Printing and displaying technology using selective laser beam pricking

Abstract

This disclosure obtains printing and displaying of information stored as a pattern of orifices in a colored liquid film established on the interstices of a screen-mesh member. A laser beam is used to effect removal of the film at each selected interstice either by puncturing the film thereat or vaporizing a portion thereof so that reactive surface tension force displaces the remainder of the film. The screen is moved in coordination with the writing thereon of the information pattern so that the area upon which the information is established may be presented sequentially to a displaying station and to a printing station. At the displaying station, light is either transmitted through the orifices established in the colored liquid film or is reflected from the film left in the unwritten interstices onto a display screen as a pattern of information either as a positive or a negative image of the actual information content established in the screen-mesh. The information written in the film on the screen-mesh may then be conveniently printed by technology of aerosol-mist via the orifices established at the interstices. Alternatively, the information written onto the screen-mesh via the films may be printed directly therefrom by the laser beam. Finally, both the displaying and the printing may be accomplished at the same station as the writing by a convenient arrangement of displaying screen and printing mechanism.