Coating composition with thermally-influenced color

US5691053A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Daimler-Benz AG · DE

Inventors

• Michael Gailberger · Neu-Ulm, DE
• Anne Barth · Neu-Ulm, DE
• Hans Ruetger Kricheldorf · Hamburg, DE
• Volkmar Vill · Hamburg, DE
• Mihai Gurau · Hamburg, DE
• Matthias Berghahn · Krefeld, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: May 15, 1995
• Grant date: Nov 25, 1997
• Expiry date: May 15, 2015

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10T428/31786
• WIPO field: Basic materials chemistry
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A coating material and coating process for color coating articles, such as motor vehicle bodies, and coated articles produced therewith. The coating contains a paint vehicle composed of at least one curable liquid-crystal polymer (LCP), the colored appearance of the coating being determined by mesogens of the paint vehicle which exhibit an interference effect, the mesogens automatically aligning themselves substantially perpendicular to the surface of the article during application of the coating material and adopting a chiral-nematic configuration in which they form a helix having a pitch length which can be influenced by heat within a specified temperature range. The liquid-crystal polymers are such that they are not crosslinked by heat and also such that the temperature level at which the pitch length of the helix can be influenced is above the temperature at which the color coated article is used. By heating an applied but uncrosslinked coating to a temperature within the specified range, the color of the coating can be adjusted in situ to obtain a desired interference color effect after the coating has been applied to the article, and the heat-adjusted color effect can thereaf…