloy proportion of the Ti is 25 wt % or more.

4. The rigid decorative member according to claim 1 , wherein the appearance color of the golden adjustment gradient layer is a pale gold color.

5. The rigid decorative member according to claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the abrasion-resistant layer is 0.5 to 4 μm.

6. The rigid decorative member according to claim 1 , wherein a value of L*, exhibiting brightness in Lab color space displaying, of the rigid decorative coating is 78 or more.

7. A watch comprising an exterior part of which at least one portion comprises the rigid decorative member according to claim 1 .

8. A method for producing the rigid decorative member according to claim 1 , comprising forming the rigid decorative coating layer by a reactive sputtering method using an alloy target of Ti and one or two or more metals selected from Nb, Ta, and V.

9. The method for producing a rigid decorative member according to claim 8 , wherein
a reactant gas containing the non-metallic element is used in the reactive sputtering method; and
the gradient adhesion layer and the golden adjustment gradient layer are formed by chronologically increasing or decreasing the amount of the reactant gas containing the non-metallic element.

Assignees

• Citizen Holdings Co Ltd
• Citizen Watch Co Ltd

Inventors

• Takazaki Koutarou

Classifications

• C23C14/0036

  Reactive sputtering · CPC title

• C23C14/3414

  Metallurgical or chemical aspects of target preparation, e.g. casting, powder metallurgy · CPC title

• A44C27/005

  Coating layers for jewellery · CPC title

• Y10T428/265

  1 mil or less · CPC title

• C23C14/0641

  Nitrides (C23C14/0617 takes precedence) · CPC title