3D Image Printer

3D PRINTING TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

PATENTED TECHNOLOGY

OVERVIEW .............................................................................................................................................. 3 3D Inkjet Printing Overview .................................................................................................................... 3 3D Printing Technologies, Inc.s Plan In Brief ....................................................................................... 3 Advantages to Partner .............................................................................................................................. 3 IDENTIFICATION AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INNOVATION ........................................................... 4 3D Inkjet Printing Overview .................................................................................................................... 4 Problems with Existing 3D Printing Methods......................................................................................... 4 3DPT Technology Inexpensive and Easy to Use .................................................................................. 4 Inkjet Device Enhancements .................................................................................................................... 5 Lens Ink Requirements............................................................................................................................. 5 COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL ................................................................................................................... 6 Consumer Inkjets ...................................................................................................................................... 6 Electronic 3D Displays .............................................................................................................................. 6 Military Applications ................................................................................................................................ 7 Educational Applications .......................................................................................................................... 7

Overview
3D Inkjet Printing Overview
3D Printing Technologies, Inc. (3DPT) has a patented technology to make high resolution (>300

dpi) rotation invariant 3D inkjet printing a reality on a scale and with a cost structure similar to mainstream color inkjet printing. With the exception of 3DPTs technology, no mass-market printing process capable of producing inexpensive yet high-resolution rotation invariant 3D documents exists today. Lenticular lens sheet systems do not share this rotational invariance and are typically difficult to produce with resolutions greater than 150 lenses per inch. 3DPTs patented process (US 6,481,844 B1) entails printing microscopic spherical lenses directly over a cluster of sub image pixels deposited via traditional inkjet methods. To accomplish this, an additional print head is mounted next to the existing print heads on the existing rail system. This new print head deposits a clear polymer instead of a water based ink. Once the droplet of clear polymer has been deposited, it is hardened using a UV light source which is mounted within the printer in close proximity to the current print line. An additional claim of this patent covers the use of this technology to produce 3D electronic displays.

3D Printing Technologies, Inc.s Plan In Brief

3DPT will license the technology rights to its high resolution three-dimensional (3D) inkjet printing
technology, to a partner in return for a negotiated share of the profits and / or royalties made by the partner on its use of the technology. The core technology was invented and patented by 3DPTs founder Dr. Peter Beery, and is sub-licensable through 3DPT. As a first step towards commercialization, 3DPT proposes to work with a third party to adapt an existing inkjet printer design to incorporate the 3D printing hardware enhancements, as well as to develop PC software that will enable use of the new 3D printing features.

Advantages to Partner
The addition of high resolution 3D image printing to a printer line gives the printer partner several market advantages and gains: High Resolution 3D Printing: 3D-Jet represents a unique feature 3D printing in high resolution - which has a high consumer wow factor. By securing a license arrangement with 3D Printing Technologies, the printer partner can ensure that it establishes and retains a unique, defensible, and highly marketable differentiation in the printer market. 3D Photo Printing/ 3D Camera: This technology opens up additional related product paths. New Consumable: This technology introduces an additional print head and an associated uniquely formulated ink. Ink replacement is a major source of profit for the inkjet industry. The proprietary formulation of the lens ink will be protected by patent thus allowing the printer partner to maintain firm control over the supply sources of this ink. Quick, Low-Risk Path to Market: Adapting an existing OEM printer design rather than creating a new printer design from scratch minimizes both the expense and the risk associated

with a new product line extension. With the relatively simple adaptations of OEM printers, the path to market is quick (less than 1 year). 3D Electronic Displays: The patent includes claims specifically allowing the use of this technology to produce 3D electronic displays for laptops or other devices.

Identification and Significance of the Innovation

3D Inkjet Printing Overview
3DPTs patented process (US 6,481,844 B1) entails printing microscopic spherical lenses directly over a cluster of sub image pixels deposited via traditional inkjet methods. To accomplish this, an additional print head is mounted next to the existing print heads on the existing rail system. This new print head deposits a clear polymer instead of a water based ink. Once the droplet of clear polymer has been deposited, it is hardened using a UV light source which is mounted within the printer in close proximity to the current print line. The patent includes claims specifically allowing the use of this technology to produce 3D electronic displays for laptops or other devices.

Problems with Existing 3D Printing Methods

There are several technologies currently available which allow a viewer to look at a flat 2D media (paper, view screen, etc.) and see an image which appears to be 3D (i.e. fills a volume in space). Current 3D methods generally fall into one of the following technology categories: Hologram 3D Image stored in coherent (laser) light interference patterns projected onto film. Auto-stereoscopic 3D Image seen on a seemingly random texture screen by crossing ones eyes Anaglyph 3D Image seen with the aid of two-color (red-green) glasses Lenticular 3D Image produced with aid of a regular array of linear (lenticular) lenses attached directly to the image.

The newest generation of holographic technologies has overcome many of the image quality issues that used to plague the field. However, the production and reproduction of high quality holograms remains difficult and requires expensive equipment. Auto-stereoscopic and anaglyph require either additional viewing equipment or extraordinary personal effort in order view images produced with these techniques. Lenticular 3D images dont require special aids. However, they are limited by their ability to produce 3D effects only along a horizontal plane and by the expense and mechanical difficulty of producing distortion-free high resolution images. Alignment issues make this a difficult technology with which to work.

3DPT Technology Inexpensive and Easy to Use

Like lenticular imaging, 3DPTs 3D Printer technology enables viewing of 3D images without additional equipment or special effort supplied by the viewer. The technologys method is to

deposit microscopic semi-spherical lenses over the image pixels as they are being printed. This technique overcomes the alignment and resolution shortcomings associated with lenticular imaging. This enables much higher resolution (300 600 lenses per inch vs. 72-150 for lenticular displays). In addition to superior resolution, it produces 3D images that may be rotated in the viewing plane without losing the 3D effect. That is, the 3D effect is not limited to the horizontal plane. 3D Printing Technologies' patented 3D technology allows high resolution photo quality 3D images to be produced inexpensively using standard consumer technology on standard consumer platforms.

Figure 1: Printed interlaced pattern for a flower. Normally a sheet of lens would be printed on top of this image in order to produce a 3D image of the flower.
(Big Flower image: copyright Aaron Isaksen, Leonard McMillan 1999 http://graphics.lcs.mit.edu/~aisaksen/projects/ autostereoscopic/index.html)

Figure 2: Photo of a pre-manufactured lens sheet. This lens sheet has roughly 10 lenses per inch. The proposed 3D printer will generate a lens density equal to or greater than 300 lenses per inch.
(image of Fresnel Technologies #300 Hex lens sheet)

Inkjet Device Enhancements

The modifications that are required to convert an existing inkjet printer design into a 3D printing enabled design are surprisingly few in number. They are: 1. An additional print head / ink cartridge a. Contains UV curing clear lens forming polymer ink (Cyanoacrylate based) b. Cartridge made of blackened glass or solvent resistant plastic 2. UV lamp & power source (similar to backlight system used in laptops) 3. Revised printer driver software

Lens Ink Requirements

Typical inks used in inkjet printers are water based and have solid fractions of around 10%. This means that 90% of the volume deposited evaporates. Solvent based inks (including water based) are in general inappropriate candidates for the lens forming ink where a volume filling shape (half spherical dome) must be realized. There are a number of polymer (plastic) materials that can be cured (hardened) with catalyzing chemical agents and which dont exhibit undue shrinkage. Most of these have viscosities that are well out of the range allowed by inkjet

printer technology. There is one class of polymer material (cyanoacrylate) that 3DPT has identified that meets all of the criteria listed above. The material used to create the microscopic lenses must have certain physical characteristics in order to function properly both during deposition and after curing. The required features are: 1. Transparent must transmit light with a minimal amount of scattering. 2. Colorless must be essentially colorless when deposited in layers with 50 micron thickness. (Our lenses will be approximately 42 microns thick) 3. Low viscosity inkjet print heads work best with viscosities in the range of 2-15 cps (centipoises). 4. Fast light cure rate full cure within roughly 100 ms (milliseconds). 5. Low shrinkage during curing less than 5% 6. Long shelf life must not harden (cure) prior to being deposited by the print head 7. Suppressed water cure channel adjust ph by increasing the amount of acidifying agent used.

Commercial Potential
3D Printing Technologies, Inc. (3DPT) has a patented technology to make high resolution (>300

dpi) rotation invariant 3D inkjet printing a reality on a scale and with a cost structure similar to mainstream color inkjet printing. With the exception of 3DPTs technology, no mass-market printing process capable of producing inexpensive yet high-resolution rotation invariant 3D documents exists today.

Consumer Inkjets
The current market size for inkjet printers is roughly $20 billion per year. Prior to the recent economic downturn the printer market was growing at an annual rate of 15- 20%. Color printers comprise by far the vast majority of this market space (75+ %). Most printing tasks make little use of the color features available with color inkjet printers. In this sense color printing is a niche market whereas color printers represent the mainstream market. In a similar fashion, we expect 3D printing to serve as a value add feature for mainstream consumer inkjet printers. As customers become familiar with creating birthday cards et cetera which contain 3D, flip, and/or morph effects, they will tend to purchase printers which offer those features even though the majority of their printing tasks will remain monochrome text printing. The main profit center for consumer inkjets is in the area of consumables -

specifically, replacement ink. Our process requires the use of a specially formulated proprietary transparent ink. This offers a protected high margin profit channel for the 3D printer manufacturer.

Electronic 3D Displays
The patent has a claim allowing the use of this technology for generating 3D electronic displays. Both passive backlit displays (pre-printed image with 3D lens sheet in front) and fully dynamic (LCD/LED) displays such as are used with laptop computers are enabled with this technology.

Military Applications
There are numerous civilian and military applications for this technology. One in particular which may be of interest to the military is the ability to print out high resolution terrain maps that show the 3D nature of the terrain. I.e. maps that show hills and valleys that appear to have height. This added degree of realism can assist planners in a command center and solders in the field that could be given copies of these inexpensive maps.

Educational Applications
Engineering and Science publishers will likely be early adopters of this technology. Both of these general education fields work with concept material (buildings, molecules, multidimensional datasets, etc.) that would be substantially easier for students to grasp if it could be presented as a true three dimensional visualization. 3DPTs inkjet printer technology provides an inexpensive way to produce high resolution rotationally invariant 3D images in volumes appropriate for the publishing world.