Surface marked articles, related methods and systems
View Patent ↗A method of surface marking an article, especially a building product, is provided. One described method includes the steps of laser marking a first graphic design element on a surface of an article and ink-jet printing a second graphic design element in registry with the first graphic design element on the surface of the article to create a high quality overall graphic design. Also provided are articles made according to this method, and systems for carrying out the method.
1. The method of replicating the look of any surface comprising:
obtaining a digital pattern which defines the look of a surface;
converting the digital pattern to a DXF vector file with a software program;
importing the DXF vector file to a software program which instructs the laser to etch the pattern at specific operating parameters;
laser etching the graphic or pattern on the substrate;
importing the digital pattern to a raster-rendering program;
converting the digital graphic to a raster file using the raster-rendering program;
converting the raster file to the ink jet controller language; and
ink jet printing the digital pattern on the laser-etched substrate.
2. A method to create the illusion of graphic patterns that appear deeper in dimension than they actually are comprising:
obtaining a digital graphic file which defines the look of a surface of an article;
altering the digital graphic file to adjust the line placement, density, and shadowing characteristics of the graphic for both laser etching and ink jet printing; and
laser etching and ink jet printing the graphic on a substrate.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein software allows a user to select different colors which relate to the depth of the laser etching in a specific area of the graphic.
4. A method for replicating the look of any surface comprising:
analyzing an image to determine colors and tonal characteristics;
separating the image into a first design element to be laser-etched and a second design element to be ink-jet printed based on said analyzing;
laser etching the first design element on a substrate; and
ink jet printing the second design element on the substrate.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the first and second design elements are designed to interact to achieve a realistic replication of any surface with the color, tonal characteristics, depth, and dimensionality of the surface being accurately replicated.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein the graphic elements mimic actual wood looks.
7. A system for performing the method of claim 4 comprising:
software to perform said analyzing and said separating;
a laser system for performing said laser etching; and
an ink-jet printing system for forming said ink-jet printing.
8. An article formed by the method of claim 4 .