US3907089A

US3907089A - Supersonic printing method and system thereof

Info

Publication number: US3907089A
Application number: US377902A
Authority: US
Inventors: Marcel Montoya
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1973-07-10
Filing date: 1973-07-10
Publication date: 1975-09-23
Anticipated expiration: 1992-09-23

Abstract

A printing method and system wherein the printing is produced by a supersonic beam impacting against a pressure responsive material, such that the pressure action of the supersonic beam causes printing or impression. The printing system comprises a source of supersonic beam, a modulating system arranged in the path of the supersonic beam to modulate the same, such as to reproduce predetermined characters, a focusing assembly to focus the modulated supersonic beam onto one face of the pressure responsive material and to cause sweeping thereof across the latter to produce impression of a predetermined image.

Description

United States Patent 1191 Montoya 1 Sept. 23, 1975 SUPERSONIC PRINTING METHOD AND SYSTEM THEREOF [76] Inventor:

Apt. 7, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3A 181 22 Filed: July 10,1973

21 Appl. No: 377,902

[52] US. Cl. 197/1 R; 101/1 R; 178/30; 178/DIG. 7; 346/] R; 346/77 R [51] Int. Cl. B41J 3/20 [58] Field of Search....101/426,l R, DIG. 5, DIG. 13; 197/1 R; 332/2, 58, 68; 250/511-513;

181/0.5 ED, 0.5 R; 346/74 R, 74 M, 74 MP,

75, 76 R, 77 R, 77 E; 116/137 R; 178/30, 31,

DIG. 7

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,138,219 6/1964 Blizard 181/.5 ED 3,154,370 10/1964 Johnson 346/77 R 3,187,669 6/1965 Greenblott et al... l01/DIG. 5 3,193,408 7/1965 Triller 250/512 3,351,948 11/1967 Bonn 101/426 X 3,461,229 8/1969 Oppenheimer IOI/DIG. l3

Marcel Montoya, 2180 Souvenir St.,

3,475,760 10/1969 Carlson 346/1 R 3,502,878 3/1970 Stewart ct a1 250/512 3,532,181 10/1970 Demaria et al. 181/.5 R 3,573,847 4/1971 Saccrdoti 101/1 3,643,095 271972 Shuster 250/51 1 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Acoustic Holographic Printer, IBM Tech. Discl. Bulletin, Vol.13, No. 6, Nov. 1970, pp. 1621-1622.

Primary Examiner-E. H. Eickholt [5 7] 1 ABSTRACT A printing method and system wherein the printing is produced bya supersonic beam impacting against a pressure responsive material, such that the pressure action of the supersonic beam causes printing or impression. The printing system comprises a source of supersonic beam, a modulating system arranged in the path of the supersonic beam to modulate the same, such as to reproduce predetermined characters, a focusing assembly to focus the modulated supersonic beam onto one face of the pressure responsive mate-' rial and to cause sweeping thereof across the latter to produce impression of a predetermined image.

2 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures Sept. 23,1975

Patent 4 a 1 SUPERSONIC PRINTING METHOD AND SYSTEM I THEREOF This'invention relates to the art of printing and, more particularly, to a new method and system of printing.

The use of supersonic energy has beendeveloped in the last 50 years andhas so far found many applicatons exclusive of printing.

It is known that a supersonic beam produces a pressure action as does an acoustic beam while being inaudible, as compared to the latter.

The applicant has noted that these particularities of the supersonic beam may be advantageously used to produce printing or impression in combination with a pressure responsive material.

It is therefore a general object of the invention to provide a printing method and system using the pressure action produced by a supersonic beam and a suitable pressure responsive material to perform the printing.

It is a more specific object of the invention to provide a printing method and system wherein a supersonic beam is modulated by transverse deflections to produce predetermined characters, is thereafter focused onto one face of a pressure responsive material and is caused to sweep along the one face to reproduce a predetermined image.

The above and other objects and advantages of the invention will be better understood in the light of the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof, which is illustrated, by way of example only in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a printing system according to the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the printing system of FIG. I.

The illustrated printing system includes a transducer 1 of any suitable type to produce a supersonic or ultrasonic beam, either mechanically or electrically, as is well known in the supersonic art, such as piezoelectric, magnetostrictive and electrostrictive transducers. Such transducers being connected in any suitable manner to an actuating oscillator circuit. By supersonic beam is meant a beam of wave energy of a frequency above the audible range, but below the frequency of electromagnetic radiation.

The supersonic beam 2 produced by the transducer 1 is of relatively large diameter and is projected along a path which is intersected by a modulating system including a pair of masking plates 3 and 4, each having a slit extending orthogonally relative to the slit of the other. The plates 3, 4 are provided each with an extension 5 and 6 respectively having a magnetized portion and extending in the same direction as the corresponding slit. An electromagnet 7 is positioned adjacent and on opposite sides of the extension 5, is connected to an actuating circuit and is arranged to cause up-and-down displacement of the masking plate 3, whereby to allow at anyone time only a selected horizontal slice of the supersonic beam to pass therethrough towards the next masking plate 4. The latter is similarly actuated by an electromagnet 8 and displaced laterally to allow only a small diameter supersonic beam to pass through the intersection of the two slits at any particular time. In order to form a predetermined character, both

electromagnets

7 and 8 are fed with a suitably varying flow of current to cause a corresponding displacement in space of the small diameter supersonic beam 9. Eachpredetermined character may preferably be recorded onto any suitable type of memory, or records, from which'it A roller or drum 10, such as an ordinary typewriter roller, holds a sheet 11 of paper or of any other appro-- priate print or impression receiving material. An inkcarrier strip or ribbon 12 extends transversely in front of the sheet 1 1 and is held at opposite ends b'yreels 13L The target strip or ribbon 12 is of a typeadapted to respond to pressure against the front face thereofand having its rear face in contact with the sheet 11 and adapted to produce an impression on the latter in response to the pressure on the front face similarly as an ordinary carbon. Interdependent movement of the two masking plates 3 and 4 causes the beam 9 to sweep the target strip 12 along a trace forming the character desired to be printed on sheet 11.

A focusing system is interposed between the modulating system and the pressure responsive ribbon or strip 12 and includes a pivotable mirror 14 arranged in the path of the modulated supersonic beam. The focusing system also includes a parabolic mirror 15 having the mirror 14 at the focus thereof.

The mirror or reflector 14 is arranged to be rotated step by step, such as by gears, to deflect the modulated supersonic beam more and more along the strip 12 after completion of each character so as to print successive characters along a printline. This synchronized progress or sweeping may be achieved by a synchronizing circuit, as is known in television to reconstitute the image, line by line. The parabolic mirror 15 directs the small diameter beam 9 always at right angles on the target ribbon 12 along the print line and, thus, prevents character deformation.

It will be understood by any person skilled in the art of telecommunication and printing that the abovedescribed printing system may be combined into a telescriptor, electrocomposer, teletype, copier, calculator and programmer.

The principle of the invention may also be applied to a system for relief printing wherein the sheet of paper 1 1 and the pressure responsive strip 12 are replaced by a relatively soft and possibly hardenable material, which is suitably pressure responsive to receive and hold the impression thereon to form relief printing.

It must also be noted that the method and system of the invention are applicable as well to the impression of characters, drawings, diagrams and images.

Possible diffraction of the ultra-sonic beam, when passing through the intersecting slits of masking plates 3 and 4, will have a minimum effect on the printed character, since ribbon 12 can be selected with a low printing sensibility to thus respond only to the central maximum power intensity zone of the diffracted beam. In fact, it can be calculated that the printed dot can have a diameter smaller than the wave length of the ultra-sonic beam when a ribbon I2 is selected with the proper printing sensibility. This, in turn, allows to choose a beam frequency of maximum propagation through ambient air.

I claim:

1. A printing system comprising a stationarily mounted transducer capable of emitting in ambient air a large diameter supersonic non-electro-magnetic beam, a target ink transfer sheet material in the path of may be read to actuate the two electromagnets 7 and said beam, said target sheet material deformable under pressure exerted by said beam impinging thereon, to transfer ink to an impression receiving sheet disposed contiguous to said target sheet, and a modulating assembly to modulate said beam to print a character on said recording sheet, said modulating assembly including a pair of superposed masking plates, each having a narrow slit, the slits perpendicular to each other and in the path of said beam to allow the emergence of only a small diameter beam through the intersection of said slits, and interdependently controlled electromechanical means to move each plate back and forth to cause get sheet perpendicular thereto along said print line.

Claims

1. A printing system comprising a stationarily mounted transducer capable of emitting in ambient air a large diameter supersonic non-electro-magnetic beam, a target ink transfer sheet material in the path of said beam, said target sheet material deformable under pressure exerted by said beam impinging thereon, to transfer ink to an impression receiving sheet disposed contiguous to said target sheet, and a modulating assembly to modulate said beam to print a character on said recording sheet, said modulating assembly including a pair of superposed masking plates, each having a narrow slit, the slits perpendicular to each other and in the path of said beam to allow the emergence of only a small diameter beam through the intersection of said slits, and interdependently controlled electromechanical means to move each plate back and forth to cause said small diameter beam to sweep said target sheet along a trace forming the character desired to be printed on the impression receiving sheet.

2. A printing system as claimed in claim 1, further including means to displace said narrow beam step by step along a print line of said target sheet, comprising a beam reflecting stepwise rotatable mirror in the path of said narrow beam, and a parabolic reflector having its focus at said mirror and located to receive said narrow beam from said mirror and reflect it onto said target sheet perpendicular thereto along said print line.