System and method for lenticular image printing and print media

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9266352-B2
Application number	US-201313974765-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 23, 2013
Priority date	Aug 23, 2013
Publication date	Feb 23, 2016
Grant date	Feb 23, 2016

Abstract

A method of forming a lenticle on a substrate includes operating a plurality of inkjets to eject a plurality of ink drops of an optically transparent ink onto a surface of a substrate between a first printed line of an optically opaque ink and a second printed line of the optically opaque ink to form a lenticle from the optically transparent ink, the first printed line being formed substantially parallel to the second printed line with a separation between the first printed line and the second printed line corresponding to a predetermined width of a lenticle to be formed on the substrate.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A printer comprising:
a plurality of inkjets arranged in a print zone and configured to eject ink drops onto a surface of a print medium; and
a controller operatively connected to the plurality of inkjets, the controller being configured to:
operate the plurality of inkjets to form a first printed line and a second printed line with an optically opaque ink on the surface of the print medium, the first printed line and the second printed being arranged substantially parallel to each other with a predetermined separation between the first printed line and the second printed line, and the first printed line and the second printed line having substantially zero height above the surface of the print medium; and
operate the plurality of inkjets to eject a plurality of ink drops of an optically transparent ink onto the surface of the print medium between the first printed line and the second printed line to form a lenticle on the surface of the print medium, the lenticle being formed with a width corresponding to the predetermined separation between the first printed line and the second printed line.

2. The printer of claim 1 , the controller being further configured to:
operate the plurality of inkjets to eject a plurality of drops of the optically transparent ink to enable the lenticle to cover the surface of the print medium between the first printed line and the second printed line and to cover at least a portion of the surface of the print medium over the first printed line and the second printed line.

3. The printer of claim 1 further comprising:
an ultraviolet light source; and
the plurality of inkjets being configured to form the lenticle with an ultraviolet curable ink and the ultraviolet light source being configured to apply ultraviolet light to the ultraviolet curable ink forming the lenticle to solidify the ultraviolet curable ink in a shape that enables the lenticle to focus light on a surface of the print medium.

4. The printer of claim 1 , the controller being further configured to:
operate the plurality of inkjets to form an interleaved printed image on another surface of the print medium for the lenticle to focus light from a first direction onto a first portion of the interleaved printed image and focus light from a second direction onto a second portion of the interleaved printed image to enable viewing of only the first portion of the interleaved image from the first direction and to enable viewing of only the second portion of the interleaved image from the second direction.

5. The printer of claim 4 wherein the plurality of inkjets form the interleaved image on the other surface of the print medium prior to forming the first printed line, second printed line, and lenticle.

Assignees

• Xerox Corp

Inventors

• Liu Chu-Heng
• Mantell David Allen
• Zhou Jing
• Mantell Eli Berkley

Classifications

• B41M3/06

  Veined printings; Fluorescent printings; Stereoscopic images; Imitated patterns, e.g. tissues, textiles · CPC title

• B41J3/407 Primary

  for marking on special material · CPC title

• B41M5/0064

  on plastics, horn, rubber, or other organic polymers · CPC title

• B41M5/50

  Recording sheets characterised by the coating used to improve ink, dye or pigment receptivity, e.g. for ink-jet or thermal dye transfer recording {(printing on organic plastics using a printer's form B41M1/30; printing on pre-treated paper with a printer's form B41M1/36)} · CPC title

• Y10T428/24802

  Discontinuous or differential coating, impregnation or bond [e.g., artwork, printing, retouched photograph, etc.] · CPC title