Patent ID: 8780406

Claim:
A method for creating a drive pattern for a galvano-scanner system comprising a galvano-scanner capable of scanning a main laser beam and a visible laser beam in a predetermined direction, a scanner driver for driving the galvano-scanner, and a controller for controlling the scanner driver, comprising: making available a master work, having displayed on a surface a plurality of positioning points for defining a scan trajectory followed by the main laser beam; sequentially performing, for each of the positioning points, a teaching operation in which the visible laser beam is irradiated onto the surface of the master work, the galvano-scanner is operated by manual operation via the scanner driver, a position of irradiation of the visible laser beam on the surface is aligned at one of the positioning points by visual observation, position information of the aligned galvano-scanner is obtained from a position sensor attached to the galvano-scanner, and the position information is recorded; deploying the position information obtained for each of the positioning points in a sequence in which each of the position information was obtained, and determining a trajectory over which the visible laser beam moves; setting, individually or as a whole, a duration of movement within each section of movement on the movement trajectory; setting the main laser beam in an on/off state at each position of movement on the movement trajectory; and generating a pattern for driving the main laser beam based on the movement trajectory, the duration of movement, and the information relating to the on/off state of the main laser beam.