JPH04156459A - Mask for high contrast exposure - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain a high contrast clear image by a method wherein a photochromic material is placed between a non-light emitted display device forming transparent light into an image form in response to a digital image information and a photosensitive material. CONSTITUTION:Exposed light from an exposure light source is shielded or transmitted for every image so as to form an image with a liquid crystal mask 12 of transparent type having many pixels and then light passed through the liquid crystal mask 12 is projected against a photochromic material 14. The photochromic material 14 becomes transparent where light passed through the liquid crystal mask directly impinges against the photochromic material 14 and its amount of light is attenuated at another place where the liquid impinges indirectly against the photochromic material 14. The place where no light impinges is opaque or in a dark color. Accordingly, light passed through the liquid crystal mask 12 is intensified at its contrast with the photochromic material 14 and further projected onto the photosensitive material. With such an arrangement, it is possible to get a clear image of high contrast.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to an exposure mask using a non-emissive display device, and more specifically, it can be applied to a plate-making device and a modeling device, and Concerning an exposure mask with high contrast of transmitted light.

<Prior Art> Conventionally, in exposure apparatuses that can be applied to plate-making apparatuses and modeling apparatuses, there are two main exposure methods: a surface exposure method using a photomask and a scanning exposure method using convergent light.

For example, in a specific example in which these two exposure methods are applied to a three-dimensional printing apparatus, one of them is the printing apparatus 10 shown in FIG.
A large number of photomasks 102 with images of the cross-sectional shapes to be laminated as shown in FIG. The surface of the uncured photocurable resin 106 is exposed to light and cured in the shape of a projected image, and this is repeated while the substrate 108 is moved downward by a predetermined amount by the Z moving device 109, and the thin plate-like sections 110 are sequentially stacked. This is for modeling a dimensional object 112.

The other method is to use light emitted from a light source 104 for each cross-sectional shape to be laminated and converged by a lens 122, as shown in the modeling apparatus 120 shown in FIG.
The surface of the substrate 108 is imagewise scanned and cured by the X 7 Y moving device 124, and the substrate 108 is moved downward by a predetermined amount by the Z moving device 109, and the thin plate-like sections 110 are sequentially stacked to form the three-dimensional object 11. 2.

The latter can directly use data 126 of a three-dimensional object designed using a CAD system, as shown in FIG.
The light source 10 is manually controlled by an NC (numerical control) device such as 28.
Shutter 1 inserted in the optical path between 4 and lens 122
30, a tank 132 filled with photocurable resin 106, and a table 134 on which a Z moving device 109 for a substrate 108 that supports a three-dimensional object 110 is mounted, are moved in two-dimensional directions.
- By controlling the Y moving device 124 to be driven in conjunction with each other to form one layer of thin plate-like sections 110, and controlling the Z moving device 109 to stack the sections 110, it is possible to can produce three-dimensional objects with great ease and precision.

The basic configuration of a plate making apparatus to which the above two exposure methods are applied can be considered as a modeling apparatus minus a moving device.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> By the way, the exposure of the above-mentioned photocurable resin is carried out using a photomask 1.
The modeling apparatus 100 used in 02 is an inexpensive and extremely simple apparatus, but it requires a large number of photomasks 102 such as photographic film having cross-sectional images, and the photomask IC) 2 must be replaced after each lamination. (There was a problem that the positioning etc. were troublesome.)

Another type of modeling apparatus 120 that uses convergent light is C.
Although AD data etc. can be used directly, whether moving the convergent light or moving the substrate 108, NC
Not only is the positional accuracy of the expensive two-dimensional table (a movable X-Y moving device 124 is required), but also the light source 10
4. In addition to a laser with sufficient light intensity, such as a UV laser,
A high-precision shack 130 and a lens 122 that constitute the laser optical system are required, and controllers for controlling the X-Y moving device 124 and shack 130 are also required, which is not only expensive but also requires a complicated device configuration. There was a problem with the size.

Similarly, in the above-mentioned plate-making apparatus, one exposure method requires time and effort to replace the photomask and alignment, and the other exposure method requires a laser optical system that requires a highly accurate shutter and lens. Furthermore, there are problems in that not only the shutter controller is expensive but also the device configuration becomes large.

It is an object of the present invention to be applicable to a plate-making device and a three-dimensional modeling device, to form a transparent document by directly forming digital image information on a non-emissive display device, and to produce a clear image with high contrast from a general light source. Another object of the present invention is to provide an exposure mask capable of exposing a mesh image to a photosensitive material, a photocurable resin, or a thermoset resin.

Means for Solving the Problems> In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a non-emissive display device that forms transmitted light into an image according to digital image information, and a non-emissive display device and a photosensitive material. Provided is an exposure mask using a non-emissive display device characterized by having a photochromic material interposed between the photochromic material and the photochromic material.

<Operation of the Invention> According to the present invention, exposure light from an exposure light source is blocked or transmitted (on-off) imagewise for each pixel by a non-emissive display device having a large number of pixels, and the non-emissive Light transmitted through the shape display device is projected onto the photochromic material.

A photochromic material in the present invention is a material that becomes transparent when exposed to light and remains opaque or dark in color when not exposed to light, and where the light transmitted through the non-emissive display device directly impinges on this photochromic material. is transparent and transmits light well, and effectively attenuates the amount of light in areas where the light hits the photochromic material indirectly, that is, where relatively weak light such as scattered light or coming around from other sources hits. let Also, areas that are not exposed to light remain opaque or dark. Therefore, the contrast of the exposure light that has passed through the non-emissive display device is enhanced by the photochromic effect, and the contrast of the light that is projected onto the photosensitive layer is high (significantly improved). The reason why the contrast is increased depending on the material is that if only a non-emissive display device is used, the contrast may be insufficient depending on the sensitive material.

The non-emissive display device is capable of transmitting light or blocking light, that is, turned on and off, for each pixel, and is controlled by a control device to form a predetermined mask shape.

Further, when the exposure mask described above is applied to a modeling device, a three-dimensional object with relatively good dimensional accuracy can be formed very easily compared to a conventional three-dimensional printing device. In particular, conventionally,
Compared to an apparatus that exposes a thin photocurable resin layer using a large number of 4-masks, there is no need to prepare a large number of photomasks such as photographic film, and there is no need to replace the photomasks each time the layers are laminated. On the other hand, compared to an apparatus that performs scanning exposure using convergent light such as a laser beam, an expensive NC two-dimensional movement apparatus is not required.

By using the exposure mask of the present invention in a plate-making device,
Digital image information is output to a non-emissive display device, and light is irradiated from a light source to the photosensitive material for platemaking through the photomask and photochromic material of the non-emissive display device, thereby exposing a gradation image in image form. It is possible to achieve a small direct plate-making device with a simple configuration.
Furthermore, since no special peripheral equipment is required, the cost can be reduced.

<Embodiment> The exposure mask according to the present invention will be described in detail below based on a preferred embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings τj.

In the present invention, a non-emissive display device such as a transmissive liquid crystal display, G
aAs.

KH2PO4, KH2PO4, LtNbO3゜L jT
ag3. An optical shutter with an array configuration in which an electro-optic material exhibiting an electro-optic effect such as PLZT is sandwiched between two polarizing plates (e.g., a polarizer and an analyzer), or an electrochromic material such as WOa, Prussian blue-based and viologen-based compounds Electrochromic display using materials (
ECD) and a photochromic material may be used in combination.

An embodiment of the exposure mask of the present invention will be described based on FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, the exposure mask IO of the present invention includes a liquid crystal mask 12 as a non-emissive display device and a photochromic material 14, and further includes a mask 12 for forming a mask of a desired shape on the liquid crystal mask 12. It has a control device 1G.

An embodiment of the liquid crystal mask 12 is shown in FIG. 2a. The liquid crystal mask 12 includes a liquid crystal 18 such as nematic liquid crystal, cholestic liquid crystal, smectic liquid crystal, etc. on two glass substrates 20.
．． A thin insulating spacer 24 of an appropriate thickness is inserted between the glass substrates 20 and 22 to prevent the glass substrates 20 and 22 from coming into contact with each other.
．． A liquid crystal cell 32 is enclosed with a glass substrate 20 and a transparent electrode 28, 30 made of a transparent conductor 161 or the like attached to the inner surface of a glass substrate 20°22, and two polarizing plates arranged before and after this liquid crystal cell 32 It consists of 34.36.

Here, as shown in FIG. 2b, one transparent electrode 28 has a large number of strip-shaped transparent electrodes arranged in parallel in a predetermined direction (X-axis direction), and the other transparent electrode 30 facing
A structure in which a large number of band-shaped transparent electrodes are arranged in parallel in the direction perpendicular to this (Y-axis direction) enables matrix driving, and the required number of pixels, for example 64, is achieved by the number of band-shaped electrodes.
A liquid crystal cell 32 having about 0.times.400 pixels can be constructed.

When the two polarizing plates 34 and 36 are arranged with their polarization directions orthogonal to each other, the light incident on the liquid crystal mask 12 passes through one of the polarizing plates 34, for example, so that only the light vibrating in one direction passes through. The light enters the liquid crystal cell 32. Here, the transparent electrode 28
．． When no voltage is applied to the liquid crystal cell 30, the light incident on the liquid crystal cell 32 is rotated by 90 degrees within the liquid crystal 18, exits from the liquid crystal cell 32, and enters another polarizing plate 36. Here, since the polarization direction of the polarizing plate 36 is perpendicular to the polarizing plate 34, the incident light can pass through the polarizing plate 36. In contrast,
When a sufficient voltage is applied to the transparent electrodes 28 and 30, the liquid crystal 18 in the liquid crystal cell 32 does not rotate the direction of vibration of the incident light and allows the incident light to pass through as it is, so that the light cannot pass through the polarizing plate 36 and the light is blocked.

On the other hand, when the two polarizing plates 34 and 36 are arranged with their polarization directions balanced, the transparent electrode 28 of the liquid crystal cell 32
．． When no voltage is applied to 30, light is blocked, and when voltage is applied, light is transmitted.

The liquid crystal mask 12 used in the present invention is not limited to the one having the above configuration (although a liquid crystal display having any other configuration may be used).

The photochromic material 14 is made of a compound whose structure changes when it is irradiated with light and restores itself again by the action of heat or light of a different wavelength. In the present invention, as described above, the photochromic material 14 becomes transparent when exposed to light. Examples of photochromic materials 14 having such properties include spirobilane compounds, naphthoxazine compounds, fulgides, dihydropyrenes, etc., which remain opaque or dark in color when not exposed to light. Examples include type compounds.

The mask control device 16 includes a control section that performs voltage control to form an image on the liquid crystal mask 12 for each pixel. The control unit includes a mask controller that is connected to the liquid crystal mask 12 and controls turning on and off of each pixel of the liquid crystal mask 12 according to image data, and a computer that controls the timing of turning on and off the liquid crystal mask 12 and other various controls. Consisting of

According to the exposure mask 10 of the present invention having such a configuration,
A transmission type liquid crystal mask 12 having a large number of pixels blocks or transmits (on-off) exposure light from an exposure light source (not shown) image-wise for each pixel, and this liquid crystal mask 12
The transmitted light is projected onto the photochromic material 14. The photochromic material 14 is a portion where the light transmitted through the liquid crystal mask directly hits the photochromic material 14.
It is transparent and transmits light well, and effectively attenuates the amount of light at a location where the light indirectly hits the photochromic material 14, that is, a location where relatively weak light such as scattered light or coming around from other sources hits the photochromic material 14. Also, areas that are not exposed to light remain opaque or dark. Therefore, liquid crystal mask 1
The contrast of the exposure light transmitted through the photochromic material 14 is enhanced by the photochromic material 14, and the contrast of the light projected onto the photosensitive material becomes high.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A modeling apparatus using a liquid crystal mask according to the present invention will be described in detail based on preferred embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an embodiment of a modeling apparatus using the liquid crystal mask of the present invention.

In the figure, a modeling apparatus 4 using the liquid crystal mask of the present invention is shown.
0 includes a light source 42, a diffusion plate 44, a liquid crystal mask 12,
A tank 50 filled with the photochromic material 14 and a liquid resin 48 that is cured by light irradiation, a substrate 54 that supports the cured thin plate-like section 52 within the tank 50, and a moving device 56 that moves the substrate 54 downward. Data source 58
The control device 16 receives image data of a target three-dimensional object from the computer and controls the liquid crystal mask 12 and the moving device 56.

Note that in the illustrated device 40, the liquid level 4 of the resin 48 is
The tank 50 and the moving device 56 are placed on the same base 62 so that the position of the substrate 54 between the tank 50 and the moving device 56 can be accurately controlled.

The light source 42 is not particularly limited, and any known light source that is optimal for the resin 48 can be used as long as it emits an amount of light that can cure the resin 48 even in surface exposure of the required area. . For example, when using a photocurable resin that hardens with ultraviolet rays as the resin 48, an ultraviolet lamp such as a quartz mercury lamp or a carbon arc lamp is used, and when using a thermosetting resin that hardens with infrared rays, an ultraviolet lamp such as a Grover tungsten lamp or a high pressure mercury lamp is used. In the case of curing with an infrared lamp or visible light, a halogen lamp or the like can be used.

Although the diffusion plate 44 is not necessarily required, it is preferable to provide it in order to irradiate uniform light onto the exposure surface of the liquid crystal mask 12 having a required area.

The liquid crystal mask 12 may be any type of liquid crystal display as described above as long as it functions as an optical shutter.

The liquid resin 48 that is cured by light irradiation used in the present invention is cured only in the irradiated portion by irradiation with ultraviolet rays, visible light, infrared rays, etc., and the hardness and rigidity of the solidified product obtained by curing are such that the hardness and rigidity of the solidified product are Any resin that is sufficient to form the resin may be used.

Examples include photocurable resins that are cured by photopolymerization reactions and thermosetting resins that are thermosetted by heat rays, but those having the following properties are preferred.

a. In the liquid state before irradiation with light, it should be transparent and have low viscosity.

b. High sensitivity to light or photothermal rays (fast curing speed), little propagation of curing to areas other than the light irradiated area, and small volumetric shrinkage during curing.

The solidified product obtained by C1 curing must have sufficient hardness and rigidity.

The photocurable resin used in the present invention may be any resin that initiates polymerization directly or by decomposition of a photopolymerization initiator upon irradiation with ultraviolet rays or visible light, and cures by radical reaction or ionic reaction. Even if it’s something (
Examples include vinyl resins such as styrene resins, methacrylic resins, acrylic resins, and vinyl acetate resins, epoxy resins, polyester resins, and bisphenol A polycarbonates.

The photocurable resin photopolymerized by a radical reaction is composed of a mixture of a photopolymerizable prepolymer (oligomer) of the above resin in the form of -E9, a photopolymerizable monomer (monomer), and a photopolymerization initiator; It may contain a sensitizing agent, an antifoaming agent, a stabilizer, etc., if necessary.

First, the oligomer is the main component that determines the properties of the cured product, but it has a very high viscosity.

The monomer is incorporated as a diluent to reduce the viscosity of the oligomer. Since the monomer undergoes a photopolymerization reaction, a large amount of curing shrinkage occurs.

Therefore, a non-reactive diluent may be added instead of the monomer as a diluent, or a filler such as plastic beads may be added to lower the monomer ratio.

The resin tank 50 is a tank that stores the liquid resin 48 and may be of any type as long as it has a depth and size that can accommodate the target three-dimensional object while it is placed on the substrate 54.

The substrate 54 may be of any type as long as it has the strength to support the target three-dimensional object and on which the laminate 23 of the thin plate-shaped sections 52 made of cured resin is placed, but in the illustrated example, The parallel portion 54 extends parallel to the bottom of the resin tank 50 from one end of the tank 50 to the other end.
An arm 54b is provided on the upper part perpendicular to a, and the arm 54b is connected to the moving device 5.
It is fixed to the traveling nut 56a of No. 6. The shape and length of the parallel portion 54a and the arm 54b may be determined in advance as appropriate depending on the shape, size, and height of the three-dimensional object. In particular, even if the lamination of the laminate 53 progresses, the parallel portions 54 . It is necessary to have enough strength to allow a to move in parallel without bending.

The moving device 56 includes a traveling nut 56a, a drive screw 56b that meshes with the traveling nut 56a, and a motor 56c that rotates the drive screw 56b.
This is for moving the substrate 54 by a predetermined amount in order to accurately form a resin layer of a predetermined thickness on the upper side of the 4 or laminate 53.

The data supply source 58 stores slice shape data obtained by cutting horizontally at appropriate intervals from design data such as CAD data, and transmits it to the control device 16, and may be a storage device or a computer. It may be.

The control device 16 is connected to the liquid crystal mask 12 and the motor 56c of the moving device 56, and includes a mask controller that controls on/off of each pixel of the liquid crystal mask 12 according to image data consisting of slice shape data, and a mask controller that controls the rotation of the motor 56c. A movement controller that controls the amount of movement of the substrate 54, and a liquid crystal mask 12 using these controllers.
It is composed of a computer that performs various controls such as the on/off timing of the circuit board 54 and the movement timing of the board 54.

The modeling apparatus 40 using the exposure mask of the present invention operates as follows.

The resin tank is filled with liquid resin 48 in advance, and the light source 4
2 is lit, a slice-shaped image data group is stored in the data supply source 58, and is in a state where it can be transmitted to the control device 16.

First, the substrate 54 is moved to the uppermost position by the moving device 5G, and a liquid resin layer having a thickness corresponding to the interval of the slice shape data is formed on the upper side of the substrate 54.

Next, the control device 16 controls the liquid crystal mask 12 on and off in accordance with the image data of the bottommost part of the target three-dimensional object taken in from the data supply source 58, so that the light is emitted from the light source 12 and is uniformly distributed by the diffuser plate 14. The imagewise transmitted light is transmitted in an imagewise manner, and the contrast of the imagewise transmitted light is further increased using the photochromic material 14, and the liquid resin layer is surface-exposed for a predetermined period of time with this high-contrast transmitted light, and this resin 48 is Only the portion irradiated with the transmitted light is imagewise cured to form a solidified thin plate-like section 52 on the substrate 54.

In this way, the bottom first layer of the three-dimensional object is formed.

Next, the control device 16 rotates the motor 56c of the moving device 56 by a predetermined amount of rotation, lowers the substrate 54 by a predetermined amount, and deposits a liquid resin layer with a thickness corresponding to the interval between the second layers of the three-dimensional object into the first layer. Form on the layer.

Thereafter, the cross-sectional shape of the second layer is exposed to light through the liquid crystal mask 12 in the same manner as described above to harden the second layer on the first layer, and the thin plate-like sections 52 are laminated.

A three-dimensional object is formed by stacking a large number of thin plate-like sections 52 on the stacked body 53 while changing the slice-shaped image data according to the order of the above-described procedure.

The modeling apparatus using the exposure mask of the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned modeling apparatus 40, and various other apparatuses are possible.

Furthermore, an exposure optical system when the exposure mask according to the present invention is applied to an exposure apparatus will be explained in detail based on FIG. 4.

As shown in the conceptual diagram of FIG. 4, the exposure optical system 70 includes a light source 72, a diffusion plate 74, and an exposure mask 10.
This exposure mask 10 has a contact screen 76 when used for plate making. The light source 72 is not particularly limited as long as it emits an amount of light that can expose the photoreceptor P even in surface exposure of the required area, and may be a conventionally known light source such as a halogen lamp or a carbon arc. Lights, fluorescent lamps, ultra-high pressure mercury lamps, xenon lamps, etc. can be used.

Although the diffuser 74 is not necessarily required, it is preferable to provide it in order to irradiate uniform light onto the exposure surface of the exposure mask 10 having a required area.

As described above, the exposure mask 10 is composed of, for example, the liquid crystal mask 12 and the photochromic material 14.

A contact screen 76 is preferably placed between the photochromic material 14 and the photosensitive material P to further form a halftone image. Since the liquid crystal mask 12 and the photochromic material have been described above, their explanation will be omitted.

The contact screen 76 is necessary when a mesh image is formed on the photoreceptor P, and any commonly used contact screen may be used. This contact screen 76 is preferably brought into close contact with the photoreceptor P in order to obtain a clear net image. Preferably the contact screen 7
G, liquid crystal mask] 2 and old photochromic material 14
It would be better if these were integrated. When the liquid crystal mask 12 and the photochromic material 14 are to be integrated with the contact screen 76, it is preferable that the pixels formed by the liquid crystal mask 12 and the halftone dots of the contact screen 76 be made to coincide with each other.

The exposure optical system 7° using the above-mentioned exposure mask can be applied to various plate-making apparatuses, and is particularly suitable for direct plate-making apparatuses (and is also suitable for application to apparatuses that perform contact exposure). desirable.

An embodiment of an electrophotographic engraving apparatus in which an exposure optical system 70 using an exposure mask of the present invention is applied to an electrophotographic engraving apparatus will be shown below with the schematic cross-sectional view of FIG.

In the figure, an electrophotographic engraving apparatus 80 using the exposure mask of the present invention includes a photoreceptor supply section 82 that supplies an electrophotographic photoreceptor P, and a charging section 8 that uniformly charges the photosensitive layer of the photoreceptor P.
8, an exposure section 9o that irradiates the −-like charged photoreceptor P with laser light to form an electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor P, and an electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive layer of the exposed photoreceptor P. It has a developing section 92 that develops the image with toner to form a toner image, and a fixing section 94 that fixes the toner images formed on the photosensitive layer of the development photoreceptor P.

An electrophotographic photoreceptor P wound into a roll with the photoreceptor layer inside is detachably attached to the photoreceptor supply section 82, and a pull-out roller 8 is attached to the photoreceptor supplying section 82 in correspondence with the tip of the electrophotographic photoreceptor P.
4 is set.

The tip of the sensitive body P is inserted between the pull-out rollers 84 and arranged so as to be pulled out. A cutter 86 is provided on the conveyance downstream side of the pull-out roller 84. When the photoreceptor P of a predetermined length is pulled out by the conveyance device, the cutter 86 cuts the photoreceptor P into a sheet shape.

A corona charger constituting a charging section 88 is disposed at a predetermined distance on the conveyance downstream side of the cutter 8G, and uniformly charges the sheet-like photoreceptor P. The corona charger may be of a double corona charging type or a single corona charging type, for example.

The exposure section 90 includes a holding section for the photoreceptor P and an exposure optical system 70. The holding section for the photoreceptor P holds the --like charged photoreceptor P on its surface and determines the exposure position. The exposure optical system 70 has the configuration shown in FIG.

The photoreceptor P exposed in the exposure section 90 is developed in the development section 92.

The developing section 94 is composed of a developing electrode and a back electrode, and when the photoreceptor P is conveyed to the developing section 94, the charged l
- Toner development is performed by adhering a predetermined amount of toner particles to the image area where the electrostatic latent image is formed, depending on the electrolytic strength between the developing electrode and the photoreceptor P. The toner developer used in the present invention is not particularly limited, and any toner developer used in conventional photoreceptor development can be used.

The fixing unit 94 is for fixing the toner image on the photoconductor P that has been developed with toner by the development unit 92 and squeezed out of excess toner developer. It consists of The heater dries the photoreceptor P.

However, any suitable device can be used as long as it can heat and fix the toner image formed on the photosensitive layer of the photoreceptor P (for example, a lamp heater, a panel heater, etc. can be used).

The photoconductor P carried out from the fixing section 94 is transferred to a hydrophilic treatment section 96.
Then, it is subjected to a hydrophilic treatment using an etching liquid, and is conveyed by a take-out roller 98 and sent out from the main body of the electrophotolithography apparatus 80.

Above, examples in which the exposure mask of the present invention is applied to a modeling device and an electrophotographic engraving device have been described, but the exposure optical system using the exposure mask of the present invention can be applied to various exposure devices. Of course. It is particularly desirable to apply this method to an apparatus that performs contact exposure. Examples of the light-sensitive material include silver salt photographic and electrophotographic light-sensitive materials, pressure-sensitive and heat-sensitive light-sensitive materials, and photosensitive resin materials.

<Effects of the Invention> As described in detail above, according to the exposure mask of the present invention, image-like exposure light with enhanced contrast is produced by the non-emissive display device and the photochromic material having a predetermined mask shape. When projected onto a photosensitive material, an image with high contrast can be obtained.

According to the modeling apparatus using the exposure mask of the present invention, a liquid resin layer of a predetermined thickness is layered by repeating surface exposure and curing through a non-emissive display device to obtain a three-dimensional object. This makes it much easier to obtain three-dimensional objects compared to conventional methods that use a large number of photographic films as photomasks, and it is also possible to directly use CAD data and design data processed by various processing devices. In addition, an expensive X-Y moving device is not required, and the device configuration can be made small, compact, and inexpensive.

On the other hand, compared to a conventional modeling device that uses laser scan exposure, which takes a long exposure time, the modeling device that uses the exposure mask of the present invention can cure a thin plate-like section by exposing the entire surface to light, so the exposure time can be shortened. However, since scanning is not performed, there is no need for an X-Y moving device, and there are few moving parts (
The device configuration is simple.

Therefore, the device of the present invention can be used at a design site to confirm the design of mechanical parts, industrial products such as automobiles, buildings such as houses, buildings, and halls, and structures such as bridges, tunnels, and expressways. A dimensional physical model can be manufactured easily, accurately, and at low cost.

By using an exposure mask composed of such a non-emissive display device and a photochromic material in a plate-making device, digital images obtained after image processing can be processed directly from various image processing devices or by other image processing devices. Outputting image information to a non-emissive display device, and irradiating light from a light source to a photosensitive material for platemaking through a photomask and a photochromic material by the non-emissive display device to expose a gradation image in image form. This makes it possible to achieve a small-sized direct plate-making device with a simple configuration, and since no special peripheral devices are required, the cost can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing an exposure mask according to the present invention. FIG. 2a is a sectional view of an embodiment of a liquid crystal mask which is an example of a non-emissive display device used in the present invention, and FIG. 2b is a diagram showing the configuration of a liquid crystal cell constituting the liquid crystal mask of FIG. 3a. FIG. FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an embodiment of a modeling apparatus to which an exposure mask using a non-emissive display device according to the present invention is applied. FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an exposure optical system to which an exposure mask using a non-emissive display device according to the present invention is applied. FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an embodiment of an electrophotographic engraving apparatus to which an exposure mask using a non-emissive display device according to the present invention is applied. FIGS. 6 and 7 are schematic cross-sectional views of conventional three-dimensional printing apparatuses, respectively. Explanation of symbols 10... Exposure mask, 12... Liquid crystal mask, 14... Photochromic material, 16... Control device, 18... Night crystal, 32... Liquid crystal cell, 40. ... Molding device, 70... Exposure optical system, 80... Electrophotographic engraving device FIG, 2b FIG, 3 Bow 4a

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A non-emissive display device comprising a non-emissive display device that forms transmitted light into an image according to digital image information, and a photochromic material interposed between the non-emissive display device and a photosensitive material. Exposure mask using a light-emitting display device.