Coloring structure for producing colors

• US 6,577,446 B2
• Filed: 06/01/2001
• Issued: 06/10/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Tanaka Holdings Company Limited), Teijin Frontier Co., Ltd. (Teijin Limited)
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Tanaka Holdings Company Limited), Teijin Limited
• Inventors: Kumazawa, Kinya, Tabata, Hiroshi, Yamanaka, Masahiko, Sada, Toshihiko
• Primary Examiner(s): CHANG, AUDREY Y
• Application Number:
  US09/870,727
• Publication Number:
  US 20010053028A1
• Time in Patent Office: 739 Days
• Field of Search: 359/577, 359/584, 359/585, 359/586, 359/588, 428/200, 428/201, 428/202, 428/206, 428/207, 428/403
• US Class Current: 359/577
• CPC Class Codes: B32B 7/023 Optical properties
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 428/24901 including coloring matter

Abstract

A coloring structure includes a light-reflecting base, a brilliant layer placed on the base, and transparent brilliant units contained in the brilliant layer, each brilliant unit including an alternate lamination of at least two polymers having different refractive indexes, the lamination producing interfered light resulting from reflection and interference of light and transmitted light resulting from transmission of light, each brilliant unit controlling interfered and transmitted lights. The coloring structure is provided with a coloring mechanism for producing at least an interference color resulting from interfered light, a first object color resulting from reflection of transmitted light produced by the base, and a second object color resulting from reflection of incident light produced by the base without striking any brilliant units.

Claims

1. A structure for producing colors by reflection and interference of a light incident thereon, comprising:

a first base that reflects the light to an incident side;

a second base placed on the first base, the second base having light transparency;

a brilliant layer placed on the second base; and

a plurality of transparent brilliant units dispersedly contained in the brilliant layer, each brilliant unit comprising an alternate lamination of at least two polymers having different refractive indexes, the alternate lamination producing an interfered light resulting from reflection and interference of the light and a transmitted light resulting from transmission of the light, each brilliant unit controlling the interfered light and the transmitted light,

whereby the structure is provided with a coloring mechanism for producing at least an interference color resulting from the interfered light, a first object color resulting from reflection of the transmitted light produced by an interface between the brilliant layer and the second base, a second object color resulting from reflection of the transmitted light produced by the first base, a third object color resulting from reflection of the light produced by the interface without striking any brilliant units, and a fourth object color resulting from reflection of the light produced by the first base without striking any brilliant units.

2. The structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first base comprises one of a metallic material, a semiconducting material, and a combination of the materials.

3. The structure as claimed in claim 2, wherein the first base provides a specular reflection-ability.

4. The structure as claimed in claim 1, further comprising another brilliant layer placed on the brilliant layer and dispersedly containing the brilliant units.

5. The structure as claimed in claim 4, wherein the brilliant units contained in the respective brilliant layers produce different interference colors.

6. The structure as claimed in claim 5, wherein the brilliant units contained in each brilliant layer produce different interference colors.

7. The structure as claimed in claim 6, wherein the brilliant units are spaced to allow direct transmission of the light through the structure.

8. The structure as claimed in claim 4, further comprising a transparent layer placed on the brilliant layer.

9. The structure as claimed in claim 8, further comprising an adhesive layer provided on at least part of a face of the first base opposite to the brilliant layer.

10. The structure as claimed in claim 4, wherein each brilliant layer contains 0.1-30.0% brilliant units by mass.

11. The structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein the alternate lamination of each brilliant unit comprises a colored layer containing one of achromatic and chromatic coloring matters.

12. The structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein each brilliant unit comprises a clad layer arranged around the alternate lamination, the clad layer being formed out of one of the two polymers, a polymer other than the two polymers, and a combination of the three polymers.

13. The structure as claimed in claim 12, wherein each brilliant unit is of a substantially rectangular section, wherein the ratio of a first length of a side of the section perpendicular to a surface of the alternate lamination to a second length of a side of the section parallel to the surface of the alternate lamination is between 0.8 and 25.0, and the ratio of the first length to a length of each brilliant unit is between 0.8 and 4,000.

14. The structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second base comprises one of glass, ceramics, and resin.