Patent ID: 8472118

Claim:
A method for manufacturing printed optical elements, comprising: printing with a scanning printing technique a first layer of a transparent ink on elementary surfaces of a printing substrate in order to create reference marks constituting cores, solidifying said cores, and subsequently printing with said scanning printing technique, at least one additional layer of a liquid ink, each of the said additional layers being solidified to form convex protrusions constituting said printed optical elements, wherein said transparent ink used for printing said reference marks has a significantly higher surface tension than that of said printing substrate, said liquid ink used for printing said additional layers has a significantly higher surface tension than that of surfaces of said printing substrate that have not been printed with the reference marks, each ink is a substance that is adapted to be made solid, and said scanning printing technique is a printing technique that includes depositing ink on a printing substrate in either (1) one operation, or (2) by successive stripes from one side of the printing substrate to the opposite one, in contrast to a plotting printing technique that consists in depositing the substance by following each curve to be drawn on the printing substrate.