COLOURED PASTE AND ADHESIVE

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present invention relates to pastes and adhes ϊves used to attach wallpaper to walls.

BACKGROUNTD

Many measures can be taken to add visual appeal to a room. Elderly carpets can be stripped off floors so that floorboards can be painted or varnished, or a new carpet can be put down over a floor. New lighting fixtures can be installed in a room, chair rails and molding can be placed over the w'alls of a room, and the room's walls can be painted or covered with wallpaper.

However, applying wallpaper to walls effectively typically requires considerable skill. For example, wallpaper must be cut carefully to make its borders even and to make the patterns of different sections of the wallpaper match correctly. Trαe paste or adhesive that is used to attach the wallpaper to the walls must also be applied carefully.

Adhesive compositions for wallpaper are often marketed in dry form, as fiaJces or granulates, and are made into a liquid paste just before use by adding water. The paste must have sufficient adhesive strength for a sheet of wallpaper to adhere to a substrate surface, such as a wall, when said sheet is applied thereto. Other adhesive compositions for wallpaper comprise prepared pastes and liquids. Some wallpaper also has a prepasted surface over which water must be applied for adhesion..

Whatever the form of the adhesive compound for wallpaper, the paste or adhesive must be spread evenly over the rear side of the λvallpaper so that the wallpaper will adhere properly to the wall. If the paste or adhesive is spread too thinly over all or part of the wallpaper, or is missing from certain portions, the wallpaper may not be

1723.040070

aesthetically pleasing after it is attached to the wall. For example, such wallpaper may have bowed portions or portions that are not attached to the wall at all and that may fold out from the wall . When the paste or adhesive has not been applied correctly, the installer who put up the wallpaper or other parties may subsequently have to expend more time and effort repairing, reattaching, or replacing the wallpaper, which can be laborious and expensive.

However, the person who installs wallpaper often has difficulty determining whether he or she has completely and evenly spread the paste or adhesive over the entire rear side of the wallpaper. Often this is because the paste or adhesive is too transparent for the installer to be able to see whether the entire rear side of the wall paper has been covered evenly with the paste or adhesive.

Similar problems exist with applying paste or adhesive effectively to a wide range of other materials, for example posters, flyers, billboards, notices, and labels.

Therefore, a need exists for a paste or adhesive that contrasts sufficiently with the colour of the wallpaper and other materials to be seen distinctly, allowing the installer of the wallpaper or other material to determine whether the entire rear side has been covered evenly with the paste or adhesive.

SUIVIMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

The following explanation describes the present invention by way of example an<d not by way of limitation.

It is an aspect of the present invention to provide a paste or adhesive that contrasts sufficiently in colour with, the colour of wallpaper or other material to be seen distinctly, allowing the installer of the wallpaper or other material to determine whether the wallpaper or other material has been covered sufficiently with the paste or adhesive.

1723.040070

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a paste or adhesive in multiple colours designed to be seen distinctly against wallpaper or other materials in multiple specific colours.

These and other aspects of the present invention wiLl become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and associated drawings. In accordance with the present invention, a paste or adhesive used to attach wallpaper or other material to a substrate is provided with at least one colouring agent to make the paste or adhesive visible against the colour of the wallpaper or other material. For example, the colouring agent may comprise at least one pigment, ink, dye, or tinted material- In an embodiment, a water soluble dye may be applied to the paste or adhesive in a small enough quantity so that the dye does not significantly impede the adhesive quality of the paste or adhesive. In another embodiment, colouring agents of different colours may be designed for use with material in specific colours, so that the colouring agents contrast to a high degree with the colour of the material. For example, a yellow colouring agent may be added to a paste or adhesive for use with wallpaper the back of which is dark blue.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following embodiments of the present invention are described by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 illustrates a view of a roll of wallpaper on wliich transparent paste or adhesive has been applied ;

Fig. 2 illustrates a view of a roll of wallpaper on which coloured paste or adhesive has been applied; and

Fig. 3 illustrates a view of a section of wallpaper that has been fully covered by a coloured paste or adhesive.

1723.040070

DEXAILED DESCRIPTION QF THE DRAWINGS

The following description of drawings is offered to illustrate the present invention clearly. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the concepts of the present invention are not limited to these specific details. Also, commonly known elements are shown in diagrams for clarity, as examples only and not as limitations of the present invention.

In an embodiment, the present invention provides coloured paste or adhesive to adhere wallpaper or other material to a substrate, so that the paste or adhesive can be seen by the installer against the surface of tine wallpaper or other material. At least one colouring agent is added to the paste or adhesive to supply the colour, and that colouring agent may comprise any material useful for supplying colour while not significantly reducing the adhesive qualities of the paste or adhesive. For example, the colouring agent may comprise at least one pigment, ink, dye, or tinted material. Synthetic iron oxides, for example, may provide red, yellow, brown and black colouring agents. In an embodiment, a water-soluble dye may be appl led to a water-based paste or adhesive in a small enough quantity so that the dye doe s not significantly impede the adhesive quality of the paste or adhesive. The paste or adhesive may comprise any natural or synthetic adhesive compound known to those skilled in tlxe art.

Fig. 1 illustrates a. view of a roll of wallpaper on which transparent paste or adhesive has been applied. The transparent paste or adhesive typically comes in a container such as a can 6 and is applied with a. roller 8, or a brush, to a section of wallpaper 4, which is cut from a roll and can then be attached to a wall. As is well known to those skilled in the art, the paste or adhesive may come as a power that must be mixed with a liquid such as water, or as an already prepared paste, or as a liquid.

The applied transparent paste or adhesive 2 is often difficult to see against the section of wallpaper 4 to which it is applied, so that the installer of the wallpaper may fail to properly apply the transparent paste or adhesive properly to the entire surface of the section of wallpaper 4 being installed. As explained above, portions

1723.040070

of the wallpaper that have not been covered properly with the paste or adhesive typically do not attach correctly to the wall, which may cause those portions to be unpleasing aesthetically. For example, such portions may bow out or bend up from the wall or have other problems, which the installer or other may have to correct subsequently by repairing or replacing the wallpaper.

Fig. 2 illustrates a view of a roll of wallpaper on which coloured paste or adhesive has been applied. The applied coloured paste or adhesive IO contrasts visibly with the section of wallpaper 4, making the coloured paste or adhesive 10 easy to see. The installer can thus quickly tell whether he or she has properly covered the entire surface of the section of wallpaper 4 with the coloured paste or adhesive 10. For example, in the representation shown in Fig. 2, the installer could quickly recognize that only the area shown for the applied paste or adhesive 10 has been covered and could then apply more of the coloured paste or adhesive to cover the entire surface of the section of wallpaper 4.

Fig. 3 illustrates a view of a section of wallpaper that has been fully covered by a coloured paste or adhesive. The installer of the wallpaper could tell at a glance that the entire section of wallpaper 4 has been covered properly -with the coloured paste or adhesive 10. When the installer attaches that section of wallpaper 4 to a wall, he or she can be much more certain that the wallpaper will adhere to the wall correctly than would have been possible with transparent paste or adhesive.

Note that in accordance with the present invention pastes or adhesives may be provided in multiple colours designed to be seen distinctly against wallpaper or other materials in multiple specific colours. For example, a yellow colouring agent may be added to a paste or adhesive for use with a specific design of wallpaper, the back of which is dark blue. In the same way, a white paste or adhesive may be designed for a material with a black surface.

Similarly, coloured paste or adhesive may be applied effectively to a wide range of other materials than walls, for example posters, flyers, billboards, notices, and labels, so that the installer of such materials can tell more easily whether the coloured paste or adhesive has been applied correctly to those materials.

1723.040070

Also note that some wallpaper and other material may be obtained that is prepasted and requires an application of water before mounting on a substrate. Ia such cases, a colouring agent may be added directly to the water to make visible the portions of the prepasted material that have been properly covered with water.

1723.040070