Patent SG-142175-A1 (SG)
Title: Electrolytic - thermal treatment marking/etching machine, apparatus, devices, methods, concepts and applications
Inventor: SHEN LAM YEE
Filed: 2006-10-16
Abstract: ELECTROLYTIC - THERMAL TREATMENT MARKING/ETCHING MACHINE, APPARATUS, DEVICES, METHODS, CONCEPTS AND APPLICATIONS This invention relates to marking machine, marking devices, electrolytes, stencils, methods and systems for using the electrolytic marking/etching and surface treatment by thermal effect or/and thermal-chemical reaction to produce marking/etching impression onto various types of parts, workpieces and articles. The invention include the process of marking/etching of the non-electrically conductive layer, such as anodized layer on the electrically conductive base material or substrate to a desired depth and apply the electrolyte/chemical/ink to color the area to a desired depth monitored by electrolytic thermal threshold level devices to control the marking deepness and the amount of material removal or amount of coated layer. A standalone electrolytic thermal treatment marking/etching head device with automatic lectrolyte/chemical/ink or/and cleaner/neutralizer/rinsing liquid circulating system are invented for easily to construct the semi or fully automatic electrolytic thermal treatment marking/etching machine as well as integrated to the Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine to automate the machining process. The invention further using one or more thermal electrodes (heating elements or heat emitting elements) and one of more marking electrodes (electrolytic marking electrodes) arranged in the manners of a plurality of electrolytic thermal electrodes (plurality of electrodes for thermal and electrolytic marking/etching treatment), in the manner of rows and columns, matrix or dot matrix format of electrolytic thermal electrodes. In order to produce the marking/etching impression onto the article/workpiece, the marking head is maintained a small gap and space (with or without marking pad) between the electrolytic thermal electrodes and the article/workpiece surface. During marking process, a series of electronic firing pulse or pulse potential or impulses representative of a desired marking image or pattern is applied to the marking head and produce the marking/etching impression onto the article/workpiece by station or moving the marking head along the x and y axis direction or in primary and secondary scanning direction controlled by motors and velocity positioning driving devices to form the complete image, pattern and data information onto different types of article/workpiece. This also include to construct the marking/etching machine and apparatus with the electrolytic thermal treatment transfer medium to allow the marking/etching process carried out without required any stencil medium, stencil plate to produce the marking/etching image, pattern, logo and text from big to small and mimeo graphic. With this invented electrolytic thermal marking/etching and perforating machine, an invented stencil sheet of various kinds are presented in this invention to produce the stencil, stamping die, magnetic/magnetizable stencil, magnetic/magnetizable stamping die, color printing sheet, recording sheet, data storage sheet, sensing article, flexible printed circuit sheet, nameplate/printing sheet with magnetic or/and sensing substance/particles and etc.