JPS6056064A - External parts for timepiece - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain golden inexpensive external parts for a timepiece with high durability by forming films of titanium nitride or titanium carbonitride on the surface of external plastic parts by an ion plating method. CONSTITUTION:Golden films of titanium nitride or titanium carbonitride are formed on the surfaces of external plastic parts by ion plating to obtain golden metallized external parts for a timepiece with superior resistance to corrosion, wear and scratch and high durability at a low cost. Before forming the golden films, metallic layers of Ni, Cu, Al, Ti or the like may be formed on the surfaces of the plastic parts as intermediate layers by wet plating, vacuum deposition, sputtering or ion plating.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to decorative exterior parts for watches, etc., such as cases, crowns, bands, etc., especially gold-colored exterior parts. The present invention relates to an exterior part for a watch, characterized in that a titanium nitride film is formed using ion blating technology.

Exterior parts of watches have a strong decorative element due to their nature, so the sense of value is influenced by the appearance of the exterior parts.
It is easy to use, and the watch is always used as a mobile phone.
In terms of quality, exterior parts are required to have characteristics that can withstand long-term portable use. Therefore, exterior parts for watches must have excellent appearance, color and gloss, and durability, such as corrosion resistance, abrasion resistance, and impact resistance. Conventionally, materials for exterior parts that satisfy these points, especially gold-colored materials, have been used as gold-plated materials mainly made of gold or gold alloys, or materials in which a base metal base is coated with gold or gold alloy plating. It was pointing. However, as is well known, gold material is very expensive because it uses gold, and has low hardness.
It has the disadvantage that when used for a long period of time, it gets scratched and the appearance quality deteriorates. In addition, when gold plating on base metals, there are problems with the coating properties such as coverage and abrasion resistance, and there are problems with corrosion resistance and abrasion resistance. It had to be thick, and as with the case of gold flakes, the processing costs were high.

In recent years, gold-colored and hard (Hv=1500 or more) titanium nitride or titanium carbonitride formed by the ion-blating method has attracted attention as a method to solve the above-mentioned problems with golden exterior parts. It's coming. This ion blating method is a method in which the introduced gas and evaporated substances are ionized and adhered to the substrate using discharge plasma in an atmosphere activated by direct current or high frequency power in a vacuum chamber. It is. Here, a reactive substance is used as the gas and the vaporized substance to form a compound coated tube.
This is a method called reactive ion blating.For titanium nitride coatings, nitrogen is used as the introduced gas and titanium is used as the evaporator.Furthermore, for titanium carbonitride coatings, in addition to the above, acetylene and methane are used. It is formed by adding a hydrocarbon gas such as n. Titanium nitride and titanium carbonitride formed by this method have been put to practical use in some exterior parts of watches made of metal base materials such as cemented carbide, stellite alloy, stainless steel, and copper alloy, and are cost effective. Although it is increasingly being used as an alternative to gold plating for down coatings, when base metals are used as base materials, there remain problems with corrosion resistance due to pinholes etc. that occur during processing.

On the other hand, in order to significantly reduce the cost of exterior parts for watches, the use of plastic base materials is progressing, and metallization of plastics is also becoming widespread. Methods for metallizing this plastic include electroless plating of copper, nickel, etc., precious metal plating on top of that, and various dry platings including vacuum evaporation.
It's here. However, the former wet metallizing method is relatively difficult to manage the plating acid, etc., and has problems such as waste liquid treatment.
In order to obtain this, gold had to be used, which was a major hindrance to cost reduction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to improve the above-mentioned problems and provide a watch exterior part that has a golden color, is inexpensive, and has sufficient durability as a timepiece exterior part. That is,
Apply a gold-colored titanium nitride or titanium carbonitride film directly on the plastic by ion blasting, or apply nickel,
It is formed between metals such as copper, aluminum, and titanium. The metal film such as nickel mentioned here is formed by dry plating such as electroless and electrolytic wet plating, vacuum evaporation, sputtering, and ion blating.

Embodiment 1 The present invention will be described in detail below according to examples.Example 1 The figure shows an ion-blating apparatus for performing ion-blating on plastic according to the present invention. First, the vacuum chamber 1 is evacuated to 1×10-' Torr by the exhaust system 2, and then a voltage of +50V is applied to the electron gun evaporation source 3 having multiple crucibles for forming a multilayer film and the ionization probe electrode 4. Apply nitrogen gas 7×1 from gas introduction system 5.
It is approximately 500A titanium nitride coated on the plastic watch exterior part 6 by reactive ion blating titanium while maintaining the 0.01 Torr.
When deposited for 5 minutes at a speed of 1/min, a titanium nitride film with a golden color was obtained, which was immersed in artificial sweat and 5%
It withstood a corrosion resistance test of 48 hours of immersion in salt water, and showed almost no wear even after being subjected to a cowhide abrasion test of 50,000 times with a load of 500 g.

Example 2 J in the figure? Then, move the vacuum chamber 1 to the exhaust system 2 1×10''
' Evacuate to TO'rr, then electron gun evaporation source 3t-
Using aluminum tube plastic watch exterior parts 6
After evaporating 0.2μ of titanium nitride, a gold-colored titanium nitride film was obtained by depositing titanium nitride using the same method as described in Example 1, and the same test as in Example 1 was conducted. However, no abnormalities were observed, and the function as an exterior part for a watch was not impaired.

Example 3 Electroless copper plating, electric bright copper plating, and bright nickel plating were applied in the order of approximately 0.1 prn, 10 pm, and 5 prn, respectively.
μ information is formed on a plastic watch exterior part 6. Connect vacuum chamber 1 to exhaust system 2 IX 10''''' Tor
After exhausting the air to a temperature of 100 m, the plastic watch exterior parts 6' were cleaned with ion bombardment for 5 minutes using argon gas introduced through the gas introduction system 5) and negative electricity applied at 100 OV. I felt refreshed. Next, a negative electric mark on the plastic watch exterior part 6? : 100V was applied, and a mixed gas of nitrogen gas and acetylene gas at a ratio of t-10 to 1 was used.
When reactive ion blating was performed under the same conditions as in Example 1 while maintaining 'l'6rr't, a titanium carbonitride coating was formed which was slightly reddish compared to Examples 1 and 2. This treated product was immersed in artificial sweat and immersed in 50% salt water for 48 hours in the same manner as in Example 1, showing no change and giving good results. Furthermore, as an abrasion resistance test, #1 showed almost no wear or scratches even after being subjected to a cowhide abrasion test of 50,000 times at a load of 500I.

As described above in the examples, according to the present invention, titanium nitride or titanium carbonitride is formed on a plastic watch exterior part after forming a metal film directly or as an intermediate layer by ion blasting. In addition, it is possible to obtain a gold-colored metallized product with excellent corrosion resistance, abrasion resistance, and scratch resistance necessary for exterior parts, and cost reduction effects can be expected by not using gold. Furthermore, it is obvious that the present invention can be applied to plastic exterior parts other than watch exterior parts and plastic parts that require wear resistance.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

This is a cross-sectional view of an ion brating device for providing an exterior part for a timepiece according to the present invention. 10. Vacuum chamber 20. Exhaust system 31. Electron gun evaporation source 40. Ionization probe 5, gas introduction system probe electrode 60. Exterior parts for plastic watches Applicant Dai-Goken Kosha Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) Regarding plastic exterior parts, the surface ff
An exterior part for a watch, characterized in that a titanium nitride or titanium carbonitride film is formed by a 1K ion blating method. (2. In claim 1, a metal layer such as nickel, copper, aluminum or titanium formed by wet plating, vacuum evaporation, sputtering or ion blating between the plastic and the ion-blating film is provided. An exterior part for a watch characterized by having: