CH656117A5 - METHOD FOR PRODUCING A SEMI-PRECISION-LIKE HARD MATERIAL AND THEIR USE AS A SEMI-FABRICATE FOR PRODUCING SEMI-GEMSTONE REPLACEMENT AND JEWELRY STONES. - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a method for producing a semi-precious stone-like, cutting, splitting, grinding and polishing hard mass and their use. After processing by means of shaping measures and in particular by polishing, such a hard mass has a semi-precious stone-like appearance, so that it is ideally suited as a replacement for expensive semi-precious stone material.

Manufactured goods, in particular commodities made from semi-precious stones, are equally coveted and expensive. Semi-precious stone-like material of natural origin is relatively rare and difficult to obtain. It has started to imitate this material, and mainly a decoration by plating is the most used. Painting layers with semi-precious stone-like decor is also one of the methods with which a decorative effect can be achieved. Apart from the complex and therefore expensive methods of the actual artificial production of semi-precious stones, practically all imitations are unsatisfactory in some form, be it in terms of hardness, durability or beauty, brilliance or other decisive optical or mechanical properties.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a method with which a material in the sense of a semifinished product or raw material can be produced which is suitable for the manufacture of semi-precious stone-like objects, this material, in addition to their optical similarities, such as structure and color, also almost being the same physical such as hardness and strength. Objects made from it should be polishable like semi-precious stones and the polished surfaces should be brilliant.

This object is achieved by the combination of method steps specified in claim 1. Advantageous further developments of the method and uses of the product obtained therefrom result from the dependent claims.

The choice of binder is largely free, for example it can be a hardenable plastic and in this case should be selected from the range of known synthetic resins according to the following criteria:

- no exudation of chemical components in the hardened state;

- low color density of the own color;

- tough properties

- low tendency to become brittle

Araldite-type epoxy two-component resins have proven to be advantageous, preference being given less to the fast-curing resins than to those whose curing harmonizes with the processing process, as it were. Other resins are also excellent, such as harder acrylic resins and harder polyester resins.

The filler is preferably a mineral, it gives the hardened mass the actual hardness and sometimes also the basic or body color. These are mainly mineral fillers such as quartz powder, marble powder, ground silica gel etc., all substances with a Mohs hardness between 5 and 8, i.e. a hardness that also includes semi-precious stones such as turquoise, agate, onyx, carnelian etc.

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point. The properties of the filler can be strengthened, masked or combined in the recipe. Usually it does not play a role in quartz flour or marble powder, for example. Marble powder results in somewhat duller hues, with quartz powder these are more lucid and brilliant, which is not always desirable.

The basic pigment is used to achieve the basic color or body color or the predominant color. These are both organic and inorganic pigments, of which the organic pigments are usually more vivid. The additional pigment or pigments serve or serve to achieve clearly visible structures in the material, the shape and course of which are given by the inventive method steps.

The three basic ingredients resin, filler and basic pigment are mixed in a first process step to form an intimate dough with a uniform color. The dough should have a consistency suitable for further processing. This further processing leads to the second process step, which is to divide the dough into pieces, for example in the following way:

- Rolling out or calendering the dough into a plate-shaped layer; Cutting the layer into cellular pieces or

- extruding the dough into a serpentine dough roller; Cutting the dough roller into disc-shaped pieces or

- Tearing the dough in a planer or

- Push the dough through a perforated plate and cut the spaghetti (a kind of granulation).

In this way, so-called regular or irregular «cell pieces» are to be created, which, when compressed again, form boundary layers. Semi-precious stones are usually not macrocrystalline bodies, but rather polycrystalline formations, frozen rivers, etc.

So bodies with interfaces, veins and other structure-giving irregularities. These structures can be simulated using the inventive method; The division of the base dough into the above-mentioned cell pieces is a first requirement.

In order to achieve the desired structuring completely, the cell pieces are coated with an additional pigment of the appropriate color. The majority of these pigments are inorganic materials of different granularity, for example graphite, metal powder or metal flakes, etc. The pigment coating can also be carried out in other ways instead of over-scattering. Dry coating: - powder

- granules

- sprinkle

- Dusting, etc. Wet coating: - Spraying

- diving

- networks etc.

Coating agents are pigment, metals, paints, granules etc., all substances that are supposed to act as structuring agents at the border zone between two cell pieces.

In a further process step, the cell pieces are combined again but not mixed. This is to be understood as follows. When the more or less large, colored and still dough-soft cell pieces are kneaded together, these shear forces are exposed, which gradually warp the border zones and produce a flow-like structure. At the cell boundaries there is also the pigment material of the coating, which migrates with the flow structure and as such stands out clearly. If you let the dough harden after such a more or less long kneading, you have a hard mass, similar to the simulated semi-precious stone, which can be brought into the desired shape by sawing, turning, hewing, carving, grinding, drilling, etc.

The mere squeezing of the more or less large pieces of cell without kneading causes other shapes and types of border zones. They are sharper and show less flow-like structures.

A preferred form additionally uses a reinforcing material such as glass or carbon fibers in a proportion of between 1 and 10% by weight, the fiber length being 5 to 15 mm. This reinforcement material is not necessary in every case, but is often preferable, since the ultimate goal is not to produce a semi-precious stone, but a semi-precious stone-like mass. So it is desirable that this mass, when used for example as a coating, has a particular toughness against crumbling or shell break in the area of the edges, which is sometimes the lack of the semi-precious stone. The matting effect of the reinforcement then results in better mechanical properties.

In order to achieve even finer structuring, the division step is used again, i.e. for example, the mass is divided a second time and kneaded together again, using the same additional pigment, another additional pigment or none of them. This process can be repeated a third, fourth time and more. This type of cell division and reassembling method for the formation of structures using the border zones, which are colored as required, is the basic idea of the invention. Subsequent pressing results in a densification of the border zones and a refinement of the structure, which at the same time is given a richer character by pressing. The finer structuring can also be carried out in a single operation by dividing into smaller regular or irregular cell pieces, which in this case are pressed together only once.

The finished, still doughy mass can be set aside for curing or it can be processed into a semi-finished product. For example, it can be calendered and applied to surfaces as a coating, coating, sheathing, etc. It can be pressed into a semi-finished product, for example cutlery handles, lamp bases, etc., which as such then receive a final treatment (a so-called finish).

The following examples are intended to describe the method according to the invention in even more detail:

Example 1 LAPISLAZULI synthetic resin (two-component epoxy) 23-30 parts

Filler (quartz powder) 46 - 60 parts

Pigment (dark blue organic) 21-9 parts

Glass fiber (5 to 13 mm) 10-1 parts

Mix intimately by kneading for 5 to 10 minutes and roll out to a 0.5 to 1.5 cm thick layer. The layer is cut into pieces of 3 to 7 cm edge length; these are the cell pieces. The cell pieces are coated with gold-colored metal powder, for example brass or bronze powder, the metal content being a maximum of 1 part of the whole. The cell pieces are then combined again by squeezing or kneading for 1 to 2 minutes, rolled out and divided a second time as above and finally pressed together again or kneaded for 1 to 2 minutes. The mass is pressed into the desired shape and hardened.

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Another variant is obtained according to the following recipe: synthetic resin (two-component epoxy) 23 parts

Filler (quartz powder) 46 parts

Pigment (dark blue organic) 21 parts

Glass fiber (5 to 13 mm) 10 parts and

Synthetic resin (two-part epoxy) 30 parts

Filler (quartz flour) 60 parts

Pigment (dark blue organic) 9 parts

Glass fiber (5 to 13 mm) 1 part

This results in a lighter and a darker matrix, which are rolled out and divided into cell pieces as described above. The cell pieces of the two shades are mixed and coated with metal pigment, pressed together or kneaded, divided again and pressed together or kneaded. After pressing, there is a very nice, deep blue and yet light, lapis lazuli-like starting material for further use. Before division, the two basic masses can be combined by short mixing to form a new basic mass, which is then further processed as described above.

Example 2

TURQUOISE

Resin (two part epoxy) 33-28 parts

Filler (quartz powder) 64-58 parts

Pigment (green organic) 1-2 parts

Pigment (blue organic) 1 - 2 parts

Glass fiber (5 to 13 mm) 1 - 10 parts

Mix and knead intimately for 5 to 15 minutes until homogeneous. Roll out in a layer of 5 to 15 mm and cut into cell pieces with an edge length of 3 to 7 cm. The cell pieces are coated with graphite powder, with an amount of 2 to 6 parts of the material used. For a coarser turquoise structure, the coated parts can be combined by pressing them together and, if necessary, kneaded for 1 to 3 minutes. The process is repeated up to three times for finer structuring, but without kneading. In the case of turquoise, a subsequent pressing results in an extraordinarily beautiful structuring with fine, delicately shaky, black lines at an angle to one another. With the ratio of green to blue pigment, different turquoise colors can be achieved. The filler quartz powder results in clear, lucid types, the filler marble powder more subdued to slightly dull types.

As I said, the finished mass can harden without being shaped, especially if a subsequent pressing is undesirable; or it can be cured as a semi-finished product. After hardening, the new material can be worked like a semi-precious stone, whereby it should be noted that the hardness is only given by the filler. When hewing, cutting, sawing, etc., the new mass behaves differently from stones, but when grinding and polishing, i.e. with micro-like effects, the new mass behaves almost like a semi-precious stone. Above all, it can be polished satisfactorily.

By using other binders, especially those of an inorganic type, the process described can be used to produce a combustible or sinterable starting mass.

This is done as follows. The inorganic binder should, for example, melt at a certain temperature, but which is below the melting temperature of the filler, with or without the application of pressure. Glassy materials can be used as inorganic binders, which are colored, for example, with inorganic agents. Such colorations are achieved with metals or their oxides dissolved atomically or colloidally in the glass flow, such as deep blue with cobalt, ruby red with gold, gold to brown tones with manganese, green to greenish colors with iron etc. For such binders, the s Melting or optionally sintering temperature can be set by the quartz portion. Mixtures rich in quartz achieve on the one hand high degrees of hardness (between 6 and 7 according to Mohs, in contrast to the previously described organic synthetic resin binders), and on the other hand also higher bonding temperatures for connecting the filler particles. Basically, the same materials are used as filler as in the production of the hard materials already described, which are produced on the basis of synthetic resin binders. Of particular note are quartz powder, marble powder, aluminum oxide (if necessary with the binder aluminum hydroxide) etc. As mentioned, the basic or additional pigments are used. In the sintered materials, for example, the base pigment can already be contained in the binder or can be added to the base dough in the form of metal salts. At the sintering temperatures, the salts penetrate into the melt and leave the desired color after solidification.

Example 3

25 LAPISLAZULI

Binder + pigment (cobalt glass powder) 20-30 parts

Filler (fine alumina) 60-40 parts

Aluminum hydroxide gel (slightly alkaline) 20-30 parts

30 aluminum hydroxide gel:

Aluminum hydroxide NaHO water

40-60 parts 5-1 parts 55-39 parts

The aluminum hydroxide gel is used to make the pul-35-shaped components (filler and colored binder), whereby a «dry» dough is preferred. After a kneading time of between 3 and 6 minutes, the dough is ready to be divided into the cell pieces. The cell pieces are coated with a gold-colored metal powder or, in the case of 40 small batches, with gold powder as an additional pigment and pressed together. To achieve finer structures, the cell division and coating process is repeated again, if necessary several times. The metal content of the additional pigment should not be more than 45 parts of the whole. The mass is then shaped, if necessary pressed to eliminate blowholes, and then fired or sintered in the furnace in accordance with the usual procedure. Fillers with a crystal water deficit, as is the case with gypsum, for example, can be used without using a special binder, as the binder is also contained in the filler. This is the case with all pre-fired or activated fillers, for example with cement or similar substances. Bringed with water in the form of a dough, the mass hardens itself after processing, just like with the hardenable synthetic resin.

In the production of semi-precious stone-like hard materials that are shaped or unshaped and subjected to a firing or sintering process (usually at temperatures of 1000 ° C 60 and above), organic binders or organic pigments or colorants can no longer be used. A large number of 65 known inorganic colorants, such as the metal oxides or mineral pigments that are real or colloidally dissolved in melts, are already known. The inorganic binders used can be those which are generally used as putties, such as sodium metasilicate (water glass) or aluminum hydroxide (the so-called alumina hydrate), etc.

S

Claims (20)

656117 1. Process for the production of a semi-precious stone-like, cut, split, grindable and polishable hard mass, characterized in that a binder is mixed with a filler and a base pigment to give a dough-like consistency, the dough is divided into pieces at least once Pieces are coated at least once with an additional pigment and compressed again. 2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that glass or carbon fibers are added to the components of the dough in the first mixing process. 2nd PATENT CLAIMS 3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that in additional process steps, the dough is divided into pieces a second time, the pieces are coated again with the same or a further additive pigment and compressed again. 4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that the additional method steps are repeated several times. 5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the dough is divided into irregular portions. 6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the dough is divided into regular sections. 7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that a first dough-shaped mass with a first base pigment and a second dough-shaped mass with a second base pigment kneaded together, cut into pieces, coated with additional pigment and compressed again . 8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that a first dough-shaped mass with a first base pigment and at least a second dough-shaped mass with a further base pigment divided into pieces, coated with additional pigment and compressed again. 9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the compression of the coated sections is carried out by kneading. 10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the compression of the coated sections is carried out by pressing. 11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that the mass is exposed to a pressing pressure in a last process step. 12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that the mass is fired in a last process step. 13. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that the mass is sintered in a last process step. 14. Use of the semi-precious stone-like hard mass obtained by the process according to claim 1 as a semi-finished product for the production of commodities. 15. Use according to claim 14 for the production of semi-precious stone replacement. 16. Use according to claim 14 for the production of gem stone. 17. Use according to claim 16, characterized in that the gem contains synthetic resin, mineral filler and at least one mineral or metallic-colored organic or inorganic pigment. 18. Use according to claim 16, characterized in that the gem contains sintered or fired mineral filler and at least one mineral or metallic pigment. 19. Use according to one of claims 16 or 17, characterized in that the gem additionally contains glass or carbon fibers. 20. Use according to one of claims 16 to 19, characterized in that the gem has a structure derived from an additional pigment.