US1843432A - Method of making masking devices - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 2, 1932. H. N. NICKERSON 1,343,432

METHOD OF MAKING MASKING DEVICES Filed NOV. 27, 1929 I N V EN TOR.

WM 72 721mm A TTORNEY Patented Feb. 2, 1932 UN-iTED stares .eATENT; OFFICE 11 HUGH N. NICKERSON, F CLEVELAND, OHIO METHOD OF MAKING MASKING DEVICES Application filed November 27, 929. SerialNo. 410,115.

bile bodies of that type in which a background color is relieved by an irregularly 2 shaped designin a different color. To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, said invention, then, consists of the means hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims.

The annexed drawings and the following description set forth in detail certain mechanism embodying the invention, such disclosed means constituting, however, but one of various mechanical forms in which the principle of the invention may be used.

In said annexed drawings: Figs. 1 to 4 are elevations of templates used in my invention; andFig. 5 is a perspective view illustrating the result of one step :5 in my method.

In painting automobiles where my masking device is most especially applicable, the usual practice is to apply the trim color to I the body before any other color is applied thereto, though of course the steps of the method may be reversed. In carrying out the usual method, the trim color can be applied rather carelessly inasmuch as a coat of color is later to be applied to the remaining portions of the body, which coat will cover any of the trim color inadvertently applied to other portions of the body. After the trim color has dried, those portions of the body which are intended to retain this color are masked, and the background color is applied tothe whole body either with a brush or by spraying. The various forms of templet masks shown in Figs. 1 to 5, having an adhesive coating and are pressed onto those portions to be protected. The masks prevent any of the background color from falling on the trim, and after the background color has dried, the masks are removed. i

The universal practice in the automotive industry prior to my invention hasrbeen to cover the trim portions of .thebody with a heavy paper'to one face of which an adhesive material has been applied.- This paper is supplied to the paint shops in rolls of strip material of a width exactly to cover the straight stripe portions of the trim.

As obviously, wherever curves have to be masked, the practice has been to tear from the strip material veryfshort pieces and patch them together to get around such curves. Obviously, this make-shift cannot result "in the smooth masking of a curve; and consequently "it has been necessary in the past to i check each body very carefully and to retouch the curves of the trim by hand.

This cumbersome and inefficient means of masking has been universally used throughout the automotive industry until the completion of my'invention. r

' According'to my invention, the paint shop is be supplied not only with strip mate rial as has been done in the past, but with templets particularly designed and performed exactly to cover irregularly shaped portions of the trim for any given paint job. The templet 33 is provided, on its one face, with an adhesive material sothat it may be easily secured to the body; and it will be obvious that, in order to provide for masking the two symmetrical sides of the car, the shop must be supplied not only with templets 33, but

with what may be termed images of the templets 33 to be applied to corresponding parts on the opposite sides of the bodies. Similarly, templets 38, 39 and 40 are supplied for masking the other irregularly shaped portions of the trim, it being understood that the ordinary straight strip material maybe applied to' the re" ularly shaped portions of the trim to mask t 1e same, in the usual manner; and that other templets of different shapes may be provided to mask any desired portions of the trim of any body.

As has been indicated, it is essential that there be supplied for each irregularly shaped 7 portion of the trim a templet to be applied to each side of the body; and, as will be obvious, the templets for application to one side of the body will be reversedimages of the templets to be applied to the opposite side of the body. 'I have devised a satisfactory methodof manufacturing such templets, and a description of such method follows.

The material of which the templets are made is preferably a heavy paper provided on its one face with an adhesive material. sheets 41 and 42 of such paper are secured, through the medium of such-adhesive material on their surfaces 43 and 44 respectively to opposite sides of an intermediate sheet 45 of waxed or oiledpaper or any similar substance to which the adhesive'material will not adhere too firmly. The three sheets are then I simultaneously cut to form a templet of'the desired shape, and,*as will be obvious, when the two sheets 41 and 42 of masking material are removed from the intermediate waxed slieet 45, they will comprise templets having an adhesive surface and of corresponding shape for application to corresponding portions of the trim on opposite sides of the b l Other modes of applying the principle of my invention may be employedinstead of the one explained,'change being made as regards the mechanism herein disclosed, provided the means stated by any of the following claims 'or the equivalent of such stated means be employed. i

I therefore particularly point out and dis tinctl claim as my'invention:

1 iii a method of forming masks having an.- adhesive surface for irregularlyfshaped portions of a symmetrical two-sided article, the steps of securing to opposite faces of an intermediate sheet to act as a temporary binding surface, two sheets of mask-forming material, and simultaneously cutting the three sheets to the form of one of said irregularly shaped portions, whereby a mask is formed for one of such portions on each side of said article.

2. In a method of forming masks having an adhesive surface for irregularly shaped portions of a symmetrical two-sided article,

7 the steps which consist in securing to a sheet tions, and removing from their engagement with said waxed paper'the forms so cut.

Two

3. Inca method of formin masks for an irregularly shaped portion 0 an automobile body, consisting of vari-formed areas which HUGH N. NICKERSON.

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