The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 05, 1997
Filed:
Dec. 02, 1994
Flex Products, Inc., Santa Rosa, CA (US);
Abstract
An article with a surface with a paint film adherent thereto having a liquid medium hardened into a solid to form said paint film and having first and second parallel surfaces with the first parallel surface being adhered to the surface of the article and the second surface exposed to be viewed by the human eye. A plurality of flakes are provided having first and second planar parallel surfaces lying in said paint film with the first and second planar parallel surfaces being parallel to the first and second parallel surfaces of the paint film. The flakes are characterized in that they have physical dimensions such that when the dimensions of the flakes are measured parallel to and perpendicular to the respective first and second planar parallel surfaces, an aspect ratio of at least two-to-one is provided. Each of the flakes has a symmetrical optically variable multilayer thin film interference structure including at least one thick substantially opaque metal reflecting layer having first and second surfaces and a multilayer thin film including at least one thin semi-transparent metal layer and at least one dielectric layer formed of an inorganic material with an index of refraction of 1.65 or less and disposed on each side of the substantially opaque metal reflecting layer. The multilayer thin film structure produces a shift in color between two distinct colors when the angle of incident light on the paint film is shifted between two different angles.