Heat pen for use with electronic cutting and/or drawing systems
AssigneeAmerican Crafts, L.C.
InventorNicolas Stephans Fourie
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A heat pen may be used with an electronic cutting and/or drawing system to enable the electronic cutting and/or drawing system to use heat to define text and/or designs on a substrate. The heat pen may be coupled with a cradle of an electronic cutting and/or drawing system directly or by assembling an adapter with the heat pen. Power may be supplied to the heat pen by electrically coupling the heat pen to an external power supply, such as a power and/or communications port of the electronic cutting and/or drawing system. Electronic heated design systems and methods for modifying substrates using heat are also disclosed.
Claims20
An insert for an electronic cutting and/or drawing system, comprising:
- a housing insertable into a cradle of the electronic cutting and/or drawing system;
- a heating element carried by the housing, the heating element including a tip protruding from a bottom of the housing;
- and
- a power supply.
An insert for an electronic output device that operates under control of a vector graphics file, comprising:
- a housing insertable into a cradle of the electronic output device;
- a heating element carried by the housing, the heating element including a tip protruding from a bottom of the housing;
- and
- a power supply.
A system for decoratively modifying a substrate, comprising:
- an electronic heated design system including:
- a support mat capable of receiving and supporting the substrate;
- a heating element with a tip;
- a carriage capable of positioning the tip of the heating element in selected locations over the support mat;
- a processor in communication with the carriage and capable of controlling operation of the carriage to move the heating element to the selected locations;
- and
- memory in communication with the processor, the memory storing instructions for controlling operation of the carriage;
- and
- a substrate capable of being positioned on the support mat.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.