FI99101C - Method and apparatus for producing characters or figures - Google Patents

Description

99101

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for making characters or patterns, and more particularly to, for example, but by no means exclusively, Braille, i.e. To achieve Braille.

The writing of the blind, the so-called braille, is now accomplished in 10 different ways. At its simplest, the dots are machined on special board by hand pressing with needles using a special writing pad. The procedure is slow and laborious in that the writing must be provided as a mirror image, as the writing is read from a different side of the paper than it is done.

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Other ways include mechanical and electromechanical typewriters. Mechanical typewriters require a great deal of force to produce the dot patterns included in the text on paper. Mechanical machines in particular are heavy-duty vehicles.

More sophisticated systems are also known, in which the basic principle is that, as in the previous system, stick-like marking means are used, which form the desired markings on the special board 25. These devices are therefore printer-type, small. An essential part of all the above-mentioned systems is that the characters they make are permanent and it is impossible to edit the writing, for example to eliminate typos.

• * ♦ 30 Another known system is a device in which characters are formed by ascending pins that are directly palpated to read text. Editing is possible, but the disadvantages of the device ··· are, for example, the high cost of the device per character and the fact that the said • · · · device does not produce permanent output, even if it is desired, but the characters are replaced as the writing progresses. .

The object of the present invention is to provide a method and device which, with a reasonably priced device 299101, produces the desired marks on the material and, if necessary, makes the marks disappear from the material either continuously automatically or from a single point by a different operation and then the material can be used for the same purpose new-5 leen.

It is a further object of the invention to apply the invention to the making of characters, patterns and three-dimensional shapes other than the mere creation of Braille.

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The above and other advantages and advantages of the invention are provided as set forth in the appended claims.

The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which

Figure 1 shows a basic principle of a device developed for carrying out the method according to the invention in a simplified view, 20 and

Figure 2 schematically shows a side view of the device according to Figure 1.

The basic idea of the invention is that text or patterns are printed on a thermoplastic material by the method and device according to the invention. The basic principle is that the material can be deformed by heating it locally to a softening temperature of about • t · '·' 'and subjecting the heated point 30 to a force sufficient to lift the point from the surface of the material used as a tactile mark.

··· According to an embodiment of the invention, the principle • · · ·; * · * involves heating the plastic material in a precisely targeted manner, / usually usually in a point-by-point manner, especially when the method and device according to the invention: When using the method and apparatus of the invention to make larger characters or patterns, it may be ..... advantageous to use a larger heating area than the dots.

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99101 3

According to the invention, the following solutions, for example, can be applied to the above-mentioned solutions. Hot air jets can be used for molding / heating, by means of which the heating, the molding of the mark and the subsequent cooling 5 can take place in a very short period of time, so that the first two stages are practically simultaneous and the third stage, cooling, takes place immediately afterwards.

As other means and means, it is possible to use, for example, 10 roller-like means with point-like hot spots at the desired points, from which heat is transferred to the recording material either by contact or radiation. In this case, a separate step is required to shape the heated dots into palpable patterns. As described below, an overpressure or underpressure applied to the recording material can be used for this step.

A third alternative is to use heated rods which are brought into contact with the used recording material, whereby the material softens from said contact points and the advancement of the rods pushes the material into a suitable mark.

If desired and necessary, a cooling phase can also be connected to the rods.

A schematic view of an embodiment of the invention is shown in Figure 1, which shows the plate-like material 1 in which the marks / patterns are to be provided. Plate-like • · · ···: the material 1 may be strip-like as shown in Fig. 1 *: ·: or sheet-like, such as a piece of conventional paper the size of a conventional paper sheet.

According to an embodiment, in principle shown in Fig. 1, the ribbon-like material 1 runs from right to left in such a way that it moves in the same way as the Ribbon used in a conventional writing machine, one character at a time. In this case, the sign '·'> is generated from the pattern formed by the desired dot matrix 2 so that there are matrix-forming ones below the strip 1. · ·. "nozzles" 3 which, according to a given control, are activated or ..... not activated.Nozzles 3 give a desired jet of hot air of 4 99101 per strip 1 when activated. is one possibility.

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The function of the jet is threefold: first, it heats the material to or near its softening temperature, and second, it pushes the softened area to an elevated point, under the influence of flowing air. Third, the heating of the air jet 10 is stopped and the jet then cools the plastic material to a state where it remains in its patterns. Cooling can, of course, be achieved by other means. The point raised to a point is then formed into a finger-readable character.

In the case of writing on a sheet-like material in the same way as writing on a conventional typewriter, a movable writing head 2 and a nozzle matrix 3 as described above or another suitable heating method are used. The characters are written in the same way as the above letter-20 character at a time using a left-to-right moving head. The write head 2, the matrix, can move in any suitable way. Conventional mechanisms known from dot matrix printers or typewriters can be used here.

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In the third embodiment, the principle can be assumed that. that, if desired, the entire writing mechanism can be • freely selected to comprise a single point and a set of dots covering the entire writable area # · «····. It is clear that the selection criteria here are speed, price and appropriateness. The use of a single "nozzle" is a slow, though inexpensive way to make writing or the like, and a nozzle system covering the entire sheet, for example, is an expensive but quick way to solve the problem. The best result is ··· somewhere between these two embodiments.

• · · · • «· • 35 In the method and device according to the invention, a solution can be used to form an I 1 '·' ·· point or as an aid to forming it: ... in which a vacuum is applied on the side of the material on which the writing takes place. or, on the other hand, on the other side of the overpressure, which performs the final raising of the points provided by the heating to formable readable points. This should be used when using a heating method that cannot in itself perform molding of the dotted points of the softened material.

Thus, according to the invention, this can be arranged so that the structure is made such that the strip or sheet is located in a relatively closed state, in which the provided vacuum or overpressure pulse is sufficient to perform the above-mentioned task.

The situation described above is schematically illustrated in Fig. 2, which shows a side view of a device according to the invention having, in addition to the parts of Fig. 1, a chamber-like part 5, which the strip 1 pierces as it passes. A chamber leads to the chamber 5, through which an overpressure is applied to raise the heated points 15 from the strip of material 1. Correspondingly, the underpressure could be applied to the space above the material 1. An overpressure or underpressure pulse is not required for the development of a sealed housing 5, but a space with limited flow is sufficient. Thus, the openings for the passage of material 1 do not have to be completely tight.

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Another significant advantage of the method and device according to the invention is that it is possible to use the writing material:. again. This property is possible because the durable plastic materials include, as an integral part, a certain kind of memory from the previous state. Thus, by heating a material for which marks have already been provided in the past to a certain temperature, it is rectified and can be used for rewriting.

In Fig. 1, such a "straightening device" is denoted by the reference number 1 · v 4. If desired, the device 4 may also include rollers or similar means 30 by means of which the straightening can be completed.

The device 4 should be located on the inlet side of the writing material 1.

Another option is for the print head itself to heat the material to allow the old characters to retract to the level of the material before heating the points on the material. If necessary, as an intermediate step, cooling can be carried out: ... so that the material is suitable for creating new characters. The characters can be deleted one dot at a time, one character at a time, or in larger sizes. If necessary, the same tools used to create new characters can be used to delete characters. As above, if necessary, mechanical means can be used, for example, to assist in the removal of characters or the correction of the entire recording material.

Many types of plastic are very suitable for use as a writing material according to the invention, which are the so-called thermoplastic type, i.e. they have the desired softening temperature. With respect to the selection of the softening temperature 10, it is preferable to use a material whose softening temperature is quite low, but not so low that the material would deform in a manner not intended.

The method and device according to the invention can also be applied to making characters other than dots, because depending on the control, the same principle also works well for forming patterns. In this case, for example, the same system of hot air nozzles or other heating means is used to heat the softening temperature over areas larger than dots in either one or more stages, thus providing patterns wider than dots on the writing material. For example, it is possible to proceed in such a way that the heating of the material and the application of pressure to it alternate and the final pattern is the result: a series of several steps. As an additional step, it is possible j. / 25 to use the measurement of the obtained elevation to control the next work step i i.

• I i * Φ - ···· The invention has been described above only at a fundamental level, in which case anyone skilled in the art will appreciate that several different procedures can be used for 30 practical applications.

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Claims (5)

7 99101 A method for providing indicia and patterns, for example blind writing characters, on a writing material of thermoplastic material by targeted heating, wherein the targeted heating brings the material to a softening temperature and the marks or patterns are made at heated points of the material, characterized in mark, such as a dot, until the plastic material has reached the softening temperature. 10 A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the dots or other marks are obtained by blowing heated air at the marks to be formed into the material with a force sufficient to lift the marks up from the surface of the material. 15 Method according to Claim 1, characterized in that the making of the new marks is preceded by the removal of the marks previously made on the plastic material by applying heat treatment to the plastic material with a heated air stream, in particular using the marking equipment. 20 An apparatus for providing characters and patterns, for example blind writing characters, on writing material, characterized in that it has nozzles (3) for targeted blowing of heated air at the desired character location and means for lifting the characters or patterns from the surface of the material. 25 Device according to Claim 4, characterized in that the nozzles (3) are • ·; 1 “also intended to act as a means of lifting the marks up from the surface of the material ·· · • 1allowing a sufficiently strong air flow to be blown through. 9 9 9 9 • 30 • · «♦ · · •« · · • · · • · ♦ · · 99101