BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to printing system. In particular, the invention relates to method and systems for applying durable colorfast coatings over large and topographically sophisticated structures.

2. Description of the Related Art

Color images of multicolored photos often made with digital imaging through various devices are ubiquitous in use and scope of application in our modern society. One way in which people use these images is through the application of the images to various object. The majority of these digital images are transferred electronically through single images often in JPEG format. Over the last few years these images have become more and more predominant in our society to convey information. Today such images are used for signs, labels, logos and advertising of products. These are just a few examples.

Over the past 40 years many attempts have been made in the use of lasers to reproduce images and other forms of graphics on various types of media and material substrate26. More than often these types of systems have been relegated to high-end laser printers and commercial graphic art printers of limited size and utility. The majority of the current systems are far from being portable and can only be used in applications where the printed or etched media to be printed on is often dimensionally flat and is fed through a conveyor apparatus and then through the laser printing system. Further to this; color imaging is even made more difficult as previous methods were mainly printed with translucent inks making the print quality highly dependent on the substrate. This has caused high resolution images to be relegated to standardize media that is relatively small and difficult to export onto multiple or varied substrates.

For example, today advertising is used in many far afield arenas and especially so in the transportation market. This is because transportation makes an excellent conveyance of marketing information. Much of this advertising imagery is done by car wraps truck wraps and skins. These types of image media are labor intensive, and the required equipment is cumbersome and expensive.

Further to this the application skill that is required is that of a complex nature. Often applicators are trained for more than a year before they're allowed to proceed on their own.

Printing systems and laser engravers used to form images on three-dimensional objects have been produced by several manufacturers. Typically, these systems require a methodology for manipulating the beam over the targeted surface. Often the beam targeting and manipulation is accomplished with reflective optics and in some cases with transmissive spatial light modulators. Various optical components are utilized to position the beam on the target surface uniformly to maintain a consistent beam footprint. The original data to be printed is typically represented in a human readable form. This information is then scaled or dimensionally altered whereby the image elements are scaled proportionally on the desired surface for which it is to be printed. Given the properties of laser etching and coatings as well as the very nature of electromagnetic energy itself; it is easily understood that the properties by which a laser graphics application and laser engraving is limited to the resolution or spot size of the beam on the target surface. It is understood that added control or controls over large and complex surface require more resolution not less, which gives rise to the need for finer control parameters. This intern requires the need for a smaller beam footprint at or near diffraction limitations of the optical system. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,897,214B2, a method is described whereupon the system devised is directed to “dividing the substrate into a plurality of sections covering the entire surface of the substrate;” It should be noted that no matter how complex the substrate structure is, the act of dividing it into increasingly smaller units allows for the possibility of higher resolution and subsequently a higher level of required control. This is true whether one intends to etch the surface or accurately place a coating onto it. The increasingly smaller sectional application resolution control has the tendency to obviate the micro application elements at the expense of control, to the macro control resolution. This is the reason for the necessity of multiple lasers as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,661,387B2. Both of these patents are necessary for fine control of coatings, but neither of them explains fully necessary control techniques and configuration for their configuration or practical implementation. Further application of dots of selected colors to form images have been used almost universally throughout industries for decades that manufacturer equipment that produce images such as photo's or illustrations. In concert with this fact UV curable inks and coatings have been used for years that are essential to produce images such as those described in German Patent No. DE102011109083A1. This patent as described is: A “Method for imaging or marking of objects involves forming object with one or multiple radiation curable color, where color is hardened by application of radiation on area of object provided with color”.

Additionally, as juxtaposed to descriptions previous, the aforementioned visible laser beam which is coaxially aligned with the application laser is utilized in conjunction with the higher powered “application laser”. This laser can then be scanned over the surface that is designated for the image application. An additional visible laser can then be used to represent the selected image and its defined area. This imaging laser is further used to scale and position the subdivided described in this text. This image that conforms to the end-user requirements on the target surface. A common method used to represent and position an image on a target surface is by use of a raster scan generator or otherwise a scalable projection device. The raster scanned beam is scanned across the surface typically from the left to right and top to bottom. The same visible laser system can also be vectored, whereby the laser is directed over the entirety of the target surface using coordinates where the laser begins and where it stops. During this process the laser beam can be turned on or off as directed by the laser control program.

In the past constructing and reproducing an image on a substrate is fraught with many challenges and especially when it comes to large structures. This task is often made more difficult by the rendering size as well as the three-dimensional geometry of the target surface. Typically, the current trend in industry is the use of stencils and vinyl wraps on very large objects. These stencils and wraps are applied with contact cement applied on one side of the self-adhesive contoured stencils. Additionally, vinyl wraps are often used where compound curves are often encountered on the structure that is to receive the printed image. Both of the aforementioned techniques are extremely time-consuming and expensive to employ. When utilizing these types of image rendering processes, the applicator often has to contend with major problems caused by stretching the material and unwittingly changing the position or the relative size of the image. A further problem that is often encountered when applying vinyl wraps is; Vinyl wraps not only suffer from unintended stretching but additionally air is often is trapped or entrained under the surface and has to be removed manually. Similarly another problem that occurs when utilizing stencils is the lack of well-defined clean lines and edges associated with their application. This often occurs where the stencil meets the substrate. Often coatings that are applied are of a sufficiently low enough viscosity to progress under the surface of the edge of the masked or stenciled area. Additionally, any dust, dirt and over spray become trapped under the mask. This also causes color bleeding and destruction of the masked coating edge. With the current invention these problems are eliminated as the laser can easily straighten and adjust edges to meet quality standards of the applicator. Additionally, as described are several unique configurations that allow for the full control of image applications and or etchings with fine element control down and to the level of the diffraction limitations of the optical system.

Other considerations often encountered when using currently available technologies to apply images occurs with illustrations or text is the use different ink formulations including UV curable inks. Many common inks have problems with adhesion and application compatibility problems and are very sensitive to adhesion as well as other compatibility issues over many types of substrates. Many substrates are simply not conducive to the use of inks. This is often because the surface is somewhat hydrophobic to the ink being applied. The inks tend to bead and or roll off the surface due to gravity and distort the image. This directly affects the line edges, and the color rendering. The same problem occurs when using paints but not necessarily to the same degree. Paints often have fixative agents in them that help them retain the original position when they are applied to a correctly selected primer base. A further problem associated with using both inks and paints is that in order to decrease bleed over and to obtain the correct color rendition these coatings would have to be applied through a jetting process. This is much the same way inkjets are used on color printers. This is a very difficult technique when used in conjunction with thick pigments that are normally found in paints. Additionally, the majority of these types of “jetted” coatings often do not have the properties required for an outdoor environment. Anybody who has used these types inks and coatings before are familiar with the fact that they fade rather rapidly in intense UV light. Further to this these types of pigments degrade rapidly in harsh environments due to the fact that these coatings are often very thin when applied. These environments often include corrosive elements such as acid rain, Ozone, and very fine particle precipitants.

The present invention attempts to eliminate many of these problems and allow a person of average skill to apply high quality graphics and images through etching or DLI (direct laser illustrating).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A primary objective of this invention is to provide a means for applying digital or graphic images in durable colorfast coatings over large and topographically sophisticated structures.

The present invention allows a person of average skill to apply high quality graphics and images through etching or DLI (direct laser illustrating). The immediate invention in question uses direct laser illustrating that forms an image through a plurality of pigmented PELs (Picture Elements) combined together and dithered to produce a completed image. This is very similar to the way poster images have been constructed for decades. Direct laser illustration is not only limited to dithering to form the color images, additional techniques can be easily employed. Any user defined illustration space may be constructed. Techniques such as with additive color mixing and dithering that utilize translucent pigments may also be utilized as well in conjunction with grayscale image formulation and other techniques.

With this in mind, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system for producing images directly on a surface. The system includes an operational curing system comprised of a thermal acquisition system, a distance monitoring device, and a directed radiant energy source. The system also includes a support assembly for supporting the operational curing system relative to a substrate and a computer-based control system processing data and controlling the operational curing system and the support assembly.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a system wherein the thermal acquisition system is an infrared pyrometry camera.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a system wherein the distance monitoring device is a telemetry range finder.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system wherein the directed radiant energy source is a laser emitter.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a system wherein the laser emitter includes a galvanometric control system.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a system wherein the laser emitter is a diode laser.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system wherein the diode laser includes piezo elements.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a system wherein the laser emitter further includes an optical mirror and optical focusing elements that focus emitted electromagnetic radiation at a desired location.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a system wherein the directed energy source includes an electromagnetic radiation source and an LCD screen, and the LCD screen positioned between the electromagnetic radiation source and a target.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system wherein the directed energy source includes an electromagnetic radiation source and a digital mirror device, and the digital mirror device is positioned between the electromagnetic radiation source and a target.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a system wherein the support assembly provides for movement of the operational curing system in three dimensions.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a system wherein the support assembly includes an XY gantry.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system including a closed loop monitoring system for rapidly assessing temperature and determining a sufficient state of cure.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a system including a Charge-Coupled Device analyzing returned scattering of electromagnetic radiation.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a system wherein the directed radiant energy source is a laser diode array.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system wherein the laser diode array may be rotated.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a system wherein light from the laser diode array is transmitted via a fiberoptic delivery system.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for producing images directly on a surface. The method includes the steps of aligning an operational curing system with a substrate, applying a colored powder coating material to the substrate, selectively curing the colored powder coating material, based upon a desired image to be formed, with the operation curing system, removing uncured colored powder coating material from the substrate, and repeating the steps of applying, selectively curing and removing with colored powder coating material of other colors.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description when viewed in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which set forth certain embodiments of the invention.

