Systems and methods for printing patterns

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11660862-B2
Application number	US-202017024499-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 17, 2020
Priority date	Sep 17, 2020
Publication date	May 30, 2023
Grant date	May 30, 2023

Abstract

A system and method for applying patterns to surfaces. A pattern may be applied to a surface of an object using a three-dimensional (3D) printer system. The 3D printer system may include a printer head including an applicator holding material used to form the pattern on the surface, a structure configured to hold a substrate to which the material will be applied, and a controller for adjusting a location of the printer head relative to a surface and initiating applying material from the applicator onto the surface. The applicator may be a syringe with a needle. 3D coordinates at which material is to be applied to a surface to form the pattern may be determined and identified based on a relative location of the substrate and the pattern. The pattern may be a speckle dot pattern used in Digital Image Correlation (DIC) material testing and characterization techniques.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of applying a digital image correlation (DIC) pattern to a surface of a substrate, the method comprising:
determining a three-dimensional coordinate for each of one or more locations at which ink is to be applied to a surface of a substrate to achieve a predetermined DIC pattern, the three-dimensional coordinates are determined based on a location of the surface of the substrate and the predetermined DIC pattern;
adjusting a position of a printer head to a three-dimensional coordinate of a location of the one or more locations; and
applying ink to the surface of the substrate at the three-dimensional coordinate using the printer head, the ink on the surface of the substrate having a dimension based on the predetermined DIC pattern.

2. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the adjusting a position of a printer head to the three-dimensional coordinate of the location of the one or more locations and the applying the ink to the surface of the substrate at the three-dimensional coordinate are repeated for each of the one or more locations.

3. The method as in claim 1 , wherein:
the adjusting a position of the printer head to the three-dimensional coordinate of the location of the one or more locations of the predetermined DIC pattern includes adjusting the printer head to x-axis and y-axis coordinates and lowering the printer head to a z-axis coordinate; and
the applying the ink to the surface of the substrate at the three-dimensional coordinate occurs when the printer head is adjusted to the x-axis coordinate, the y-axis coordinate, and the z-axis coordinate.

4. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the applying the ink to the surface of the substrate at the three-dimensional coordinate includes applying a predetermined amount of ink to the substrate to achieve the dimension based on the predetermined DIC pattern.

5. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the dimension of the ink on the surface of the substrate is a radius of a printed ink dot in a range of ten (10) micrometers-ten (10) millimeters.

6. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the predetermined DIC pattern is a speckle dot pattern.

7. The method as in claim 6 , further comprising:
determining the speckle dot pattern based on optimization rules for the predetermined DIC pattern.

8. The method as in claim 7 , wherein the optimization rules for predetermined DIC pattern include a predetermined dot diameter range and a predetermined dot coverage range for the surface of the substrate.

9. The method as in claim 6 , wherein the one or more locations are locations of one or more dots of the speckle dot pattern and a center position of the one or more dots of the speckle dot pattern are configured to be distributed on a predetermined area of the surface of the substrate based on optimization rules.

10. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the applying the ink to the surface of the substrate includes applying the ink to a flat surface of the substrate.

11. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the applying the ink to the surface of the substrate includes applying the ink to a non-flat surface of the substrate.

12. A computer readable medium having stored thereon in a non-transitory state a program code for use by a computing device, the program code causing the computing device to execute a method of operating a three-dimensional printer system comprising:
identifying a three-dimensional coordinate for a dot of one or more dots of a digital image correlation (DIC) pattern to be applied to a surface of a substrate;
adjusting a position of a printer head to the three-dimensional coordinate of the dot of the one or more dots of the DIC pattern; and
applying ink to the surface of the substrate at the three-dimensional coordinate using the printer head, the ink on the surface of the substrate has a dimension based on the DIC pattern.

13. The computer readable medium as in claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises:
providing the three-dimensional coordinate for each of the one or more dots of the DIC pattern based on a location of a surface of a substrate.

14. The computer readable medium as in claim 12 , wherein:
the adjusting the position of the printer head to the three-dimensional coordinate of the dot of the one or more dots of the DIC pattern includes adjusting the printer head to an x-axis and y-axis coordinates and lowering the printer head to a z-axis coordinate; and
the applying the ink to the surface of the substrate at the three-dimensional coordinate occurs when the printer head is adjusted to the x-axis coordinate, the y-axis coordinate, and the z-axis coordinate.

15. The computer readable medium as in claim 14 , wherein the method further comprises:
raising the printer head from the z-axis coordinate after applying the ink to the surface of the substrate; and
for each of the one or more dots of the DIC pattern, repeating the adjusting the position of the printer head to the three-dimensional coordinate of the dot of the one or more dots of the DIC pattern, the applying the ink to the substrate at the three-dimensional coordinate, and the raising the printer head from the z-axis coordinate after applying the ink to the substrate.

16. The computer readable medium as in claim 12 , wherein the applying the dot of ink to the substrate at the three-dimensional coordinate includes applying a predetermined volume of ink to the substrate to achieve the dimension based on the DIC pattern.

17. The computer readable medium as in claim 12 , wherein the applying the ink to the surface of the substrate includes applying the ink to a non-flat surface of the substrate.

18. The computer readable medium as in claim 17 , wherein the method further comprises:
adjusting a position of the substrate in a z-axis direction when the ink is to be applied to the non-flat surface of the substrate.

19. A three-dimensional printing system comprising:
a printer head comprising a syringe configured to hold ink;
a structure configured to hold a substrate to which the ink from the syringe is to be applied;

a processor; and
memory configured to store in a non-transitory state instructions executable by the processor to cause the processor to:
adjust a position of the printer head to a three-dimensional coordinate of a dot of one or more dots of a digital image correlation (DIC) pattern to be applied to a surface of the substrate; and
apply ink to the surface of the substrate at the three-dimensional coordinate using the printer head, the ink on the surface of the substrate having a dimension on the surface of the substrate based on the DIC pattern.

20. The system as in claim 19 , wherein the dimension of the ink on the surface of the substrate is a radius in a range of ten (10) micrometers-ten (10) millimeters.

Assignees

• Wisconsin Alumni Res Found

Inventors

• Franck Christian
• Yang Jin
• Tao Jialiang

Classifications

• B33Y10/00

  Processes of additive manufacturing · CPC title

• B29C64/209

  Heads; Nozzles · CPC title

• B41J2202/01

  Embodiments of or processes related to ink-jet heads · CPC title

• B29C64/25

  Housings, e.g. machine housings · CPC title

• B41J11/002

  Curing or drying the ink on the copy materials, e.g. by heating or irradiating · CPC title