Method and apparatus for making a graphic product

Abstract: A method and apparatus for preparing graphic products utilizes a printer (20) to print on sheet material (S) and a cutter (22) to cut the sheet material (S) with the printed material within the periphery of the cut edges (C). Both the printer (20) and the cutter (22) are controlled by machine readable data having a common data base so that the printed material and the cut material correspond positionally in the final graphic product. The printer (20) is a thermal printer (40) that places the printed material on a strip of sheet material (S) generally before the sheet material is cut. The thermal printer (40) utilizes a donor web (W) bearing a transfer ink to create enhanced printed images on the sheet material with halftones, color and other attractive features. The printer (40) is controlled to regulate a number of printing parameters (256-260) through coding (270) on a cassette (170) in which the donor web (W) is supported.

Description: The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for making a graphic product on sheet material. More particularly, the invention relates to the making of products with enhanced graphic features through a combination of printing and cutting operations, and the equipment and the processes utilized in making of the product. The equipment and processes have many uses such as making signs, graphic designs, characters and other products with graphic images, and may be used in the field of printing for the production of visual images from data bases. Within the signmaking field, the generation of graphic designs from a stored program is known from US-A-4 799 172. The apparatus utilizes a cutting tool that is guided in accordance with a predetermined program to cut alphanumeric characters and other graphic images from a sheet of vinyl material that is releasably secured by a pressure-sensitive adhesive to a carrier or liner. The apparatus is controlled by a microprocessor and includes a keyboard and fonts stored in a memory to prepare sign text. Once the text has been prepared, the apparatus cuts the alphanumeric characters or other graphic designs from the vinyl and the sign text or character is stripped away from the carrier as a whole and transferred to a sign board. US-A-4 815 869 is also related to the printing field, and discloses a method for printing multicolor images from computer stored information by means of a dot matrix printer. The demand for signs and other sheet material products with multicolored or enhanced graphic images is enormous. While multicolor printing is well known in the art and producing multicolored or enhanced signs by cutting graphic images in sheet material is also well known, a merger of these arts has not been previously employed to produce enhanced graphic images. Furthermore, the convenience, flexibility and speed of producing signs and other graphic images from computer data bases offers significant advantages and substantial opportunity for improvement. In the production of graphic products of the kind described above it is extremely important that the cutting and printing steps be precisely correlated with one another and the material so that registration between the lines of cut and the printed image is exact. The problem to be solved by the invention is to coordinate the printing and cutting operations so that the above-mentioned requirement is fulfilled. The invention solves this problem by the features of method claims 1 or 2 and apparatus claims 6 or 7. The method and the apparatus ensure a precise correspondence between the printed material and the cut peripheral edges of the graphic image by controlling both the printing and the cutting operations by reference to features on the sheet material itself, those features being sprocket holes along the edges of the material or a positional reference track on the material. The apparatus, which carries out the method, includes a first storage means that stores data defining the peripheral edges of a graphic image to be generated in the product. The data stored is machine readable data. A second storage means stores the data that defines the printed material in positional relationship within the peripheral edges of a graphic image in the product. The data defining the printed material is also stored as machine readable data. Printing means are connected with the second storage means and responds to the machine readable data to print printed material on the surface of a sheet material in positional relationship to the peripheral edges of the graphic image. Preferably thereafter, cutting means connected with the first storage means responds to the stored data for cutting the sheet material along the peripheral edges of the graphic image. The cutting is controlled in accordance with the stored data whereby graphic images containing the printed material within the cut edges of the image are prepared from the sheet material. In one embodiment of the invention, the printing means is a thermal printer having a printing head and a roller platen over which the sheet material is fed by drive means during the printing operation. The roller platen has a cylindrical support surface and supports the sheet material adjacent the printing head for movement relative to the head during the printing operation. Preferably the sheet material has a series of feed holes along the marginal edges, and the drive means has sets of sprockets that engage the holes at each marginal edge for positive feeding of the material over the platen. The set of sprockets may be movable relative to the roller platen in a plane that is tangential to the cylindrical support surface of the platen, and when the sprockets are arranged in a circular array, they move in a cylindrical plane that is tangent to the cylindrical support surface of the roller platen but larger in diameter to provide greater contact areas with the sheet material supported on the platen. As a result of the invention, signs, characters, designs and other graphic images can be produced with exact registration between the lines of cut and the printed image in multiple colors or halftones and with other printing features which significantly enhance the images. The invention will now be described with reference to the drawings in which Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a system for printing and cutting signs and other graphic products in accordance with the present invention. Fig 2. is a three dimensional halftone image of the letter "R" that can be produced in accordance with the present invention. Fig. 3 is a three dimensional image of the letters "AR" that can be produced in accordance with the present invention. Fig. 4 shows one embodiment of a thermal printer that may be utilized in the present invention. Fig. 5 is a side elevation view of the thermal printer in Fig. 4 with portions broken away to show the internal structure. Fig. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the printer as shown in Fig. 5 and shows the drive mechanism for moving a strip of sheet material relative to the print head. Fig. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the printer similar to Fig. 6 and shows the print head, roller platen and sheet material detector. Fig. 8 is a fragmentary front view showing the support structure and drive mechanism for the roller platen and drive sprockets. Fig. 1 illustrates a microprocessor based system, generally designated 10, having apparatus for making signs, characters, designs and other graphic products with enhancements provided by the addition of color, halftones and other printed features. For example, the letter "R" shown in Fig. 2 has printed halftone characteristics which imbue the letter with a three dimensional character. Such printed enhancements of the letter are quite distinctive and when such letters are cut along the peripheral edges C from a sheet material such as a vinyl sheet which can withstand weather, wear, abuse and other hazards rather well, a very attractive sign or other graphic product is generated. Similarly, the letters "AR" shown in Fig. 3 can be prepared in two dimensional form on a single sheet of vinyl or other material with a three dimensional character by using different colors for the face of the letters and the shadow or third dimension. The system disclosed in Fig. 1 enables a graphic product to be created and produced with enhancements from a data base on which both the printed and cut features of the product are commonly based. To produce a graphic product with enhancements, the system 10 includes a digitizer 12 or other data input device which supplies a microprocessor based or other computer 14 with machine readable data defining at least the peripheral edges of the graphic product and possibly internal edges as well. The computer 14 displays the machine readable data defining the edges as an image on the screen 15. Then printed enhancements from the special enhancement programs in memory 16 printing designs are added within the edges of the displayed image with the aid of the computer as the operator or composer desires. All the edge and enhancement features are then referenced to one another in a common data base. For example, the enhancement features may include special programs that allow halftone images such as the halftone features shown in Fig. 2 to be added within the peripheral edges of the pattern P. Alternatively, the memory 16 may include an entire font of halftone or otherwise enhanced characters including the edge data, in which case the data input to the computer 14 for the purposes of preparing a final product may be selected entirely from the memory. Still further, the digitizer may serve as the sole input device and may provide the critical data points defining the peripheral edges to be cut as well as the edges of the printing as in the enhanced letters "AR" shown in Fig. 3. Still other data sources may be utilized to supply the computer 14 with an infinite variety of graphic images with enhancements that can be produced by the system 10. From the data defining the enhanced graphic product, the computer 14 generates at least one printing program for operating a printer 20 that prepares one portion of the enhanced graphic product, and a cutting program that operates a cutter 22 and prepares the remaining portion of the product. Additional printing programs may also be generated, for example, to prepare additional printed material in different colors. Each program is stored in a memory 24, and when the product is to be produced, a controller 26 reads the programs and operates the printer 20 and cutter 22 respectively. For example, to create the graphic image of the letters "AR" in Fig. 3, the outline of the letters and the shadow of the third dimension are printed by the printer 20 on a sheet material, such as a vinyl secured by a pressure sensitive adhesive on a releasable backing material. One such vinyl is sold by the Assignee of this application under the trademark SCOTCHCAL of 3M Company. The printer prints the outline of the letters and third dimension in black or another color contrasting with the basic color or colors of the vinyl material. The printed sheet of vinyl on the releasable backing material is then mounted in the cutter 22 and the controller 26 cuts the vinyl only along the peripheral edges C of the image and any internal edges in accordance with the cutting program in the memory 24. By utilizing a printing program and cutting program which have a common data base for defining both the peripheral edges to be cut as well as the printed material, the printing and cutting operations on the sheet of vinyl material are coordinated. After weeding to remove unwanted vinyl material within or around the image, the vinyl forming the enhanced graphic image is lifted from the underlying backing material and is attached to a sign board, window or other object. It is generally preferable, but not essential, to carry out the printing operation in the printer 20 before the sheet material is cut by the cutter 22. With a separate printer and cutter it is also essential that the graphic image that is printed on the vinyl be registered in the cutter with the printing program origin and the cutting program origin coincident. In this manner the lines of cut and the printed portion of the image maintain the correspondence established by the common data base. This registration can be accomplished by printing an origin point on the vinyl along with the printed portion of the image and then optically aligning the origin point with a reference position for the material in the cutter 22. If the printing and cutting operations are carried out by a single machine or a machine having a common drive mechanism for positioning the vinyl relative to a printing head and a cutting head, then the origin point or other reference can be eliminated. A unique printing apparatus for carrying out the printing operation is described in further detail below. A suitable cutting apparatus for carrying out the cutting operation on sheets of vinyl or other material is described in US-A-4 799 172. One embodiment of a printer for accomplishing the printing operation disclosed in Fig. 1 is illustrated in Fig. 4. The printer 40 utilizes a set of sprockets to engage corresponding feed holes extending along each longitudinal edge of a strip S of the sheet material from which the graphic product is prepared, and correspondingly the cutter 22 has a set of sprockets to engage the same series of feed holes during the cutting operation. In this manner the registration of the cut edges of the graphic with the printed image is insured in the longitudinal direction. Since the graphic image is absolutely fixed both transversely and longitudinally on the strip S relative to the feed holes, the feed holes become a proper reference for the image in both the printing and cutting operations. Alternatively, the printer can prepare a positional reference track T on the print-receiving surface of the sheet material to establish a known positional relationship between the printed image on the strip S and the strip itself. The cutting operation is then carried out by the cutter after the printing operation, and the cutter reads the positional reference track on the sheet material in order to coordinate the position of the material and the cutting tool with the printed material. As shown in Fig. 4 the strip S is supplied in a roll which is supported on a platform 42 at the back side of the printer and is fed over a guide roller 44 before it enters the housing 46 of the printer. After the strip passes through the printer where the printing operation takes place, it is discharged freely at the front side of the machine or may be retrieved on a take-up reel if desired. Although the printer 40 is connected for controlling the printing operation to the controller 26 in Fig. 1, the printer includes a control panel 48 on the housing 46 to stop and start printing operations. Additionally the control panel 48 includes controls for slewing the strip S independently of the printing operation and other controls for operating the printer as will become more apparent hereafter. The upper portion of the printer 40 has a cover 50 with a handle 52 that can be opened and closed in order to expose the internal structure of the printer as shown more particularly in Figs. 5-10. Within the printer 40, the strip S passes over a roller platen 58 relative to a thermal print head 60 which is pressed downwardly onto the strip of material and generally establishes a linear zone of contact between the material and the platen. In one embodiment the strip of vinyl sheet material is 38 cm (15") wide and a hard rubber sleeve on the roller platen as well as the print head are approximately 30,5 cm (12") wide. Thus a marginal edge portion of the strip overlaps the rubber sleeve 59 of the roller platen at each end as indicated in Fig. 8. A drive sprocket 62, having a set of sprocket pins engages a series of feed holes along the one marginal edge of the strip S, and a similar drive sprocket 64 having sprocket pins engages a series of feed holes along the opposite marginal edge of the strip. As shown in Figs. 6 and 8, the drive sprockets 62,64 are fixedly mounted to a drive shaft 66. The drive shaft is rotatably mounted within the housing 46 of the printer and is driven from a step motor 70 by a series of drive gears 72,74, toothed drive pulleys 76,78 and a toothed drive belt 80. In addition the roller platen 58 which is also rotatably mounted within the housing 46 is driven from the drive shaft 66 by means of drive pulleys 82,84 and an O-ring drive belt 86 at one end of the platen and drive pulleys 88,90 and an O-ring drive belt 92 at the opposite end of the platen. The gears, pulleys and toothed drive belt 80 ensure that the strip S of sheet material is precisely positioned on the roller platen and control the speed at which the strip S moves through the printer. The drive pulleys 82,84, 88,90 are selected to establish a peripheral speed of the roller platen 58 that is slightly higher than the peripheral speed of the drive sprocket 62 and 64 to augment the feeding of the strip S past the print head 60. Since the drive sprockets positively engage the strip and control the speed of the strip, the O-ring drive belts 86,92 must allow limited slip. As shown most clearly in Fig. 6 a pair of curved, sheet metal plates 94,96 guide the strip S of sheet material circumaxially onto and off of the roller platen 58 and the cylindrical surfaces of the sprockets 62,64 in a U-shaped feed path. The cylindrical surfaces of the sprockets lie in a cylindrical plane which is much larger in diameter than the cylindrical, strip-engaging surface of the roller platen 58 and is tangential to the cylindrical surface. Preferably the cylindrical surface of the platen is formed by a hard rubber sleeve which improves the frictional engagement of the platen with the releasable backing material of the strip. It is clear that the novel printing and cutting apparatus may be carried out by a number of different printing and cutting machines. The use of the common sprocket drive means in the printer and cutter ensures coordination between the printed and cut subject matter; however, other indicia including a timing track printed on the strip of sheet material to be printed upon may also be used for the same coordination. While a separate printer and cutter have been disclosed, it is contemplated that a single machine having interchangeable heads or both printing and cutting heads might be used to carry out the two functions.

Claims: A method of making a graphic product from sheet material comprising: defining the peripheral edges (C) of a graphic image (P) in machine readable data, storing the machine readable data defining the peripheral edges (C) of the graphic image (P), cutting the sheet material (S) along the peripheral edges (C) of the graphic image (P) by means of a data-controlled cutter (22) controlled by the stored machine readable data defining the peripheral edges (C), characterized by defining printed material and its positional relationship within the peripheral edges (C) of the graphic image (P) in machine readable data, storing the machine readable data defining the printed material, and printing on an print-receiving surface of a sheet material (S) by means of a data-controlled printer (20, 40) controlled by the stored machine readable data defining the printed material to thereby place the printed material on the surface of the sheet material (S) in positional relationship to the peripheral edges (C) of the graphic image (P) whereby a graphic product containing printed material within the image is prepared from the sheet material (S), wherein the sheet material (S) is a strip of sheet material (S) having a series of feed holes extending along each longitudinal edge of the strip and the data controlled printer (20, 40) is a line printer placing print on the strip along a line extending transverse to the strip and the series of feed holes, and the steps of cutting and printing on the sheet material (S) include the step of engaging the strip of sheet material (S) and pulling the strip through the data controlled cutter (22) and printer (20, 40) by means of the series of feed holes along each edge to ensure a precise correspondence between the printed material and the cut, peripheral edges (C) of the graphic image (P). A method of making a graphic product from sheet material comprising: defining the peripheral edges (C) of a graphic image (P) in machine readable data, storing the machine readable data defining the peripheral edges (C) of the graphic image (P), cutting the sheet material (S) along the peripheral edges (C) of the graphic image (P) by means of a data-controlled cutter (22) controlled by the stored machine readable data defining the peripheral edges (C), characterized by defining printed material and its positional relationship within the peripheral edges (C) of the graphic image (P) in machine readable data, storing the machine readable data defining the printed material, and printing on an print-receiving surface of a sheet material (S) by means of a data-controlled printer (20, 40) controlled by the stored machine readable data defining the printed material to thereby place the printed material on the surface of the sheet material (S) in positional relationship to the peripheral edges (C) of the graphic image (P) whereby a graphic product containing printed material within the image is prepared from the sheet material (S), wherein the step of printing further includes printing a positional reference track (T) on the print-receiving surface of the sheet material (S) in addition to the printed material, the positional reference track and the printed material having a known positional relationship to each other, and the step of cutting is carried out after the step of printing the positional reference track (T) and includes reading the positional reference track (T) on the sheet material (S) to coordinate the position of the sheet material (S) and the data controlled cutter (22) with the printed material while cutting. A method of making a graphic product as defined in claim 1, characterized in that the step of printing on the surface of the sheet material (S) is accomplished before the step of cutting the sheet material (S). A method of making a graphic product from sheet material as defined in claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the step of printing includes printing an origin for the graphic image (P) on the surface of the sheet material (S) in addition to the other printed material, and the step of cutting the sheet material (S) includes registering the printed origin with a corresponding origin for the step of cutting. A method of making a graphic product as defined in claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, characterized in that the step of printing includes printing some of the printed material on the sheet material (S) in one color, and printing more of the printed material in another color. An apparatus for making a graphic product from sheet material comprising: first storage means for storing data defining the peripheral edges (C) of a graphic image (P) as machine readable data, a cutter (22) connected with the first storage means (within 24) and responsive to the stored data for cutting the sheet material (S) along the peripheral edges (C) of the graphic image (P) characterized by second storage means (within 24) for storing data defining printed material and its positional relationship within the peripheral edges (C) of the graphic image (P) as machine readable data, and a printer (20, 40) connected with the second storage means (24) and responsive to the stored machine readable data for printing the printed material on a sheet material (S) in positional relationship to the peripheral edges (C) of the graphic image (P) whereby a graphic image (P) containing printed material within the peripheral edges (C) is prepared on the sheet material (S), said sheet material (S) having a series of feed holes extending along each longitudinal edge of the strip wherein the cutter (22) includes drive means having sets of sprocket pins which also engage the series of feed holes along each longitudinal edge of the strip (S) for feeding the strip through the cutter (22), and the printer (40) includes drive means (62, 64, 70) having sets of sprocket pins which engage the series of feed holes along each longitudinal edge of the strip (S) for feeding the strip through the printer, the printer being a line printer placing print on the strip along a line extending transverse to the series of feed holes along each edge of the strip. An apparatus for making a graphic product from sheet material comprising: first storage means for storing data defining the peripheral edges (C) of a graphic image (P) as machine readable data, a cutter (22) connected with the first storage means (within 24) and responsive to the stored data for cutting the sheet material (S) along the peripheral edges (C) of the graphic image (P) characterized by second storage means (within 24) for storing data defining printed material and its positional relationship within the peripheral edges (C) of the graphic image (P) as machine readable data, a printer (20, 40) connected with the second storage means (24) and responsive to the stored machine readable data for printing the printed material on a sheet material (S) in positional relationship to the peripheral edges (C) of the graphic image (P) whereby a graphic image (P) containing printed material within the peripheral edges (C) is prepared on the sheet material (S), and means for reading a positional reference track (T) having a known positional relationship on the print-receiving surface of the sheet material (S) with the other printed material to coordinate the position of the sheet material (S) and said cutter (22) with the printed material. An apparatus for making a graphic product as defined in claim 7, characterized in that the printer is a line printer (40). An apparatus for making a graphic product as defined in claim 6, 7 or 8, characterized in that the printer is a thermal printer (40).

Inventors: BRANT LISA M, HEVENOR CHARLES M, LOGAN DAVID J, LOOS WILLIAM A, NILAND JAY T, STEMPIEN JOSEPH W, VOELKER MARTIN C, WEBSTER RONALD B, BRANT, LISA M., HEVENOR, CHARLES M., LOGAN, DAVID J., LOOS, WILLIAM A., NILAND, JAY T., STEMPIEN, JOSEPH W., VOELKER, MARTIN C., WEBSTER, RONALD B.
Applicants: GERBER SCIENT PRODUCTS INC, GERBER SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTS, INC.
Application year: 1993
Main classification: B26F1
IPC codes: B41J25, B41J5, B41J17, B41J11, B41J2, B26F1, B26D5, B41J3, B26D7, B41J15, H04N1