System, method and computer program product for side printing on solid surfaces

A method for manufacturing structural members with coated topmost and side surfaces, the method comprising:

• providing at least one structural member having a topmost surface, a bottommost surface, and at least one side surface which is obliquely oriented relative to the topmost surface and the bottommost surface;
• depositing, using a coating apparatus, at least one coating on said at least one structural member including on the topmost surface and said at least one side surface,
• wherein the coating comprises a pattern including at least one first portion of the pattern to be printed on at least a portion of the topmost surface and at least one second portion of the pattern to be printed on the at least one side surface,
• wherein the at least one side surface extends between the at least one structural member's topmost and bottommost surfaces, and wherein the at least one side surface forms a curve having a length which differs from a width of the at least one structural member, wherein the length equals a distance between the at least one structural member's topmost and bottommost surfaces,
• and wherein the second portion of the pattern is modified computationally, by a hardware processor, thereby to define a modified second portion of the pattern, wherein the modified second portion of the pattern is applied to the at least one side surface, and wherein the hardware processor modifies the second portion of the pattern by obtaining a geometry of the at least one side surface, using the geometry to calculate at least one distortion function, and using the at least one distortion function to modify color or shade intensity of the second portion of the pattern.

A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory tangible computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, that, when executed by a hardware processor of a system for manufacturing structural members including a coating apparatus operative to deposit at least one coating on at least one structural member having a topmost surface, a bottommost surface, and at least one side surface which is obliquely oriented relative to the topmost surface and the bottommost surface, the coating apparatus operative to deposit the at least one coating on the topmost surface and said at least one side surface, executes the method comprising:

• computational modification of a second portion of a pattern, to be included in the coating, the pattern including at least one first portion of the pattern to be printed on at least a portion of the topmost surface and at least one second portion of the pattern to be printed on the at least one side surface, to define a modified second portion of the pattern to be applied to the at least one side surface, wherein the at least one side surface extends between the at least one structural member's topmost and bottommost surfaces, wherein the at least one side surface forms a curve having a length which differs from a width of the at least one structural member, wherein the length equals a distance between the at least one structural member's topmost and bottommost surfaces, and wherein the hardware processor modifies the second portion of the pattern by obtaining a geometry of the at least one side surface, using the geometry to calculate at least one distortion function, and using the at least one distortion function to modify color or shade intensity of the second portion of the pattern.