Printed Elastic Laminate Image Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for manufacturing elastic laminates fail to preserve the printed image quality during mechanical activation, as the image on the textile surface layer is distorted or destroyed due to fiber tearing and shifting, and alignment issues arise between the printed image and elastic strips, especially when the laminate is stretched.
Innovation Solution
The elastic film is printed with a motif before cutting into strips, ensuring correct alignment and even stretching of the image, using methods like flexography or ink-jet printing, and preactivated by transverse stretching to improve the laminate's expansion properties and maintain image quality during subsequent activation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the textile surface layer is printed before making the laminate, then the printed image is initially formed, but the image is destroyed or distorted during mechanical activation due to fiber tearing and shifting
Solution Approach 1:
The elastic film is printed with the motif before being cut into strips and laminated between textile surface layers. This preliminary printing action ensures the image is applied to the elastic film itself rather than the textile layer, preventing subsequent distortion during mechanical activation of the laminate
Solution Approach 2:
The printed motif on the elastic film serves as a visible template that guides the positioning and alignment of elastic strips during the laminating process. The image acts as a visual copy or reference that ensures correct placement of functional elements while maintaining aesthetic appearance
2Illumination intensity
If the printed image is on the textile surface layer, then the image is visible, but alignment errors occur between the printed image and elastic strips due to different web tensions during cutting and laminating
Solution Approach 1:
The printing process is moved from the textile surface layer to the elastic film dimension. By printing on the elastic film before lamination, the image exists in a different dimensional context that allows it to serve as both a visible aesthetic element and a functional alignment reference for the elastic strips
Solution Approach 2:
The printed motif uses visible colors that remain perceptible through the textile surface layer after lamination. The colored stripes or patterns on the elastic film create visual contrast that allows operators to see and adjust alignment during the laminating process, ensuring precise positioning of elastic strips
3Adaptability or versatility
If the laminate is stretched transversely during mechanical activation, then the elastic properties are improved, but the printed image on the textile surface layer becomes distorted
Solution Approach 1:
The elastic film is stretched transversely and printed after elastic retraction, before the laminate is assembled and undergoes final mechanical activation. This preliminary stretching and printing sequence ensures the image is applied to the film in a relaxed state, so that subsequent stretching during use causes uniform, reversible expansion of both the film and the printed image together, preventing distortion
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The printed image remains intact and evenly stretched with the laminate, ensuring optical attractiveness from both sides and improved elastic properties, with enhanced expansion behavior and reversible return after tension removal.
Implementation Method 1
The elastic film is stretched transversely of the web by more than 50% and has a width after reverse expansion that is larger by 10% to 30% than a starting width of the elastic film before it was stretched
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a method of making a printed, elastic laminate. According to the method an elastic film (1) is cut into strips (2) that are laminated next to each other between two surface layers (5, 6), and the thus constituted laminate (7) is stretched in the regions (8) rendered are transversely elastic relative to the web by the laminated strips (2). According to the invention, a motif is printed on the elastic film (1) that is visible through the textile surface layer (5, 6) of the laminate (7) before the strips (2) are cut from the film (1).