Typewriting machines – Typing by other than type-face or type-die – Thermal
Patent
1999-06-28
2000-12-26
Eickholt, Eugene
Typewriting machines
Typing by other than type-face or type-die
Thermal
347107, 101483, 101490, B41J 225
Patent
active
061648507
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to 3D printing and to a method and apparatus for the forming of 3D structures onto surfaces.
The present invention addresses the problem of accurate and fast formation of 3D features onto a surface. This problem is a concern in a wide range of areas, a number of which are described below.
In one example, people who use Braille for communication are particularly affected by a shortage of accurate and fast means for producing the Braille characters. One known method is to use impact printers to emboss paper with raised portions representing the Braille characters. Compared with conventional printers, however, the impact printers can be expensive due their complexity, noisy due to the constant impacting of the printer head and unreliable due to the high forces on the moving parts.
Drop-on-demand printing is a known printing technique whereby a droplet of ink is ejected from a inkjet printer head. The droplet impacts with a printing surface, dries and forms a spot which forms a recognisable pattern such as type. This technique has proved to be an efficient and economical way of printing using ink and its use is now widespread.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of forming a three dimensional feature on a surface using the technique of drop ejection to deposit droplets of deposition material, said method comprising depositing a plurality of droplets on said surface to form a feature comprising multiple discrete portions, at least two adjoining portions being formed from different deposition material.
Preferably the plurality of droplets comprise at least one droplet of one material and at least one droplet of another material.
The application of the invention is wide. For instance, tactile character sets for the sightless such as Braille, Dotsplus, ASTeR, Moon print and such like may be formed as easily as conventional character sets. Accordingly, in a second aspect, the present invention provides a method of forming a Braille character on a surface using the technique of drop ejection to deposit droplets of deposition material, said method comprising depositing a plurality of droplets on said surface to form a character comprising multiple discrete portions, at least two adjoining portions being formed from different deposition material.
Conventional printing tasks may be performed using the present invention including, for example, warning symbols, product advertising, `Thermographic` printing or wall paper printing. Tactile digital photography is possible for the production, say, of relief maps. The photograph is constructed from digital data including the height of the ground stored as discrete steps which defines the size or number of drops of print material applied. Upon ejecting or curing of the deposition material the individual drops combine with neighbouring drops so that the height varies continuously and not in discrete steps. Different deposition materials may be dropped onto the surface to give different textures.
Another application is textile patterning where, for instance, names or emblems can be printed directly on to teeshirts or sweatshirts. Alternatively a roll of fabric or carpet can be printed with a recurring pattern.
Another application is in coating of whole areas whereby the thickness of a laminate may be controlled. Particular use may be found in PCB production, adhesives, transparent electrodes (e.g. using co-polyaniline based solutions), optical elements (e.g. the anti-reflective coating of ophthalmic lenses) and protection of display windows. Alternatively the coating may be on a selected area only. For instance the direct writing of masks on PCBs, selective adhesives and discrete transparent electrodes.
The nozzles may be adapted to spray the deposition material, the deposition area being dictated by the number of nozzles that are fired. High precision coatings are possible using this method of ejecting a blanket area of material.
An important application of the invention is in the formation of surface structu
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