Process coating a substrate with an opaque coating and resultant article

Claim 1

PROCESS OF COATING A SUBSTRATE WITH AN OPAQUE, WATERINSOLUBLE, RELATIVELY PRESSURE-INSENSITIVE, SUBSTANTIALLY CONTINUOUS FILM TO FORM THEREON A BRIGHT SURFACE SUITABLE FOR RECEIVING PRINTING, COMPRISING THE STEPS OF (A) FORMING AN OIL-IN-WATER EMULSION, SAID EMULSION CONSISTING ESSENTIALLY OF AN AQUEOUS DISPERSION OF A FILM-FORMING BINDER MATERIAL SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF CASEIN, ALPHA PROTEIN, WATER-DISPERSIBLE ELASTOMERS AND MIXTURES THEREOF AS THE CONTINUOUS PHASE, AND A WATER-IMMISCIBLE VOLATILE LIQUID HAVING A BOILING POINT ABOVE THAT OF WATER AND BEING A NONSOLVENT FOR SAID FILM-FORMING BINDER MATERIAL AS THE DISCONTINUOUS PHASE, THE WEIGHT RATIO OF SAID FILMFORMING BINDER MATERIAL TO SAID WATER-IMMISCIBLE LIQUID RANGING BETWEEN 1:1 AND 1:15; (B) APPLYING A FILM OF SAID EMULSION TO THE SURFACE OF SAID SUBSTRATE; (C) STABILIZING THE STRUCTURE OF THE APPLIED EMULSION FILM BY EVAPORATING FIRST A PORTION OF THE WATER OF SAID FORMING BINDER MATERIAL HAVING DISTRIBUTED THROUGHOUTMINUTE GLOBULES OF SAID WATER-IMMISCIBLE LIQUID THE DIMENSIONS OF WHICH REMAINS SUBSTANTIALLY EQUIVALENT TO THOSE OF THE DISCONTINUOUS PHASE IN SAID APPLIED EMULSION FILM; AND (D) THEN EVAPORATING ANY REMAINING WATER FROM SAID MATRIX AND EVAPORATING SAID WATEER-IMMISCIBLE LIQUID FROM SAID GLOBULES TO PROVIDE MULTITUDINOUS AIRBINDER INTERFACES, THE SIZES OF WHICH CORRESPOND SUBSTANTIALLY DIRECTLY TO THE SIZE OF SAID GLOBULES AND RANGE IN MAXIMUM DIMENSION FROM ABOUT ONE-TENTH TO ONE MICRON WITH NO APPRECIABLE NUMBER EXCEEDING 5 MICRONS, SAID INTERFACES BEING DISTRIBUTED THROUGHOUT THE VOLUME OF THE FILM THUS FORMED WHEREBY THE FILM IS AN OPAQUE, BRIGHT, CAVERNULOUS, SUBSTANTIALLY CONTINUOUS COATING ADHERING TO SAID SUBSTRATE SURFACE.