JP2000006597A - Paper processed article - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a new paper processed article which is excellent in an intermediate gradation expression and a stereoscopic expression for characters, patterns, photographs and paintings or the like. SOLUTION: Characters, patterns or images are expressed on the surface of a paper with indents which are formed by casting a laser beam on the paper face and removing the raw material at the part, and areas without the indents. In addition, while increasing-decreasing the output of the laser beam in response to the brightness of respective picture elements of an original image, or gradation data wherein raw materials with optional brightness, saturation and hue are used solely or combined, and made to correspond with respective gradations, the laser beam is cast for each picture element by the same picture element arrangement with the original image, and at the areas corresponding with respective picture elements on the paper face, indents with different depths, or different depths and sizes are formed in response to the gradation data, and the image is stereo-scopically expressed by the indents.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a processed paper product.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, embossing is generally used as a forming process on a paper surface, and a picture or pattern can be three-dimensionally expressed by a relief. According to this method, once a stamping die is manufactured, there is an advantage that a paper product having the same motif can be manufactured inexpensively and in large quantities, but it is not suitable for small-scale production in which motifs are frequently changed because a mold is required. In addition, there is a limit in the expression of the halftone and the like for expressing the motif only by the unevenness, and the motif must be selected to some extent.

On the other hand, in the paper cutting process, a laser process capable of performing free and fine cutting without contact is also used. However, of course, the method of expressing the motif is further limited in the cutting process.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the present invention is to obtain a novel paper product excellent in halftone expression and three-dimensional expression of characters, patterns, photographs, paintings and the like. It was made for the purpose of.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, in the processed paper product of the present invention, the surface of the paper is irradiated with a laser beam to remove the material in the portion, and there is no dent formed. Characters, patterns, photographs, paintings, etc. are expressed on the surface by the parts. Further, the output of the laser beam according to the brightness of each pixel of the original image composed of digital image data, or the gradation data obtained by applying any material of brightness, saturation, and hue individually or in combination to each gradation. Irradiating a laser beam for each pixel in the same pixel array as the original image while increasing or decreasing the depth, or a depression having a depth or a depth and a size corresponding to each pixel on the paper surface according to the gradation data Is formed, and images such as characters, patterns, photographs, and paintings are represented by the depressions. At this time, the laser beam irradiated portion may change color depending on the degree of scorching according to the laser output, thereby supplementing the gradation or shade expression of the image.

[0006]

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show an example of a laser beam machine used for processing a paper product according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a laser beam machine 11 is a moving beam beam machine, and includes a laser oscillator 12, a machining table 13, an X slider 14, a Y slider 15, reflection mirrors 16, 17, and 18 constituting an optical transmission system. Condensing lens 19
The control device 20 is connected to an output port of the personal computer 21 such as parallel or serial.

The X slider 14 is movable in the X direction (lateral direction in FIG. 1) along a guide rail (not shown) on the Y slider 15 by a control motor 14a and a belt 14b driven by the control motor 14a. On the other hand, the Y slider 15
The guide rails 15c, 15c are controlled by a control motor 15a and belts 15b, 15b on both sides driven by the control motor 15a.
Along the Y direction (vertical direction in FIG. 1).

The X slider 14 has the condenser lens 1
9 and a reflecting mirror 18, a reflecting mirror 1 on one side of the Y slider 15.
The laser beam L emitted from the laser oscillator 12 is transmitted to the condenser lens 19 via the reflecting mirrors 16, 17, 18, is focused by the condenser lens 19, and the focal point F immediately below the condenser lens 19. In this method, high-density power required for processing can be obtained.

Since a large output is not required for processing the paper product of the present invention, the oscillating material such as a solid laser or a gas laser is not particularly limited. The final output laser must be pulsed light. Therefore, in the case of continuous oscillation, it is necessary to use a processing machine capable of mechanically or electrically converting to pulsed light emission.

Next, laser processing on paper material by the laser processing machines 11 and 12 will be described.

At the time of processing, first, it is necessary to prepare an original image digitized in a raster format or a vector format on the personal computer 21 side. In the case of the raster format, a photograph, a painting, or an illustration is captured by an image scanner or the like, or an image directly created or synthesized by CAD, graphic software, or the like, or a character or the like having a gray scale of about 2 to 4 bits / 4 to 16 gradations. Convert to scale image.

At this time, if the color image is directly converted to gray scale, it is converted into gradation data mainly of lightness (luminance), but the hue and saturation of the color image such as a painting or illustration are reflected in the output image. In this case, the original image is reduced to 4 to 16 colors by applying a palette method, and image data is generated by converting each color into gradation data applied to the output gradation.

Further, in the processed paper product of the present invention, since it is a removal process (engraving) to a thin paper material, in order to make the most effective use of the usable gradation width, a non-processed portion, ie, a non-processed portion, is used.
It is necessary to effectively use the part where the surface of the paper material appears as it is. When the original image is a photographic image, such an unprocessed portion is a portion having the highest brightness, that is, a white portion. Therefore, when there are few highlights in the original image, it is preferable to perform brightness (brightness) adjustment, contrast adjustment, or equalizing processing so that the white part is effectively arranged in the output image. It is. Conversely, even when the original image has few dark or dark portions, the depth that can be processed cannot be fully utilized. Therefore, it is preferable to perform the same processing as described above to appropriately complement the shadow of the output image.

After creating the raster image data for output as described above, the data is transferred to the personal computer 2.
The output is output to the laser processing machine 11 from the output port 1. The controller 20 of the laser beam machine 11 moves the laser output unit (condenser lens 19) in the X direction and the Y direction at a predetermined pitch according to the pixel arrangement information of the raster image data, and responds to the gradation information of each pixel. By irradiating the laser beam with the output power, and removing the material on the paper surface,
A depression having a depth corresponding to the gradation information of each pixel is formed.

When processing raster-type image data in the laser processing machine 11 used in this embodiment,
The X slider 14 is moved at a predetermined pitch while the Y slider 15 is fixed, and after processing one line in the X direction, the Y slider 15 is fed by a predetermined amount and processing is performed line by line sequentially. . The feed amounts in the X and Y directions give resolution in each direction and determine the size of the processed image. In the case of vector data, the X slider 14 and the Y slider 15 are simultaneously moved and processed while applying the drawing color information to the gradation information and changing the output accordingly.

As described above, the irradiation of the laser beam changes the output in accordance with the gradation information of each pixel, thereby forming a depression having a depth corresponding to the gradation information of each pixel on the paper surface. However, even within the spot diameter d of the laser beam at the focal plane F as shown in FIG. 3B, the output distribution of the laser beam is not uniform, and generally has a distribution close to a Gaussian distribution at the center of the spot. The concentration of output is high. For this reason, not only does the processing depth change due to the change in the output of the laser beam, but also, particularly in a low output region, the diameter of the processing portion decreases along with the processing depth. Therefore, although depending on the paper quality, using such a low output area is effective in expressing gradation with a thin paper material.

In general, paper materials are easily burnt, and if the processed portion is carbonized and becomes extremely black, the gradation expression is impaired. Originally, in laser processing, Figure 3 (a)
As shown in (1), a laser beam is collimated at a focal point F by a condenser lens, high energy is concentrated at a focal position F, the portion is heated to a high temperature, and the laser beam is evaporated to perform removal processing. However, as the material in the vicinity of the focal point F is removed, the light is slightly diffused behind the focal point F and the laser beam is irradiated even though the power density is low. Therefore, the bottom Bb of the depression B, that is, the processed portion The problem of burning the surface occurs. To avoid this, the laser output is basically reduced and the processing speed (X slider 1
It is necessary to set the moving speed of (4) fast and shorten the laser irradiation time of one pulse.

As described above, by setting the laser output and the processing speed, it is possible to prevent scorching and discoloration of the processed portion, while setting them near the critical value at which the paper material is scorched, and perform the processing. This makes it possible to use the burnt and discolored portions of the processed portion for gradation expression.

FIG. 4 shows an image obtained by actually processing an image on a water-resistant drawing paper having a thickness of 0.3 mm, reading it again with a scanner, performing contrast adjustment and equalizing processing, and then performing dither processing to obtain a monochrome 2 It is a value. The actual processed product is a light-colored cream-colored paper, and the processed part is slightly discolored, and the surface is concave and three-dimensional compared to the non-processed part, and the surface is roughened. It has an image-like appearance. The dark portion in FIG. 4 corresponds to the actual processed portion, and the unevenness matches the unevenness / brightness / darkness of the original image. The actual shading and the roughening of the processed part clearly cause a difference in the light reflectance of the paper surface, which is also a factor that gives a three-dimensional impression.

Further, since the paper is thin in the processed portion, a three-dimensional image can be confirmed even when viewed through room light, outdoors, sunlight, etc., and is also suitable as an openwork used for a lamp shade or the like. . However, in the case of the openwork engraving, the deep portion of the depression, that is, the thin portion of the paper becomes the highlight portion having a high light transmittance. Therefore, it is necessary to reverse the original image during the image processing. Further, for the same reason, it is preferable to perform processing so as not to add a burnt color to the processed portion.

For reference, FIG. 5 shows a histogram when the above processed product is read by a scanner. Of course, this is only a relative index that changes depending on the reading density, but the brightness of the unprocessed portion of the paper is 25 in 256 gradations.
3, the brightness of the processed part is distributed in the range of 245 to 250,
The peak is around 249. The depth of the depression in the processed part is extremely small, and the gradation information that can be read into the scanner from the actual processed product is almost due to discoloration, and the change in lightness and darkness due to the color change is very small as described above. It can be seen that the tone information comparable to the original image is maintained as shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the present invention in which a monochrome binary image containing no intermediate gradation is processed into a paper material similar to the above-mentioned paper material, and the paper is rescanned and image processed by the same method. FIG. Although the information read in this figure is also based on light / dark / shade, as in the above, the relief is clearly and finely expressed even in a real processed product.

Further, as an application of this processed product, the above-mentioned laser processing is performed on paper materials having different color tones on the front side and the back side by laminating papers having different color or color on the paper surface. If the processing is performed at the depth of the dent that removes the colored part on the front side, the color tone on the back side in the processed part appears as it is on the non-processed part, and the difference in these color tones is combined with the three-dimensional shape, A processed paper product with excellent expressiveness can be constructed.

Further, in the paper material having the two layers, the front side has a dark color and the back side has a light color (or vice versa).
If the depth of the paper on the back side is exposed and the depth of the back side is not exposed but slightly shallower than that of the paper, the depth of the back is exposed to the intermediate floor. It is possible to express the key.

The paper material used in the manufacture of the processed paper product of the present invention is not particularly limited, and various paper materials such as Japanese paper can be used. Paper materials are preferred.

Further, if the thickness of the paper is small, the gradation expression is limited accordingly. Therefore, when performing embossing of multi-gradation expression, a paper material having a certain thickness is preferable. However, it is sufficient if it is as thick as a government-made postcard or business card. Incidentally, in the openwork engraving, expression can be made even with OA paper having a thickness of about 0.8 to 0.1 mm.

[0028]

As described above, the processed paper product of the present invention is excellent in three-dimensional expression and half-tone expression of characters, patterns, photographs, paintings, etc. even on a very thin paper material. Without using it, three-dimensional relief or openwork can be processed from two-dimensional image data, and motifs can be easily changed.

Further, in addition to the three-dimensional expression and the shading expression due to the depression, the texture and light reflectivity change due to the roughening of the processed portion, and further, the burnt color and change of the processed portion due to laser irradiation. It is suitable not only for paper products such as greeting cards, business cards, etc., but also for appreciation or decorative arts and crafts that make use of the texture of paper, by gradation expression and shade expression using.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view showing a laser beam machine for processing a paper product of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing a laser beam machine for processing a paper product of the present invention.

FIG. 3A is a cross-sectional view showing processing of the processed paper product of the present invention;
(B) is a diagram showing an output distribution near the spot.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing an embodiment of the processed paper product of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a histogram obtained from the processed paper product of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing another embodiment of the processed paper product of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Laser processing machine 12 Laser oscillator 13 Processing table 14 X slider 15 Y slider 16, 17, 18 Reflection mirror 19 Condensing lens 20 Control device 21 Personal computer P Paper B Depression F Focus L Laser beam

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A character, a pattern, a photograph, a picture, or the like is expressed on a surface by a dent formed by irradiating a laser beam on a paper surface and removing a material of the portion and a portion without the dent. A processed paper product characterized by the following. 2. A laser according to lightness of each pixel of an original image composed of digital image data, or a tone data obtained by applying an arbitrary material of lightness, saturation, and hue to each tone alone or in combination. While increasing or decreasing the output of the beam, a laser beam is radiated to each pixel in the same pixel arrangement as the original image, and the depth or the depth and size of the portion corresponding to each pixel on the paper surface is determined according to the gradation data. A processed paper product characterized by forming different recesses, and expressing images such as characters, patterns, photographs, and paintings by the recesses. 3. The processed paper product according to claim 2, wherein the laser beam irradiation portion changes color according to the degree of scorching according to the laser output, thereby supplementing the gradation or shade expression of the image. .