Method for manufacturing artificial nail
Disclosed is a method for manufacturing an artificial nail. In the method for manufacturing an artificial nail according to the present invention, a flat sheet is molded to have a plurality of artificial nails by means of vacuum molding and is then cut into individual artificial nails by means of press cutting. According to the present invention, a plurality of artificial nails can be manufactured through a single molding operation so that artificial nails can be mass-produced. Further, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing an artificial nail, wherein patterns can be variously and delicately printed on the artificial nails and the artificial nails can be made of a variety of materials including PET resin as well as ABS resin.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an artificial nail, and more particularly, to a method for manufacturing an artificial nail by means of vacuum molding.
2. Description of the Background Art
Most women apply make-up for beauty and also manicure their nails. However, the operation of manicuring one's nail is very cumbersome and there is inconvenience in that it takes a great deal of time until the manicure is hardened. To solve such cumbersomeness and inconvenience, there has been developed an artificial nail. An artificial nail is fixedly bonded to the surface of a nail using double-sided tape, instant adhesive, or the like. Such an artificial nail has a variety of patterns and colors and can be replaced with another artificial nail at any time according to the user's taste, thereby reducing time required for a nail beauty operation.
Generally, such an artificial nail is manufactured by means of injection molding. Although an artificial nail can be manufactured from a variety of resin materials, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resin is used as the material of the artificial nail if the artificial nail is manufactured by means of injection molding. ABS resin has been widely used as molded products made of ABS resin can be easily separated from an injection-molded stem after they have been injection-molded and there is no burr that produces a rough edge generated through cutting.
The artificial nail manufactured by means of the conventional method is attached to a user's nail using an instant adhesive or double-sided tape. If the artificial nail is attached using an instant adhesive, the artificial nail made of ABS resin is attached to the surface of the user's natural nail while the entire attachment surface of the artificial nail is fully dissolved by the instant adhesive. If the user's natural nail is grown after a lapse of a predetermined period of time, for example, about one week, the artificial nail should be removed. Upon removal of the artificial nail, the user's natural nail with the artificial nail attached thereto is dipped into chemicals such as acetone for a certain period of time and the artificial nail is then removed. Since the artificial nail made of ABS resin is securely attached to the entire surface of the user's natural nail as described above, it generally takes about 10 minutes or more to remove the artificial nail made of ABS resin.
Since the artificial nail is manufactured through injection molding in the conventional method for manufacturing the artificial nail, a limitation exists on the number of cavities in the injection molds, and thus, there is a problem in that the yield of artificial nails which can be produced at one time is lowered. When the surface of an artificial nail is decorated after the artificial nail has been molded, a printing method applicable thereto is limited to the spray printing or the curved surface printing. Therefore, there is a disadvantage in that delicate patterns cannot be printed. Further, since the artificial nail is manufactured by means of injection molding, there is a problem in that the artificial nail cannot be manufactured from materials other than ABS resin.
Meanwhile, since the artificial nail made of ABS resin is attached to the entire surface of a user's natural nail while the attachment surface of the artificial nail is fully dissolved by the instant adhesive, the artificial nail is removed in such a manner that the user's natural nail with the artificial nail attached thereto should be dipped into chemicals such as acetone for a long time and the surface of the natural nail should be scraped with a manicure stick to completely remove foreign substances. Thus, there is a disadvantage in that it takes a great deal of time to remove the artificial nail. Moreover, since the user's finger should be dipped into acetone for a long time, there is a disadvantage in that the user's skin may become damaged.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONAccordingly, the present invention is conceived to solve the aforementioned problems in the prior art. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing an artificial nail, wherein the artificial nail can be rapidly mass-produced without increase in production costs.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing an artificial nail, wherein the surface of the artificial nail can be decorated variously and delicately.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing an artificial nail from a variety of materials in addition to ABS resin.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing an artificial nail that is not harmful to the user's skin and can be quickly and conveniently removed upon removal of the artificial nail from a user's natural nail.
According to the present invention for achieving these objects, there is provided a method for manufacturing an artificial nail, comprising a forming step of forming a flat sheet; a printing step of printing patterns on the flat sheet; a heating step of heating the flat sheet with the patterns printed thereon; a sucking step of sucking the heated flat sheet so that the flat sheet is brought into contact with a vacuum mold having features of a plurality of artificial nails; a cooling step of cooling the sucked flat sheet; and a cutting step of cutting the cooled flat sheet into individual artificial nails.
In the method for manufacturing the artificial nail, the cutting step is preferably performed by means of press cutting. The flat sheet is preferably formed of PET resin.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of a method for manufacturing an artificial nail according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The flat sheet in the present invention can be molded out of the same ABS resin as has been used in the prior art. According to the present invention, the flat sheet can also be extruded using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin that has not been used as a material of the artificial nail in a conventional method since it is difficult to separate a molded body made of PET resin from an injection-molded stem as described above.
In the heating step (S30), the flat sheet 10 has fluidity due to heating. The flat sheet 10 with the patterns 11 printed thereon is placed on a vacuum mold (20 in
The sucked flat sheet 10 is then cooled in the cooling step (S50). In the cooling step (S50), the flat sheet 10 is cooled by circulating cooling water through general cooling water passages formed in the vacuum mold 20 in the state where the heated flat sheet 10 is sucked and brought into contact with the upper surface of the vacuum mold 20.
Next, the operation of the artificial nail manufactured by the method for manufacturing the artificial nail according to the present invention will be described.
As described above, the method for manufacturing the artificial nail according to the present invention has an advantage in that the artificial nail can be rapidly mass-produced without an increase in production costs.
Further, since patterns are printed on the flat sheet prior to the suction step, there is an advantage in that various and delicate patterns or designs can be printed on the surface of the artificial nail, thereby manufacturing a beautiful artificial nail.
In particular, the artificial nail can be manufactured from a variety of materials including PET resin. Since the artificial nail can be removed without dipping a user's hand into chemicals such as acetone for a long time, there is no damage to the user's skin. Moreover, there is an advantage in that the artificial nail can be conveniently and rapidly removed in a short period of time
The aforementioned embodiment of the present invention is only an example of the method for manufacturing the artificial nail according to the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the embodiment. Those skilled in the art can make various changes, modifications and substitutions within the technical spirit and scope of the present invention defined by the appended claims. Such embodiments and changes should be construed as falling within the scope of the present invention.
Claims
1. A method for manufacturing an artificial nail, comprising:
- a forming step of forming a flat sheet;
- a printing step of printing patterns on the flat sheet;
- a heating step of heating the flat sheet with the patterns printed thereon;
- a sucking step of sucking the heated flat sheet so that the flat sheet is brought into contact with a vacuum mold having features of a plurality of artificial nails;
- a cooling step of cooling the sucked flat sheet; and
- a cutting step of cutting the cooled flat sheet into individual artificial nails.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the cutting step is performed by means of press cutting.
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the flat sheet is formed of PET resin.
Type: Application
Filed: Apr 5, 2005
Publication Date: Oct 6, 2005
Applicants: BIG PLUS CRE INC. JUN-HEE LEE (Seoul), Lee, Jun-Hee (Seoul)
Inventor: Jun-Hee Lee (Seoul)
Application Number: 11/098,375