Patent ID: 7504054

Claim:
A method of treating a plastic article comprising: (a) providing a plastic article comprising at least one polymer selected from thermoplastic polymer and thermoset polymer; (b) contacting at least a portion of the surface of said plastic article with a treatment composition consisting of, (i) at least one additive selected from UV stabilizers. optical brighteners, mold release agents, antistatic agents, thermal stabilizers and antimicrobial agents, (ii) water, (iii) at least one carrier represented by the following general formula I, wherein R 1 is a radical selected from the group consisting of linear or branched C 1 -C 18 alkyl, benzyl, benzoyl and phenyl, R 2 is a radical selected from the group consisting of linear or branched C 1 -C 18 alkyl, benzyl, benzoyl, phenyl and H, n is 2, 3 or 4, and m is 1 to 35, and (iv) a diol selected from at least one of linear or branched C 2 -C 20 aliphatic diols, poly(C 2 -C 4 alkylene glycol), cycloaliphatic diols having from 5 to 8 carbon atoms in the cyclic ring, monocyclic aromatic diols, bisphenols and hydrogenated bisphenols; (c) maintaining said portion of said plastic article in contact with said treatment composition for a period of time at least sufficient to form a treated plastic article; (d) removing said treated plastic article from contact with said treatment composition said water present in the treatment composition in an amount of 50 to 85 percent, said carrier present in the treatment composition in an amount of 10 to 30 percent and said diol present in the treatment composition in an amount of 5 to 20 percent, said percent all occurrences relative to the weight of the treatment composition; and (e) contacting said treated plastic article with a dye composition comprising at least one dye, thereby forming a treated and dyed plastic article.