Printing system and method
AssigneeIllinois Tool Works Inc.
InventorsStephen Jay Liker, Donald MacKay, Yu Du, Tzer-Yi Chen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A printing system and method print different colors onto a target object to form a machine-readable data representation having a symbol contrast of at least 40%. The printing system and method direct print heads to print the different colors by printing a base layer of a first color of the different colors on the target object and printing an upper layer of a different, second color of the different colors on top of the base layer of the first color, or by printing print the machine-readable data representation as an interdigitated data representation by printing the different colors onto the target object so that none of the different colors is printed on top of another color of the different colors.
Claims10
A printing method comprising:
- aligning a target object formed from corrugated material along or parallel to a travel direction;
- moving one or more of a printing assembly or the target object along the travel direction;
- and
- printing a bar code onto the corrugated material of the target object with a black ink and a white ink in an interdigitated pattern to form the bar code with a symbol contrast of at least 40% for accurate scanning of the bar code, the bar code printed by printing the black ink and the white ink to fill different, non-overlapping areas in the interdigitated pattern such that none of the black ink overlaps any of the white ink and none of the white ink overlaps any of the black ink within the interdigitated pattern.
A method comprising:
- printing a black ink to fill first areas of a bar code on a corrugated material surface;
- and
- printing a white ink to fill different, second areas of the bar code on the corrugated material surface, wherein the white ink is printed in the second areas without overlapping any of the black ink in the first areas,
- wherein the bar code has a symbol contrast of at least 40% for scanning of the bar code while on the corrugated material surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.