This invention relates generally to light illuminating, light illuminating and sound, sound alone and other current related operating assemblies, attachments and devices for use in the actuation and activation of motors and other mechanical devices, on apparel, craft projects, toys, ceramic projects, customized gifts, point of purchase displays, advertising media and specialty applications, all generally referred to as apparel, objects and things and more particularly to light illuminating, light illuminating and sound, or sound alone assemblies, attachments and devices which include, conductive compositions suitably affixed to the interior or exterior of the apparel, objects and things so as to define either a current flow path or both a current flow path and a design and/or embodied in the design so as to provide the desired current flow path on such apparel, objects and things.
Conductive compositions when used herein are intended to mean electrically conductive liquids, inks, pastes and granules modified so they can be relatively easily painted, deposited, screened, coated or molded integrally with such apparel, objects and things, and dried or cured by various known techniques to become affixed thereto so as to function as part of a given assembly, attachment, kit or device.
Such electrically conductive compositions consist generally of a noble or base metal powder, carbon, graphite or other conductive particles or mixtures of the same, all combined in a suitable vehicle which contains a solvent and has a desired viscosity, and a resin which serves as a rheology control agent and a binder when the paste is cured or dried to maintain the conductive integrity of the conductive composition deposited on the apparel, objects and things. Such electrically conductive compositions may or may not include a colorant which can be a pigment or a dye.
The key difference between the conductive composition used in the attachments, assemblies, kits and devices in accordance with the present invention is that they can provide high conductivity at the voltage required in a variety of configurations as is more fully described below.
This is achieved by providing the conductive compositions with a high metallic composition including, silver and a plastisol based high conductivity compound. Such conductive composition may or may not include a colorant and are manufactured and marketed by Engelhard Corporation of East Newark, N.J. While colored conductive compositions are known where the conductive composition includes a colorant, they are more fully described in the Engelhard Corporation co-pending application U.S. Ser. No. 08/126,342 filed Sep. 24, 1993. This co-pending application is therefor incorporated by reference as part of the prior art background information.
Although conductive compositions have been used in signal circuitry in small mechanical devices which are mechanically connected to each other or in applications where high conductivity was not needed, such conductive compositions did not provide the high conductivity requirements needed in the power circuits for the attachments, assemblies, kits and devices in accordance with the present invention.
As for the known colored coating compositions, these are primarily compositions which are made either of conductive polymers which can be colored or use conductive particles which are colored or maintain the color inherent in the color of the particles in the composition such as the natural color of silver, aluminum, copper, bronze, gold and carbon black.
Thus, the final conductive composition whether colored or not painted, printed, screened, coated onto or molded integrally with the article, object or things will have a relatively high conductivity and low surface resistivity to both transmit the current requirements and the operating signals for each such attachment, assembly, kit or device because the LED or light or sound modules or other current actuated elements being operated require relatively low electrical power or current at the required voltage.
Various electrically conductive compositions, their physical characteristics and the means for achieving the desired conductivity and resistivity conditions are illustrated in the said co-pending application U.S. Ser. No. 08/126,342. While the illustrated embodiments in said application Ser. No. '342 are with respect to colored electrically conductive composition, those skilled in the art will readily recognize that the same physical, conductive and resistive characteristics can be achieved in conductive compositions which are not colored without departing from the scope of the present invention.
Usually such conductive compositions whether colored or not are in an organic system, but aqueous systems are also possible. They can be applied by forming the conductive composition into some form of film, liquid or paste and then printing, depositing, screening, painting, coating or molding the conductive composition onto or integrally with the substrate defining the apparel, objects and things followed with the step of drying and/or curing the conductive composition so applied to affix it in or on such apparel, objects and things.
In the present invention there are many different ways of applying and activating the conductive compositions which may be applied to different materials such as fabric, plastic, wood, paper, cardboard and rubber as may be required for the given application.
These include:
1. painting, depositing, screening or coating the conductive composition directly on the exterior or interior of the particular substrate either independently of or as part of the particular design, PA1 2. painting, depositing, screening or coating the conductive material directly on the exterior and then layering over the conductive material with the design, the underlayer providing the conductive current path, and the covering layer the design of nonconducting material so that the light illuminating and/or sound units can be brought into contact with the underlayer of conductive composition, PA1 3. painting, depositing, screening or coating the conductive material on the inner surface, for example, a panel of fabric or other material, forming the design on the exterior of the fabric or other material so that the light illuminating or sound devices can be connected through the particular material to the associated conductive material, and PA1 4. forming by molding or otherwise the conductive material either as part of plastic material such as in the form of stripes or on the surface of the particular plastic material so the light illuminating or sound devices can be connected thereto to provide the desired circuitry.
Thus the conductive compositions in the present invention have a wide and extensive usage depending on the application because the conductive composition can be applied independently or as part of the design where matching colors that are the same as the associated design are needed and the light illuminating, sound devices or other current operated attachments can be easily connected into assembled and functioning positions.
One type of application for which the present application is particularly suited is to replace the known type of modern light illuminating, light illuminating and sound and/or sound alone assemblies, attachments, kits and devices generally characterized by at least the following elements, first a plurality of light emitting diode (LED) modules and/or sound modules, means for affixing, generally removably affixing, the LED modules and/or sound modules into assembled position, battery pack means to provide electrical power for illuminating said LED modules and/or operating the sound modules, control module means operatively associated with said battery pack means for controlling the operation of the LED and/or the sound modules, and physical, hard wire and the like current conducting connecting lines for independently connecting each or several of said LED and/or sound modules to said battery pack and operatively associated control means.
Such light illuminating, light illuminating and sound and sound alone assemblies, attachments, kits and devices are well known in the commercial marketplace, and there are a multitude of prior art patents which show and describe various such devices for use on apparel, objects and things for a corresponding wide variety of purposes as, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,823,240; 4,709,307; 4,599,682; 4,570,206; 4,839,777; and 5,113,325.
All of these forms of assemblies, attachments, kits and devices required disassembly of some or all of the elements and parts in order, for example, to clean apparel on which they were mounted or to modify the connection in the system. Further, all of these prior art attachments, assemblies, kits and devices are characterized by the use of some form of hard wire conductor, flexible circuit boards, flexible current conducting tapes which served as the current conducting means between the LED modules and/or sound modules and the battery pack and the control means for supplying current and signals.
The present invention improves and advances over all of the commercially known and the prior art patented attachments, assemblies, kits and devices by providing a substantially simple and cheap current conducting means in the form of a conductive composition either colored or not modified to provide the necessary high conductivity and low resistivity characteristics, and means for connecting and delivering current and signals to the LED and/or sound modules from the battery pack and the control means.
Thus the improved attachments, assemblies, kits and devices in accordance with the present invention require means for connecting the LED and/or sound modules to one end of the electrically conductive composition painted, deposited, screened, coated or molded integrally with the substrate defining the apparel, objects and things and provides a removable connection at the opposite end so that the battery pack and the control means operatively associated with the LED and/or sound modules can be easily separated from the assembly.
Optionally the LED and/or sound modules can be removably connected to the substrate defining the apparel, objects and things to further facilitate disassembly of the improved attachment, assemblies, kits and devices in accordance with the present invention.
Using the electrically conductive composition provides an improved attachment, assembly, kit or device and meets and overcomes the problems associated with the disassembly of the light illuminating, light illuminating and sound, and sound alone attachments, assemblies, kits and devices for the purpose of cleaning the associated apparel on which such attachments, assemblies, kits and devices are used. Further, however, it provides greater facility and flexibility in the uses and applications of light illuminating, light illuminating and sound or sound alone attachments, assemblies, kits and devices, for example, to toys, jigsaw puzzles, warning signals, advertisements, operation of motors and other mechanical things, etc., as is more fully described and illustrated herein.
The use of colored conductive coating compositions in such attachments, assemblies, kits and devices has particular significance from a commercial standpoint because it enables the manufacturers of various devices, assemblies, kits, toys, pop-up books and the like to be easily and cheaply designed, manufactured and sold into the commercial marketplace.