Appeal No. 2003-0292 Page 5
Application No. 09/584,032
such as glass and plastics it is desirable that an electrically conductive surface be
provided in order to eliminate electrostatic charges.
The process of Louis' invention comprises repeatedly impacting a substrate to be
coated with finely divided electrically-conductive material. Finely divided particles, in
general, lack enough mass to hit the substrate with sufficient energy to become firmly
attached to the surface. In carrying out Louis' process the finely divided coating
material is temporarily affixed to a carrier particle having considerably greater mass,
and then hurling the carrier particle at the substrate so as to utilize its kinetic energy to,
"hammer" the finely divided particles onto the substrate. Louis teaches that steel balls,
1/8 inch in diameter, have been effective in applying conductive coatings to glass and
have also been used to apply rather heavy conductive coatings to
polymethylmethacrylate.
Impactor particles may be coated with conductive material by any of several
techniques. The preferred method taught by Louis involves tumbling the carrier
particles with finely divided conductive material until a uniform coating is obtained.
Figure 3 shows a device for hurling coated carrier particles 2 at the article to be coated.
Air gun 22 utilizes a stream of air to lift carrier particles 2 from a reservoir 24 through
hose 26 and hurl them at the target 10. The carrier particles are returned by gravity to
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007