System, method and computer program product for side printing on solid surfaces

1 . A system for manufacturing structural members with coated topmost and side surfaces, the system comprising:

at least one structural member having a topmost surface, a bottommost surface, and at least one side surface which is obliquely oriented relative to the topmost surface and the bottommost surface;

a coating apparatus operative to deposit at least one coating on said at least one structural member including the topmost surface and said at least one side surface, wherein the coating comprises a pattern including at least one first portion of the pattern to be printed on at least a portion of the topmost surface and at least one second portion of the pattern to be printed on said at least one side surface, and wherein the at least one side extends between the at least one structural member's topmost and bottommost surfaces, and wherein the at least one side surface forms a curve having a length which differs from a width of the at least one structural member, wherein the length equals a distance between the at least one structural member's topmost and bottommost surfaces, and

a hardware processor configured to modify the second portion of the pattern computationally, thereby to define a modified second portion of the pattern, wherein the modified second portion of the pattern is applied to the at least one side surface, and wherein the hardware processor modifies the second portion of the pattern by obtaining a geometry of the at least one side surface, using the geometry to calculate at least one distortion function, and using the at least one distortion function to modify color or shade intensity of the second portion of the pattern.

2 . The system of claim 1 wherein the coating apparatus comprises an array of printing heads and wherein the coating is printed onto the at least one structural member.

3 . The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one structural member is apertured thereby to define aperture side surfaces and wherein the at least one side surface which is obliquely oriented relative to the topmost surface and the bottommost surface includes at least one of the aperture side surfaces.

4 . The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one side surface which is obliquely oriented is a straight surface whose angle relative to the topmost surface and the bottommost surface differs from 90 degrees.

5 . The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one structural member is rigid and wherein at least one of the topmost surface and the bottommost surface is planar.

6 . The system of claim 1 wherein the coating comprises a layer of ink.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the hardware processor is configured to modify a third portion of the pattern to be printed on a transition region comprising at least a portion of the topmost surface and at least a portion of the at least one side surface, and wherein the modified third portion of the pattern is applied between the first portion of the pattern and the modified second portion of the pattern.

8 . A method for manufacturing structural members with coated topmost and side surfaces, the method comprising:

providing at least one structural member having a topmost surface, a bottommost surface, and at least one side surface which is obliquely oriented relative to the topmost surface and the bottommost surface;

depositing, using a coating apparatus, at least one coating on said at least one structural member including on the topmost surface and said at least one side surface,

wherein the coating comprises a pattern including at least one first portion of the pattern to be printed on at least a portion of the topmost surface and at least one second portion of the pattern to be printed on the at least one side surface,

wherein the at least one side surface extends between the at least one structural member's topmost and bottommost surfaces, and wherein the at least one side surface forms a curve having a length which differs from a width of the at least one structural member, wherein the length equals a distance between the at least one structural member's topmost and bottommost surfaces,

and wherein the second portion of the pattern is modified computationally, by a hardware processor, thereby to define a modified second portion of the pattern, wherein the modified second portion of the pattern is applied to the at least one side surface, and wherein the hardware processor modifies the second portion of the pattern by obtaining a geometry of the at least one side surface, using the geometry to calculate at least one distortion function, and using the at least one distortion function to modify color or shade intensity of the second portion of the pattern.

9 . The method of claim 8 wherein the coating comprises a pattern including at least one first portion of the pattern to be printed on at least a portion of the topmost surface and at least one second portion of the pattern to be printed on the at least one side surface.

10 . The method of claim 8 wherein the coating comprises a layer of ink.

11 . The method of claim 8 wherein the coating apparatus comprises an array of printing heads and wherein the coating is printed onto the at least one structural member.

12 . The method of claim 8 wherein the at least one side surface's oblique orientation relative to at least one of the topmost surface or the bottom more surface defines-an angle, between at least one of the topmost surface or the bottommost surface and the at least one side surface, of over 90 degrees, and wherein said depositing of said at least one coating using said coating apparatus includes depositing the coating on the topmost surface and on the at least one side surface.

13 . The method of claim 12 wherein the second portion of the pattern is printed on a surface including said at least one side surface and a portion of the topmost surface adjacent to the at least one side surface, and wherein the first portion of the pattern is printed on a portion of the topmost surface that does not include the portion of the topmost surface adjacent to the at least one side surface on which the second portion is printed.

14 . A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory tangible computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, that, when executed by a hardware processor of a system for manufacturing structural members including a coating apparatus operative to deposit at least one coating on at least one structural member having a topmost surface, a bottommost surface, and at least one side surface which is obliquely oriented relative to the topmost surface and the bottommost surface, the coating apparatus operative to deposit the at least one coating on the topmost surface and said at least one side surface, executes the method comprising:

computational modification of a second portion of a pattern, to be included in the coating, the pattern including at least one first portion of the pattern to be printed on at least a portion of the topmost surface and at least one second portion of the pattern to be printed on the at least one side surface, to define a modified second portion of the pattern to be applied to the at least one side surface, wherein the at least one side surface extends between the at least one structural member's topmost and bottommost surfaces, wherein the at least one side surface forms a curve having a length which differs from a width of the at least one structural member, wherein the length equals a distance between the at least one structural member's topmost and bottommost surfaces, and wherein the hardware processor modifies the second portion of the pattern by obtaining a geometry of the at least one side surface, using the geometry to calculate at least one distortion function, and using the at least one distortion function to modify color or shade intensity of the second portion of the pattern.

15 . The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the coating apparatus comprises an array of printing heads and wherein the coating is printed onto the at least one structural member.