Seiko Epson Corporation

Kohei Utsunomiya

Satoshi Yamazaki

Toshiaki Kakutani

Teruyuki Takata

Shinichi Arazaki

Nobuaki Ito

Tomonaga Hasegawa

Yuki Ishii

Naoki Kayahara

Masaru Kumagai

Yoshinori Nakajima

Masakazu Isomura

Masayuki Okuyama

Tadashi Hayashi

Kiyoshi Kawai

A three-dimensional object printing apparatus executes a first printing operation in which a liquid is ejected into a first band region and a second printing operation in which the liquid is ejected into a second band region. When an angle formed by a vector at a first position in a first path and a vector at a second position in a second path is set as a first angle and an angle formed by a vector at a third position in the first path and a vector at a fourth position in the second path is set as a second angle, the first angle is more than the second angle, and a width in which the first band region overlaps with the second band region at the first position is less than a width in which the first band region overlaps with the second band region at the third position.

Three-dimensional object printing apparatus and three-dimensional object printing method

Disclosed is a three-dimensional object printing method using a head and a robot that changes relative position and relative orientation of a workpiece and the head. The method includes a first data processing step of acquiring first initial route data that represents, in a workpiece coordinate system, a route along which the head is to move; a second data processing step of acquiring first head reference point data that represents, in a robot coordinate system, position and orientation of the head; a third data processing step of generating, based on the first initial route data and the first head reference point data, first print route data that represents, in the robot coordinate system, the route along which the head is to move; and a first printing step of ejecting the liquid from the head onto the workpiece while the robot is operated based on the first print route data.

Three-dimensional object printing method and data generation method

A surface of a workpiece has a smooth region, and a stepped region including a step. A three-dimensional object printing method includes first print operation of ejecting liquid from a head onto the smooth region, and second print operation, antecedent to or subsequent to the first print operation, of ejecting liquid from the head onto the stepped region. The amount of change in an angle of ejection, which is angle formed by a first normal line and a second normal line, during execution of the second print operation is larger than the amount of change in the angle of ejection during execution of the first print operation. The first normal line is a line normal to the ejection face. The second normal line is a line normal to the surface of the workpiece at a point of intersection with the first normal line.

Three-dimensional object printing method and robot teaching method

Wherein, in the first dither mask, when the first space is cut by the first plane, a plurality of threshold values in the first plane has a blue noise characteristic in the spatial frequency domain, and when the first space is cut by a second plane extending in a direction different from that of the first plane, a plurality of threshold values in the second plane has a blue noise characteristic in the spatial frequency domain.

Image processing device, recording apparatus, image processing method, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program

A three-dimensional object printing method includes first operation of concurrently performing ejection of liquid toward a workpiece by a head, emission of energy toward the workpiece by an energy emitter, and movement of the head and the energy emitter with respect to the workpiece by a moving mechanism, and second operation of concurrently performing emission of energy toward the workpiece by the energy emitter and movement of the head and the energy emitter with respect to the workpiece by the moving mechanism, without performing ejection of liquid by the head. A first irradiation distance, which is a distance between the workpiece and an emission face during execution of the first operation, and a second irradiation distance, which is a distance between the workpiece and the emission face during execution of the second operation, are different from each other.

Three-dimensional object printing method and apparatus

A distribution portion that distributes an error based on quantization of a gradation value corresponding to the one pixel, to a first pixel located in a first direction of the one pixel at a first distribution rate, to a second pixel located in a second direction of the one pixel at a second distribution rate, and to a third pixel located in a third direction of the one pixel at a third distribution rate, the second direction is a direction that intersects the first direction, and the third direction is a direction different from an extension direction of a plane defined by the first direction and the second direction.

Image processing apparatus, recording apparatus, image processing method, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program

Disclosed is an image processing apparatus for supplying display information indicating a three-dimensional image to a recording device including a discharge section that discharges liquid to an object having a three-dimensional shape to form a three-dimensional image on the object. The image processing apparatus includes an obtaining section that obtains virtual space information and a generating section that generates the display information based on the virtual space information. The virtual space information indicates a virtual image in which the three-dimensional image is represented in a three-dimensional virtual space, and a virtual discharge section, in which the discharge section is represented in the virtual space. The relative positional relationship in the virtual space between the virtual image and the virtual discharge section indicated by the virtual space information corresponds to the relative relationship between the three-dimensional image and the discharge section.

Image processing apparatus, method for controlling image processing apparatus, and storage medium

An image conversion device that performs conversion processing on image data before compression processing is performed includes: a pixel designation unit that sequentially designate, as a second pixel, pixels in a raster line that forms the image data in a direction away from a first pixel, which is a pixel included in the raster line, starting from a pixel adjacent to the first pixel in the raster line as a start point of the designation; an evaluation value calculation unit that calculates, as an evaluation value, an absolute value of a difference between pixel values of the first pixel and the second pixel or a square value of the difference; a determination unit that determines whether or not the evaluation value exceeds a predetermined threshold value; and a conversion unit that calculates a representative value of pixel values from the first pixel to a third pixel that is a pixel adjacent to the second pixel at a side of the first pixel and converts the pixel values from the first pixel to the third pixel into the representative value, at a timing at which the evaluation value is determined to exceed the threshold value.

Image conversion device and image conversion method

A technique capable of keeping image quality and speeding up a halftone process is provided. An image processing device performs the halftone process on image data in which a pixel has a pixel value conforming to a bit count N. Bits conforming to the bit count N include higher H bits (where H is an integer satisfying an inequality of 1&#x2264;H&#x3c;N) and lower L bits following the higher H bits (where L is an integer satisfying an inequality of 1&#x2264;L&#x2264;N&#x2212;H). The image processing device includes a first halftone processing unit configured to generate dot data indicative of a formation state of a dot, with respect to a first pixel allowing a determination of a formation state of a dot, based on the higher H bits in the pixel value and higher H bits in a dither mask.

Image processing device, image processing system, and non-transitory computer readable medium

A solid object shaping apparatus includes a head unit, and a curing unit, in which a model indicating a shape and a color of a solid object to be shaped is approximated with a set of voxels each having a predetermined rectangular parallelepiped shape, a unit shaping body formed by a single dot or a plurality of dots is formed in the voxel, and the solid object is shaped by using the plurality of unit shaping bodies, and in which the plurality of unit shaping bodies constituting the solid object include a first and second unit shaping body. In the second unit shaping body, two or more faces forming a surface of the second unit shaping body correspond to a surface of the solid object, and a proportion of an inner portion of the model occupying the second unit shaping body is equal to or less than a reference value.

Solid object shaping apparatus, control method for solid object shaping apparatus, and control program for solid object shaping apparatus

Provided is a three-dimensional object formation apparatus including: a head unit which discharges a plurality of types of liquid including first liquid and second liquid and forms dots with the discharged liquid; and a curing unit which cures the dots, in which the three-dimensional object formation apparatus forms a three-dimensional object with the cured dots, and the three-dimensional object is formed in a plurality of formation modes including a first formation mode of forming an inner portion of the three-dimensional object with a plurality of dots formed of the first liquid, and a second formation mode of forming the inner portion of the three-dimensional object with a plurality of dots not including dots formed of the first liquid and including dots formed of the second liquid.

Three-dimensional object formation apparatus, three-dimensional object formation system, control method of three-dimensional object formation apparatus, and control program of three-dimensional object formation apparatus

A three-dimensional object forming apparatus includes: a head unit; a curing unit that cures the liquid discharged from the head unit, and forms a dot; and a forming control unit that controls an operation of the head unit such that a three-dimensional object is formed as an aggregate of dots by representing a shape of the three-dimensional object to be formed as a voxel-set and forming a dot in a voxel of the voxel-set which is determined as a target in which the dot is formed by a determination unit. The determination unit determines a target voxel in which a dot is formed depending on a result of comparing a forming index value which is a value depending on a dot forming rate in a voxel of the voxel-set which is positioned on an inside of the three-dimensional object with a threshold of a dither mask.

Three-dimensional object forming apparatus, method of controlling three-dimensional object forming apparatus, method of producing three-dimensional object using three-dimensional object forming apparatus, information processing apparatus capable of communicating with three-dimensional object forming apparatus, and three-dimensional object forming system

A three-dimensional object forming apparatus includes: a head unit; a curing unit; and a forming control unit. The determination unit determines a target voxel in which a dot is formed such that one or a plurality of pillars that extends in a predetermined direction is formed depending on a forming index value which is a value based on a probability that the dot is formed in the voxel on an inside of the three-dimensional object, and the number of pillars of the one or the plurality of pillars, which have a cross section of which a length in a first direction is greater than a length in a second direction crossing the first direction, is greater than the number of pillars, which have a cross section of which the length in the second direction is greater than the length in the first direction.

Three-dimensional object forming apparatus, information process apparatus capable of communicating with three-dimensional object forming apparatus, method of controlling three-dimensional object forming apparatus, method of producing three-dimensional object using three-dimensional object forming apparatus, and three-dimensional object forming system

A solid object shaping apparatus, which includes a head unit that ejects a liquid, and a curing unit that cures the liquid so as to form a block, shapes a solid object by using the blocks, and can cure the liquid in a plurality of curing modes including a first curing mode in which the liquid is cured so that the block with a first size is formed by a first reference amount of liquid, and a second curing mode in which the liquid is cured so that the block with a second size in which a surface area is larger than a surface area in the first size is formed by using the first reference amount of liquid.

A liquid discharging apparatus includes: a liquid discharge head including plural nozzle rows each arrayed with plural nozzles and discharging liquid droplets onto a workpiece by a multi-pass method using n recording passes (n is an integer of 3 or more); and a head drive section that controls driving of n nozzle groups corresponding to the n recording passes in each of the nozzle rows with a discharge duty upper limit specific to each nozzle group, and for a pair of nozzle groups adjacent across the nozzle rows, when controlling driving of one of the nozzle groups with a discharge duty upper limit being the maximum discharge duty upper limit of one nozzle row containing the one nozzle group, controls driving of the other nozzle group with a discharge duty upper limit that is not the maximum discharge duty upper limit of another nozzle row containing the other nozzle group.

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Nagano, Japan

Kohei Utsunomiya