Method for producing a hydrophobic or superhydrophobic surface topography

摘要

When producing material plates which may be used in the furniture industry or for interior construction, namely for flooring panels as well as wall and ceiling cladding, the decorative structures are pressed by means of a synchronously running structure on a pressing plate in pressing machines for example. Unfortunately, surfaces of this type have proved difficult to clean. If working with cleaning products containing water, problems occur in particular in floor areas where the laminate boards are joined by their tongue and groove. Specific structures used for furniture or wall and ceiling panels are almost always mechanically cleaned, which damages the surfaces. The cleaning of structured and smooth melamine resin surfaces is a problem that requires improvement. Thus, to make the production of hydrophobic or superhydrophobic surface topographies using pressing tools easier, the underlying objective of this invention is to propose a new method of producing pressing tools, by means of which the surfaces of the flooring, furniture, ceiling, wall and HPL panels, plastic films, separating films, LVTs (luxury vinyl tiles) and PVC surfaces can be provided with a cleaning-friendly surface. An aspect of the invention may therefore be said to broadly relate to a method for producing a hydrophobic or superhydrophobic surface topography on a smooth or structured surface of a pressing tool in the form of a pressing plate (1), endless belt, or embossing roller for producing material plates, plastic films, separating films, PVC surfaces, and LVTs (luxury vinyl tiles), comprising the following steps: preparing a surface template having a microstructure (8), making an impression of the surface by means of a resin, scanning the moulded surface by means of a 3-D microscope, converting the digitalized data from the scanning process with depth measurement into grayscale bitmaps, using the grayscale bitmaps to control the machining process of an abrasive surface treatment or to apply a mask for chemically processing the pressing tool in order to produce the surface topography. For this purpose, either the pressing tool is partially covered with a mask and subjected to an etching operation or the determined grayscale bitmap data are used to control an abrasive machining head.