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:
Oct. 21, 1997
Filed:
Oct. 11, 1996
Rudolph Hugo Petrmichl, Center Valley, PA (US);
Bradley J Knapp, Kutztown, PA (US);
Fred M Kimock, Macungie, PA (US);
Brian Kenneth Daniels, Emmaus, PA (US);
Monsanto Company, St. Louis, MO (US);
Abstract
An abrasion wear resistant coated substrate product is described comprising a substrate and an abrasion wear resistant coating material comprising carbon, hydrogen, silicon, and oxygen. The abrasion wear resistant coating material has the properties of Nanoindentation hardness in the range of about 2 to about 5 GPa and a strain to microcracking greater than about 1% and a transparency greater than 85% in the visible spectrum. The coated products of the present invention are suitable for use in optical applications such as ophthalmic lenses or laser bar code scanner windows. In the method for making the products, the substrate is first chemically cleaned to remove contaminants. In the second step, the substrate is inserted into a vacuum chamber, and the air in said chamber is evacuated. In the third step, the substrate surface is bombarded with energetic ions and/or reactive species to assist in the removal of residual hydrocarbons and surface oxides, and to activate the surface. After the substrate surface has been etched, a protective, abrasion-resistant coating is deposited by plasma or ion beam deposition. Once the chosen thickness of the coating has been achieved, the deposition process on the substrates is terminated, the vacuum chamber pressure is increased to atmospheric pressure, and the coated substrate products having improved abrasion-resistance are removed from the vacuum chamber.