3m Innovative Properties Company

Catherine P Tarnowski

David L Hofeldt

Derek H Justice

John A Ramthun

Guillermo Sapiro

Evan J Ribnick

Kenneth G Brittain

Gregory D Kostuch

Wenyuan Xu

Matthew H Frey

Mikhail L Pekurovsky

Roger W Barton

Jonathan J O'Hare

Jeffrey H Tokie

Tyler J Rattray

Daniel M Lentz

Larry L Johnson

Sammuel D Herbert

Andrzej P Jaworski

Esa H Vilkama

David A Johnson

Jonathan J O'HARE

A method includes providing an elastomeric stamp including a stamping surface with a first pattern element having a fill factor of 20 to 99 percent and including a continuous region and at least one discontinuous region, the discontinuous region including at least one of: (1) one or more elongated concavities, and (2) one or more interior voids. A second pattern element of the stamping surface has a fill factor of 0.25 to 10 percent, and includes traces with a width from 0.1 micrometers to 50 micrometers. The stamping surface is inked with an ink composition including a functionalizing molecule with a functional group selected to bind to a surface of the ink-receptive material. The inked stamping surface is contacted with an ink-receptive material selected from a sheet or a web for a contact time sufficient to bind the functional group with the surface of the ink-receptive material to form a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of the functionalizing material.

Microcontact printing stamps with functional features

A system is described for detecting the presence of non-uniformity patterns and providing output indicative of a severity of each type of non-uniformity pattern. The system includes a computerized rating tool that assists a user in efficiently and consistently assigning expert ratings (i.e., labels) to a large collection of training images representing samples of a given product. In addition, the rating software develops a model that allows a computerized inspection system to detect the presence of non-uniformity patterns in a manufactured web material in real time and provide output indicative of a severity level of each pattern on a continuous scale. The system also includes algorithmic and hardware approaches to significantly that increase the throughput of the inspection system.

System for detection of non-uniformities in web-based materials

A computerized rating tool is described that assists a user in efficiently and consistently assigning expert ratings (i.e., labels) to a large collection of training images representing samples of a given product. The rating tool provides mechanisms for visualizing the training images in an intuitive and configurable fashion, including clustering and ordering the training images. In some embodiments, the rating tool provides an easy-to-use interface for exploring multiple types of defects represented in the data and efficiently assigning expert ratings. In other embodiments, the computer automatically assigns ratings (i.e., labels) to the individual clusters containing the large collection of digital images representing the samples. In addition, the computerized tool has capabilities ideal for labeling very large datasets, including the ability to automatically identify and select a most relevant subset of the images for a defect and to automatically propagate labels from this subset to the remaining images without requiring further user interaction.

Computer-aided assignment of ratings to digital samples of a manufactured web product

Systems and methods for calibrating a web inspection system.

Web inspection calibration system and related methods

Growing community of inventors

Mahtomedi, MN, United States of America

Catherine P Tarnowski