# US 11,897,156 B2 · Automated application of cut thermal adhesive films > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,897,156 B2 - Document ID: US11897156B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 17/968,458 - Filed: 2022-10-18 - Published: 2023-02-09 - Granted: 2024-02-13 - Earliest claimed: 2015-03-16 - Assignees: Zazzle Inc. - Applicants: Zazzle Inc. - Inventors: Young Harvill - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11897156B2 ## CPC - B26D 3/085: {On sheet material} - B26D 5/00: Arrangements for operating and controlling machines or devices for cutting, cutting-out, stamping-out, punching, perforating, or severing by means other than cutting - B26F 1/00: Perforating; Punching; Cutting-out; Stamping-out; Apparatus therefor (perforating by laser beam B23K26/00; subjecting the grinding tools or the abrading medium to vibration, e.g. grinding with ultrasonic frequency, B24B1/04; perforating by sand-blasting B24C; punching cards or tapes for statistical and record purposes G06K1/00) - B26F 1/3813: {wherein the tool head is moved in a plane parallel to the work in a coordinate system fixed with respect to the work} - B44C 1/162: {Decalcomanias with a transfer layer comprising indicia with definite outlines such as letters and with means facilitating the desired fitting to the permanent base} - G05B 19/4097: characterised by using design data to control NC machines, e.g. CAD/CAM (G05B19/4093 takes precedence) - Y02P 90/02: Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS] - B26D: CUTTING; DETAILS COMMON TO MACHINES FOR PERFORATING, PUNCHING, CUTTING-OUT, STAMPING-OUT OR SEVERING (for growing crops or plants A01D, A01G; for fodder or straw A01F; for bulk butter A01J; for dough A21C; slaughtering A22B; for tobacco, cigars or cigarettes A24; marking-out, perforating or making buttonholes A41H25/00; manufacturing footwear A43D; brushmaking A46D; surgery A61B; disintegrating, mincing or shredding in general B02C; cutting wire, making pins or nails B21F, B21G; of the kind used formetal B23; cutting by abrasive fluid jets B24C5/02; hand-held cutting tools B26B; perforating, cutting-out, stamping-out or punching, or severing by means other than cutting B26F; for wood B27; for stone B28D; working of plastics or substances in a plastic state B29; making boxes, cartons, envelopes or bags, of paper or similarly worked materials, e.g. metal foil, B31B; article or web delivery apparatus incorporating cutting or line-perforating devices B65H35/00; for leather or upholstery B68, C14B; for glass C03B; making matches C06F; for peat C10F; for sugar C13B45/00; for textile materials D06H; civil engineering, building, mining, see Section E; for light guides G02B6/25; cutting processed photographic material G03D15/04) - B26F: PERFORATING; PUNCHING; CUTTING-OUT; STAMPING-OUT; SEVERING BY MEANS OTHER THAN CUTTING (marking-out, perforating or making buttonholes A41H25/00; shoemaking A43D; surgery A61B; punching metal B21D; drilling metal B23B; cutting of metal by applying heat locally, e.g. flame cutting, B23K; cutting by abrasive fluid jets B24C5/02; details common to machines for severing B26D; drilling wood B27C; drilling stone B28D; working of plastics or substances in a plastic state B29; making boxes, cartons, envelopes or bags, of paper or similarly worked materials, e.g. metal foil, B31B; of glass C03B; of leather C14B; of textile materials D06H; for light guides G02B6/25; of tickets G07B) - B44C: PRODUCING DECORATIVE EFFECTS (processes for applying liquids or other fluent materials to surfaces, in general B05D; shaping of plastics or substances in a plastic state B29C; printing processes to produce transfer pictures B41M3/12; thermographic duplication or marking methods B41M5/00); MOSAICS; TARSIA WORK (imitation of mosaic or tarsia work patterns B44F11/04); PAPERHANGING {(labels G09F; multi-step processes for making paper labels or tags B31D1/02)} - G05B: CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS (systems for controlling or regulating non-electric variables G05D; systems for regulating electric or magnetic variables G05F; control devices or systems insofar as characterised by mechanical features only G05G) - Y02P: CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS ## Abstract Method of manufacturing a substrate with a cut thermal film comprises obtaining an input digital image of a design to be transferred to the substrate; storing the input image in memory; rendering design elements of the design as a single output image; based upon a bleed size value, a maximum number of negative areas, a maximum number of positive areas, and attribute values: resizing the image to include a border for bleed; filling transparent areas of the image with the substrate attribute values; creating a cutting path; creating a mask image; inverting the mask image; modifying the mask image to adjust fill areas around details, to limit negative areas to be less than the maximum number of negative areas, and to limit positive areas to be less than the maximum number of positive areas; creating cutting path data in memory as a vector path outlining the mask image. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A computer-based system for manufacturing a custom product by applying, to a product, a decorative design imprinted in an adhesive film, the computer-based system comprising: a service provider computer that is configured to: automatically generate cutting instructions that describe how to cut registration means in an adhesive film; wherein the registration means defines a path that encloses one or more regions that collectively depict a decorative design included in the adhesive film; provide the cutting instructions to a registration device to cause the registration device to automatically apply the registration means in the adhesive film according to the cutting instructions; cause a cutting device to optically detect the registration means in the adhesive film and to generate a cut-out-shape by cutting the adhesive film along the path. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The computer-based system of claim 1, wherein the service provider computer is further configured to: automatically determine, in the adhesive film, the one or more regions that collectively depict a decorative design printed on the adhesive film and to be used to generate a custom product; wherein the registration means includes one or more of: lines, dots, or holes; wherein the path is larger by an offset than a border enclosing the one or more regions; wherein the cut-out-shape corresponds to the decorative design and is to be used to generate the custom product; wherein the decorative design is printed on the adhesive film using an inkjet printing technique; wherein the service provider computer is further configured to cause: a manufacturing device to use a substrate color of the custom product to print edges around the decorative design in addition to edges of the decorative design rendered based on the cut-out-shape cut from the adhesive film; wherein the substrate color is selected from a visible color range. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The computer-based system of claim 2, wherein the service provider computer is further configured to cause: a manufacturing device to use a substrate texture of the custom product to print edges around the decorative design in addition to edges of the decorative design rendered based on the cut-out-shape cut from the adhesive film; wherein the substrate texture is selected from a visible texture range. ### Claim 4 (depends on 2) The computer-based system of claim 2, wherein the offset by which the path defined by the registration means is larger than the border enclosing the one or more regions is larger than a smallest size of one or more of: a printable line or a printable dot. ### Claim 5 (depends on 2) The computer-based system of claim 2, wherein a count of one or more of: lines, dots, or holes, that are included in the registration means does not exceed a limit value. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The computer-based system of claim 1, wherein the service provider computer is further configured to automatically determine which portions of the decorative design are to be rendered based on the cut-out-shape and which portions of the decorative design are to be rendered using a printing method. ### Claim 7 (depends on 2) The computer-based system of claim 2, wherein the service provider computer is further configured to: generate and transmit one or more manufacturing instructions comprising a cut film manufacturing means for generating the custom product; generate and transmit one or more printing instructions comprising a printing manufacturing means for printing a design on the custom product. ### Claim 8 A computer-based method for manufacturing a custom product, the method comprising: automatically generating, by a service provider computer, cutting instructions that describe how to cut registration means in an adhesive film; wherein the registration means defines a path that encloses one or more regions that collectively depict a decorative design included in the adhesive film; providing the cutting instructions to a registration device to cause the registration device to automatically apply the registration means in the adhesive film according to the cutting instructions; causing a cutting device to optically detect the registration means in the adhesive film and to generate a cut-out-shape by cutting the adhesive film along the path. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The computer-based method of claim 8, further comprising: automatically determining, in an adhesive film, the one or more regions that collectively depict a decorative design printed on the adhesive film and to be used to generate a custom product; wherein the registration means includes one or more of: lines, dots, or holes; wherein the path is larger by an offset than a border enclosing the one or more regions; wherein the cut-out-shape corresponds to the decorative design and is to be used to generate the custom product; wherein the decorative design is printed on the adhesive film using an inkjet printing technique; wherein the service provider computer is further configured to cause: a manufacturing device to use a substrate color of the custom product to print edges around the decorative design in addition to edges of the decorative design rendered based on the cut-out-shape cut from the adhesive film; wherein the substrate color is selected from a visible color range. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The computer-based method of claim 9, further causing: a manufacturing device to use a substrate texture of the custom product to print edges around the decorative design in addition to edges of the decorative design rendered based on the cut-out-shape cut from the adhesive film; wherein the substrate texture is selected from a visible texture range. ### Claim 11 (depends on 9) The computer-based method of claim 9, wherein the offset by which the path defined by the registration means is larger than the border enclosing the one or more regions is larger than a smallest size of one or more of: a printable line or a printable dot. ### Claim 12 (depends on 9) The computer-based method of claim 9, wherein a count of one or more of: lines, dots, or holes, that are included in the registration means does not exceed a limit value. ### Claim 13 (depends on 8) The computer-based method of claim 8, further comprising: automatically determine which portions of the decorative design are to be rendered based on the cut-out-shape and which portions of the decorative design are to be rendered using a printing method. ### Claim 14 (depends on 9) The computer-based method of claim 9, further comprising: generating and transmitting one or more manufacturing instructions comprising a cut film manufacturing means for generating the custom product; generating and transmitting one or more printing instructions comprising a printing manufacturing means for printing a design on the custom product. ### Claim 15 One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing one or more instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform: automatically generating cutting instructions that describe how to cut registration means in an adhesive film; wherein the registration means defines a path that encloses one or more regions that collectively depict a decorative design included in the adhesive film; providing the cutting instructions to a registration device to cause the registration device to automatically apply the registration means in the adhesive film according to the cutting instructions; causing a cutting device to optically detect the registration means in the adhesive film and to generate a cut-out-shape by cutting the adhesive film along the path. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 15, storing additional instructions for: automatically determining, in the adhesive film, the one or more regions that collectively depict a decorative design printed on the adhesive film and to be used to generate a custom product; wherein the registration means includes one or more of: lines, dots, or holes; wherein the path is larger by an offset than a border enclosing the one or more regions; wherein the cut-out-shape corresponds to the decorative design and is to be used to generate the custom product; wherein the decorative design is printed on the adhesive film using an inkjet printing technique; wherein the service provider computer is further configured to cause: a manufacturing device to use a substrate color of the custom product to print edges around the decorative design in addition to edges of the decorative design rendered based on the cut-out-shape cut from the adhesive film; wherein the substrate color is selected from a visible color range. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 16, storing additional instructions for: using a substrate texture of the custom product to print edges around the decorative design in addition to edges of the decorative design rendered based on the cut-out-shape cut from the adhesive film; wherein the substrate texture is selected from a visible texture range. ### Claim 18 (depends on 16) The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 16, wherein the offset by which the path defined by the registration means is larger than the border enclosing the one or more regions is larger than a smallest size of one or more of: a printable line or a printable dot. ### Claim 19 (depends on 16) The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 16, wherein a count of one or more of: lines, dots, or holes, that are included in the registration means does not exceed a limit value. ### Claim 20 (depends on 16) The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 16, storing additional instructions for: automatically determining which portions of the decorative design are to be rendered based on the cut-out-shape and which portions of the decorative design are to be rendered using a printing method; generating and transmitting one or more manufacturing instructions comprising a cut film manufacturing means for generating the custom product; generating and transmitting one or more printing instructions comprising a printing manufacturing means for printing a design on the custom product.