Plasma coating system for non-planar substrates

• US 20050202259A1
• Filed: 03/08/2005
• Published: 09/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Exatec, LLC (Government of Saudi Arabia)
• Original Assignee: Exatec, LLC (Government of Saudi Arabia)
• Inventors: Miebach, Thomas, Iacovangelo, Charles D., Korevaar, Bastian A., Mercedes, Michael W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,390,573 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 428/447
• CPC Class Codes: B05D 1/62 Plasma-deposition of organic layers plasma deposition in general C23C14/00, C23C16/00
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/513 using plasma jets
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 428/31663 As siloxane, silicone or silane

Abstract

A non-planar article includes a plasma deposited abrasion resistant coating with a substantially uniform thickness and a substantially uniform abrasion resistance with delta haze (%) in the range between about +/−0.25 of the mean value.

Claims

1. A non-planar article having a plasma deposited abrasion resistant coating with a substantially uniform thickness and a substantially uniform abrasion resistance with delta haze (%) in the range between about +/−

0.25 of the mean value.

2. The article of claim 1 further comprising a substrate and wherein the abrasion resistant coating is deposited on the substrate, the plasma being produced from an ETP source with a working distance from the substrate in the range between about 15 and 31 cm.

3. The article of claim 2 wherein the angle of incidence between the plasma and the substrate is in the range between about 0 and 130 degrees.

4. The article of claim 2 wherein the substrate is plastic.

5. The article of claim 4 wherein the plastic is selected from the group consisting of polycarbonate, polyimide, acrylic, polyetherimide (PEI), polyethylene (PET), PBT, and polysulfones.

6. The article of claim 1 wherein the abrasion resistant coating is plasma polymerized organosilicon.

7. The article of claim 6 wherein the organosilicon is selected from the group consisting of D4, D5, HMDSO, TMDSO, V-D4, VTMS and DMDMS.

8. The article of claim 1 wherein the abrasion resistant coating is deposited as two or more layers.

9. The article of claim 8 wherein the first layer has oxygen content that is lower than the oxygen content of the other layers.

10. The article of claim 9 wherein the layers other than the first layer have the same composition.

11. The article of claim 9 wherein the layers other than the first layer have graded oxygen contents.

12. The article of claim 9 wherein the layers other than the first layer have increasing oxygen contents.

13. The article of claim 8 wherein the abrasion resistant layers have a UV absorbency of less than about 0.02 micrometers⁻

1 at 300 nm.

14. The article of claim 13 wherein the abrasion resistant layers have graded UV absorbency.

15. The article of claim 13 wherein the abrasion resistant layers have decreasing UV absorbency.

16. The article of claim 1 wherein the abrasion resistance is less than about 10% delta haze.

17. The article of claim 16 wherein the abrasion resistance is less than about 5% delta haze.

18. The article of claim 17 wherein the abrasion resistance is less than about 2% delta haze.

19. The article of claim 1 further comprising a substrate and one or more functional layers deposited between the substrate and the abrasion resistant coating.

20. The article of claim 19 wherein the hardness and thickness of the abrasion resistant layer is adjusted based on the hardness of the underlying coatings.

21. The article of claim 19 wherein a functional layer is silicone hardcoat with organic UV absorbers.

22. The article of claim 21 further comprising a primer layer between the silicone hardcoat and plastic.

23. The article of claim 20 wherein the coating is a functional coating including inorganic UV filters, IR coatings, AR coatings, TCOs, barrier coatings, and combined multilayers.

24. A process for coating a non-planar substrate comprising:

generating a plasma from one or more stationary expanding thermal plasma sources;

injecting a first set of vaporized reagents into the plasma to form a first layer on the substrate; and

injecting a second set of vaporized reagents into the plasma to form two or more coatings over the first coating, the ion flux of the plasma being adjusted to give substantially uniform properties at various working distances from the ETP source to the substrate.

25. The process of claim 24 wherein the uniform coating property is the coating thickness.

26. The process of claim 24 wherein the uniform coating property is the abrasion resistance of the coating.

27. The process of claim 24 wherein the abrasion resistant coating is a plasma polymerized organosilicon.

28. The process of claim 27 wherein the organosilicon is selected from the group consisting of D4, D5, HMDSO, TMDSO, V-D4, VTMS and DMDMS.

29. The process of claim 24 wherein the abrasion resistant coating is deposited as two or more layers.

30. The process of claim 29 wherein the first layer has an oxygen content that is lower than the oxygen content of the other layers.

31. The process of claim 30 wherein the layers other than the first layer have the same composition.

32. The process of claim 29 wherein the abrasion resistant layers have a UV absorbency of less than about 0.02 micrometer⁻

1 at 300 nm.

33. The process of claim 24 wherein the abrasion resistance is less than about 10% delta haze.

34. The process of claim 33 wherein the abrasion resistance is less than about 5% delta haze.

35. The process of claim 34 wherein the abrasion resistance is less than about 2% delta haze.

36. The process of claim 24 further comprising a plastic substrate and one or more functional layers deposited between the substrate and the abrasion resistant coating.

37. The process of claim 36 wherein the hardness and thickness of the abrasion resistant layer is adjusted based on the hardness of the underlying coatings.

38. The process of claim 36 wherein a functional layer is a silicone hardcoat with organic UV absorbers.

39. The process of claim 38 further comprising a primer layer between the silicone hardcoat and the plastic substrate.

40. The process of claim 36 wherein the functional coating includes inorganic UV filters, IR coatings, AR coatings, TCOs, barrier coatings, and combined multilayers.