MULTI-COLOR GEMSTONE COATING TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

The present invention discloses a gemstone comprising a table, a crown and a pavilion. Certain areas of the surfaces of the gemstone are coated with at least one layer of multi-color thin film comprising at least two (2) types of metallic compounds. A layer of DLC protective coating is deposited on top of the multi-color thin film. The said multi-color thin film can be deposited on the table of the gemstone, the table and crown of the gemstone, on certain areas of the pavilion, or on all surfaces of the gemstone. The deposition of the multi-color thin film can be achieved through several low temperature vapor-coating techniques such as sputtering, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and physical vapor deposition (PVD), ARC Source deposition, PLD, and MED.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION

The invention provides multi-color coating for gemstones. Particularly, this invention provides a way to impart multi-color coating to various surfaces of gemstones through multi-color thin films which includes at least two types of metallic compound. Additionally, a layer of DLC protective coating will be place over the multi-color thin film.

BACKGROUND

There are various gemstones in today's jewelry market. Some may be found in nature and some may be artificially made. Naturally occurring gemstones include but are not limited to rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds. Artificially made gemstones include but are not limited to cubic zirconium and moissanite stones. Prior to entering the jewelry market, gemstones are typically cut to a desired shapes and mounted to a variety of types of settings such as ring, necklace or bracelet.

However, gemstones whether naturally occurring or artificially made often do have the desired colors that are popular on today's jewelry market. Additionally, the surface of the gemstones can be easily scratched or worn over time thus reducing the radiance and attractiveness of the precious stones.

As a result, many methods and processes have been developed by the gemstone manufacturing industry to alter and protect the appearance of the gemstones by coating the gemstone with thin film coatings that adds colors to the gemstones through optical absorption or thin films that provides protections to the surface of the gemstones. A number of inventions imparting colors and to provide protective coating to the gemstones haven been patented.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,872,422 discloses a process for imparting colors to colorless gemstone and enhancing color for paler gemstones or colored gemstones. Specifically, the process comprising coating the gemstone with one or more color inducing/enhancing materials in the form of a thin film and subjecting the coated gemstone to heat treatment at a temperature in the range of about 7000 Celsius up to about 12000 Celsius for a time in the range of about 30 minutes to about 10 hours in air or an oxidizing atmosphere to obtain a colored gemstone. However, using the disclosed process, in order to have multiple colors to be imparted on the gemstone, multiple layers of thin films of different colors must be deposited on the gemstone. This process increases time of manufacturing, and the thickness of layers on the gemstones. Additionally, the process has to be done at very high temperature.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,137,275 B2 also discloses coatings that impart desirable color in gemstones. Specifically, the patent discloses a coating that is a discrete coating on the gemstone such that the body of the gemstone is substantially free of diffused material from said coating, said coating being born only on the pavilion of the gemstone, wherein the pavilion of the gemstone defines a culet and said coating has a thickness that is greatest adjacent the culet and becomes generally thinner with increasing distance from the culet, said coating including a high absorption layer of film that is highly absorptive of visible radiation such that the desired uniform body color is imparted in the gemstone, wherein over the high absorption layer of film there is deposited a layer comprising a material selected from the group consisting of titanium and silicon. Again, the disclosed gemstone comprises a single layer thin film comprising only one color, and the thin film is coated on the selected areas on the pavilion of the gemstone.

U.S. Pat. No. 7526928 B1 discloses a gemstone having an appearance characterized by at least two different color zones, where such two zones are of different colors. In other embodiment of the gemstone, two different areas of a single gemstone carry coatings of different composition, and the resulting appearance of the gemstone is characterized by the stone exhibiting substantially a single uniform body color that is different than the body color the stone would exhibit if it were coated only with one or the other of the coatings. Specifically, the patent claims a gemstone having a table and a pavilion, wherein a first coating is on a first area of the pavilion and a second coating is on a second area of the pavilion, wherein the first and second coatings are of different composition, and wherein the table defines an uncoated surface, the pavilion having an overlap area characterized by a mixture of both the first and second coatings, and wherein on opposite sides of the overlap area there are areas respectively carrying substantially only the first coating and substantially only the second coating. The disclosed gemstones must consist two types of layers each comprise a single color. However, the multi-color effect of the coating is produced by having at least two types of thin film layers strategically placed on different locations on the gemstone. Each of such layer comprising only one color.

U.S. Pat. No. 8,056,363 B1 discloses a method for providing a protective coating and enhanced optical qualities to a gemstone. The method includes coating a first portion and a second portion of a gemstone with TiO2 doped. with calcium oxide (TiO2+). The TiO2+ coated gemstone is next coated with a diamond like carbon (DLC) coating. The gemstone may be synthetic or natural. The composite gemstone, having been coated with both TiO2 and DLC, exhibits high refractivity and enhanced wear resistance and color. Although this patent discloses a protective DLC coating and a color coating, its color coating is still a single layer of thin film that comprises only one color.

What is needed is a gemstone with one coat of multi-color thin film that comprises multiple colors. Additionally, the gemstone should comprise at least one DLC layer to protect the gemstone from wear and tear.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an aspect of the present invention is to provide a gemstone comprising: a table, a crown and a pavilion; wherein the table of the gemstone is coated. with at least one layer of multi-color thin film comprising at least two (2) types of metallic materials, and wherein the a layer of DLC protective coating is deposited on top of the multi-color thin film.

It is another aspect of the present invention is to provide a gemstone comprising: a table, a crown and a pavilion; wherein the table and the crown of the gemstone are coated with at least one layer of multi-color thin film comprising at least two (2) types of metallic materials, and wherein the a layer of DLC protective coating is deposited on top of the multi-color thin film.

It is another aspect of the present invention is to provide a gemstone comprising: a table, a crown and a pavilion; wherein all surfaces of the gemstone are coated with at least one layer of multi-color thin film comprising at least two (2) types of metallic materials, and wherein the a layer of DLC protective coating is deposited on top of the multi-color thin film.

The deposition of the multi-color thin film can be achieved through several low temperature vapor-coating techniques such as sputtering, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and physical vapor deposition (PVD), ARC Source deposition, PLD, and MED.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further features and advantages of the present device, as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the present device, will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description or the preferred embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing of which;

FIG. 1 is a diagram of gemstone comprising a table, a crown, and a pavilion.

FIG. 2 is flowchart of the gemstone coating process comprising providing a gemstone, providing a multi-color thin film, coating the table of the gemstone with multi-color thin film, and coating the table of the gemstone with DLC.

FIG. 3 is flowchart of the gemstone coating process comprising providing a gemstone, providing a multi-color thin film, coating the pavilion of the gemstone with multi-color thin film, and coating the table of the gemstone with DLC.

FIG. 4A is a schematic drawing of an embodiment of the invention wherein the gemstone is coated with a single layer of multi-color thin film.

FIG. 4B is a schematic drawing of an embodiment of the invention wherein the gemstone is coated with a single layer of multi-color thin film and a single layer of DLC.

FIG. 5 is a schematic drawing of another embodiment of the invention wherein the table, crown, and the pavilion of the gemstone are coated with a single layer of multi-color thin film.

FIG. 6 is a schematic drawing of another embodiment of the invention wherein the table, crown, and the pavilion of the gemstone are coated with multi-color thin film, and the table of the gemstone is coated with a layer of DLC.

FIG. 7 is a schematic drawing of another embodiment of the invention wherein the table, crown, and the pavilion of the gemstone are coated with a single layer of multi-color thin film, and a layer of DLC.

DETAIL DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

This description of the exemplary embodiments is intended to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings, which are to be considered part of the entire written description, In the description, relative terms such as “lower,” “upper,” “horizontal,” “vertical,”, “above,” “below,” “up,” “down,” “top” and “bottom” as well as derivative thereof (e.g., “horizontally,” “downwardly,” “upwardly,” etc.) should be construed to refer to the orientation as then described or as shown in the drawing under discussion. These relative terms are for convenience of description and do not require that the apparatus be constructed or operated in a particular orientation. Terms concerning attachments, coupling and the like, such as “connected” and “interconnected,” refer to a relationship wherein structures are secured or attached to one another either directly or indirectly through intervening structures, as well as both movable or rigid attachments or relationships, unless expressly described otherwise.

Reference will now be made in detail to the presently preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout.

Gemstone coating can be achieved by various methods. Many of these methods employ low temperatures so as not to affect the gemstone other than to coat its surface. For the present invention, the low temperature is preferably less than about 200 degrees Celsius. There are several low temperature vapor-coating techniques such as sputtering, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) a physical vapor deposition (PVD), ARC Source deposition, PLD, and MED.

Sputtering is a process whereby atoms are ejected from a solid target material due to bombardment of the target by energetic particles. It is widely used by the gemstone manufacturing industry for thin-film deposition.

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a chemical process used to produce high-purity, high-performance solid materials. In a typical CVD process, the wafer (substrate) is exposed to one or more volatile precursors, which react and/or decompose on the substrate surface to produce the desired deposit.

Physical vapor deposition (PVD) is a general term used to describe a variety of methods to deposit thin films by the condensation of a vaporized form of the desired film material onto various workpiece surfaces. The coating method involves purely physical processes such as high temperature vacuum evaporation with subsequent condensation, or plasma sputter bombardment rather than involving a chemical reaction at the surface to be coated as in chemical vapor deposition.

Arc Source deposition is the use of direct current to ionize coating materials for coating a substrate. The arc may be directly applied by making the substrate a workpiece anode. Alternatively, a plasma jet of excited gases may be applied to the surface of the substrate or gemstone to coat it. In evaporation, two or more sources of particles are aimed at a heated substrate.

Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is one unique type of PVD technique where a high power pulsed laser beam is focused inside a vacuum chamber to strike a target of the material that is to be deposited. This material is vaporized from the target (in a plasma plume) which deposits it as a thin film on a substrate (such as a silicon wafer facing the target). This process can occur in ultra high vacuum or in the presence of a background gas, such as oxygen which is commonly used when depositing oxides to fully oxygenate the deposited films.

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) exists in seven different forms of amorphous carbon materials that display some of the typical properties of diamond. They are usually applied as coatings to other materials that could benefit from some of those properties.

The present invention utilize those coating technologies and deposit thin films coating containing at least two types of metallic compound over the gemstone thus giving the gemstone a multi-color appearance. The resulting gemstone, when viewed from different angle, will appear differently in colors and hues. Such gemstone will have more aesthetic and attractive appearance.

Additionally, the present invention also discloses a gemstone with a DLC coating to protect the multi-color coating to preserve the attractiveness of the gemstone for a longer period of time.

Further features and advantages of the present device, as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the present device, will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description or the preferred embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing of which;

FIG. 1 is a diagram of gemstone 100 comprising a table 101, a crown 102, and. a pavilion 103. The table 101 of the gemstone 100 is typically flat. The pavilion 103 of the gemstone 100 very often comes in contact with the setting (not shown in drawing) of the jewelry in which the gemstone 100 is embedded in. Because the table 101 of the gemstone is typically exposed from the setting, it will be the most visible part of the gemstone 100. However, due to the exposure, the table 101 of the gemstone is also the most susceptible to wear and tear of daily uses.

FIG. 2 is flowchart of the gemstone coating process comprising providing a gemstone, providing a multi-color thin film, coating the table of the gemstone with multi-color thin film, and coating the table of the gemstone with DLC. The table of the gemstone is typically exposed to view from the jewelry setting. Therefore, by coating the table of the gemstone with multi-color thin film, the gemstone will obtain a more attractive appearance. The DLC coating on top of the multi-color thin film coating with help preserve the attractiveness of the gemstone by shielding the multi-color layer from wear and tear. Multi-color thin film can comprise at least two (2) types of metallic compounds. Those metallic compounds can comprise Ni, Ti, Zn, Cr, Mg, Nb, Sn, Al, In, Fe, ZrAl, Zr, AlSi, Si, Cu, Ta, Ge, Ag, Co, Au, Gd, La, Y, Ce, Stainless steel, NiCr, Hf, Mo, FeNi, W.

FIG. 3 is flowchart of the gemstone coating process comprising providing a gemstone, providing a multi-color thin film, coating the pavilion of the gemstone with multi-color thin film, and coating the table of the gemstone with DLC. Although, the pavilion of the gemstone is often embedded in the setting of the jewelry, coating the pavilion of the gemstone is another way of adding and enhancing colors to the gemstone.

FIG. 4A is a schematic drawing of an embodiment of the invention wherein the gemstone 100 is coated with a single multi-color thin film 101. The multi-color thin film 201 is deposited directly on top of the table 101. The gemstone, when view from different angles, will appear in different colors. This unique appearance will enhance the attractiveness of the stone.

FIG. 4B is a schematic drawing of an embodiment of the invention wherein the gemstone 100 is coated with a single multi-color thin film 201 and a single layer of DLC 202. The multi-color thin film 201 is deposited directly on top of the table 101. The layer of DLC 202 is deposited directly on top of the multi-color thin film 201. Having a layer of DLC 202 will protect the table 101 of the gemstone 100 from wear and tear thus preserving the multi-color thin film 201 for a longer period of time.

FIG. 5 is a schematic drawing of another embodiment of the invention wherein the table 101, crown 102, and the pavilion 103 of the gemstone 100 are coated with one layer of multi-color thin film 401. The coating can be deposited on certain areas of the table 101, crown 102, and pavilion 103 strategically according to the refractive angles of the gemstone but does not cover the entire gemstone.

FIG. 6 is a schematic drawing of another embodiment of the invention wherein the table 101, crown 102, and the pavilion 103 of the gemstone are coated with multi-color thin film 501, and the table 101 and crown 102 of the gemstone are coated with a layer of DLC 502. The layer of DLC 502 on the table 101 and crown 102 will help preserve the gemstone 100 for a longer period of time by protecting.

FIG. 7 is a schematic drawing of another embodiment of the invention wherein the table 101, crown 102, and the pavilion 103 of the gemstone 100 are coated with multi-color thin film 601, and a layer of DLC 602. The multi-color thin film 601 is first deposited on all surfaces of the gemstone. A layer of DLC 602 is then deposited on he top of the multi-color thin film 601 on all surfaces of the gemstone to provide protection to the gemstone 100.

Claims

1. A gemstone comprising:

a table,

a crown and

a pavilion;

wherein at least one layer of multi-color thin film comprising at least two (2) types of metallic compounds is deposited on the table of the gemstone.

2. The gemstone as recited in claim 1, wherein said multi-color thin film is deposited through Sputtering.

3. The gemstone as recited in claim 1, wherein said multi-color thin film is deposited through chemical vapor deposition.

4. The gemstone as recited in claim 1, wherein said multi-color thin film is deposited through ARC source deposition

5. The gemstone as recited in claim 1, wherein said multi-color thin film is deposited through pulsed laser deposition.

6. The gemstone as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one layer of DLC is deposited on top of the multi-color thin film.

7. A gemstone comprising:

a table,

a crown and

a pavilion;

wherein at least one layer of multi-color thin film comprising at least two (2) types of metallic compounds is deposited on the table and crown of the gemstone.

8. The gemstone as recited in claim 7, wherein said multi-color thin film is deposited through Sputtering.

9. The gemstone as recited in claim 7, wherein said multi-color thin film is deposited through chemical vapor deposition.

10. The gemstone as recited in claim 7, wherein said multi-color thin film is deposited through ARC source deposition

11. The gemstone as recited in claim 7, wherein said multi-color thin film is deposited through pulsed laser deposition.

12. The gemstone as recited in claim 7, wherein at least one layer of DLC is deposited on top of the multi-color thin film.

13. A gemstone comprising:

a table,

a crown and

a pavilion;

wherein at leas one layer of multi-color thin film comprising at least two (2) types of metallic compounds is deposited on the pavilion of the gemstone.

14. The gemstone as recited in claim 13, wherein said multi-color thin film is deposited through Sputtering.

15. The gemstone as recited in claim 13, wherein said multi-color thin film is deposited through chemical vapor deposition.

16. The gemstone as recited in claim 13, wherein said multi-color thin film is deposited through ARC source deposition

17. The gemstone as recited in claim 13, wherein said multi-color thin film is deposited through pulsed laser deposition.

18. The gemstone as recited in claim 13, wherein said multi-color thin film is deposited only on certain areas of the pavilions.

19. The gemstone as recited in claim 13, wherein at least one layer of DLC is deposited on top of the multi-color thin film.