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US 4,530,061 AGranted
Method of producing stencils
AssigneeWood-Tics Inc.
InventorsJanet M. Henderson, Michael F. Andrews, Daniel A. Houghton
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automated method of producing stencils is described in which coordinates of points lying on straight or curved lines are determined and recorded in an electronic storage medium. Sequential points determine circular arcs which are transmitted from storage to a cutter used for producing the stencils.
Claims12
An automated method of producing patterns of cut openings or recesses in a stencil by means of a digital computer having electronic data storage means, said method comprising the following steps:
- providing a graphic representation of the pattern to be reproduced,
- designating lines present in the graphic information as straight or curved line segments having their ends (a) touching or (b) adjacent but spaced apart from one another, each curved segment being an arc with a curvature corresponding to the curvature of a line or portion of a line in the original graphic representation of the pattern,
- converting each of the line segments to digital form by defining each of the straight segments by two points and curved segments by at least three points including a beginning point, an ending point and an intermediate point all located on the curved line segment,
- storing the said points by representing coordinates of said points in retrievable form in said electronic data storage means,
- converting the stored digital information into digital form adapted to actuate a cutting means for producing cut patterns in the stencil sheet,
- and energizing the cutting means to cut a pattern in the sheet by inducing relative motion between the cutting means and the stencil sheet along successive lines corresponding to the stored digital information defined by the coordinates of each of the points corresponding to line segments containing the points and de-energizing the cutting means at positions located between adjacent spaced apart segments to define connecting ligaments in the stencil sheet between said adjacent segments to thereby produce a pattern of linear recesses or openings in the stencil sheet corresponding to the original graphic representation of the pattern.
3 more elements
An automated method of producing patterns of cut openings or recesses in sheet material to produce a finished stencil by means of a digital computer having electronic data storage means, said method comprising the steps of:
- providing a graphic representation of a pattern to be reproduced including a plurality of lines,
- providing a manually operable point locating digitizer,
- actuating the digitizer at selected locations along the lines making up the pattern to be reproduced,
- designating lines present in the graphic information as straight or curved line segments having their ends touching or adjacent to one another wherein each curved segment is an arc of a circle having a selected radius corresponding to the radius of the same portion of a line in the representation of the pattern,
- establishing the coordinates of the points along the circular arcs starting with a beginning point, next an intermediate point and finally an end point by actuating the manually operable point locating digitizer at each successive selected point on the lines of the pattern until the coordinates making up the lines of the pattern have been established,
- storing the coordinates for each of the three points by placing the coordinates for each of the three points of each circular line segment in retrievable form in said electronic data storage means,
- providing graphic display means for exhibiting the stored digital information,
- retrieving stored information and transferring the stored information to the graphic display for visual verification of the graphic representation,
- thereafter converting the stored digital information into digital form adapted to actuate a cutting means for producing patterns on a stencil sheet and
- energizing the cutting means to cut a pattern in a sheet by inducing relative motion between the cutting means and the stencil sheet along successive circular arcs corresponding to the stored digital information defined by the coordinates of each of the three points of each curved segment,
- de-energizing the cutting means at positions located between the adjacent spaced apart segments to define connecting ligaments in the stencil sheet between them to thereby produce a pattern of recesses or openings corresponding to the original graphic representation of the pattern.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.