Patent GB-628871-A (GB)
Title: Improved method of manufacturing contact half-tone screens
IPC: G03F5/16
Filed: 1947-05-16
Abstract: 628,871. Photo-mechanical half-tone screens. KODAK, Ltd. May 16, 1947, No. 13291. Convention date, May 18, 1946. [Class 98 (ii)] In a method of manufacturing contact half-tone screens having a pattern of dots, such as are referred to in Specification 544,033, by processing a photo-sensitive layer which has been exposed to a light source through a screen having a rectilinear arrangement of opaque and transparent areas, the light source comprises at least two groups of illuminated apertures, one group only of which may comprise a single aperture, the apertures being positioned in a plane in front of and parallel to the two-tone screen and the photo-sensitive layer, each group of apertures being aligned with the screen openings to expose primarily a different set of dots, the radiant flux from each group of apertures being substantially equal, and the radiant flux centroids (i.e. the points which would, for each group, form the centre of gravity of bodies placed at the centre of each aperture and of mass proportional to the radiant flux issuing from the aperture) of both or all groups being substantially coincident. In a known method of producing a half-tone screen, Fig. 3, light from a source 40, which may be an aperture illuminated by a diffusing arrangement, passes through the transparent elements of a two-tone screen 35 to expose a light-sensitive layer 36 set at distances L and S respectively from, and parallel to, the aperture 40 and the screen 35, forming dots on the surface 36 when it is processed. If a second aperture 42 is placed in the plane of the aperture 40, the distance between the apertures in the direction of the screen pattern being V, and if the distance between the lines of the screen is D, then the dots produced by the two apertures will coincide if V/L=D/S. If the distance between the apertures (measured in the direction of the screen pattern) is halved, i.e. 2V/L = D/S, the number of dots produced on the screen will be doubled. In this case, the apertures are arranged so that the line joining their centres is at 45 degrees to the direction of the screen pattern, Fig. 8. By the use of four apertures as in Fig. 9, four times the number of dots is obtained. In these arrangements the distance S is found to be critical, and greater tolerance is obtained, according to the invention, by replacing a single aperture by a group of apertures as defined above. In Fig. 10 a simple case is illustrated wherein an aperture 55 forms one group and two apertures 56 form a second group. To fulfil the conditions, apertures 56 each pass half as much light as aperture 55, and this is achieved either by making them half the area of aperture 55, or by interposing between the apertures and the source filters 57 which pass only half the light. Also, apertures 56 are in line with and equidistant from aperture 55. 'One set of dots is formed by aperture 55, and a second set by the combined action of apertures 56. Several arrangements of apertures are discussed, for doubling or quadrupling the number of dots. The form of the apertures may becircular with rectangular extensions. A system of four groups of apertures A, B, C, D which is particularly useful for quadrupling is shown in Fig. 22, wherein the numbers arbitrarily denote the radiant flux from each aperture. If the master screen is not exactly rectilinear, the aperture pattern follows the same obliquity. Where the screen consists of two plates with rulings at right-angles cemented together, the effect of the different distances of the two rulings from the sensitive layer is compensated by increasing the aperture spacing in one direction so that the formula 2V/L=D/S holds for both rulings. A diffraction pattern is formed which may help or hinder the formation of dots, and for best results the distance S lies between D<SP>2</SP>/6# and D<SP>2</SP>/24#, or D<SP>2</SP>/3# and D<SP>2</SP>/2#, and is preferably 2D<SP>2</SP>/15# or 2D<SP>2</SP>/5#, where # is the predominant wavelength of illumination. The required evenness of illumination at the sensitive surface is attained by an arrangement of four lamps at corners of a square, light from which passes through a lens and a diffusing screen before illuminating the apertures. The screen produced may be coloured as in Specification 544,033. Specification 628,872 also is referred to.