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CRFultz
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Funny Article

Post by CRFultz »

I think his patent pending process is no longer a secret.

"has developed a patent-pending process to reproduce any photo or digital image in relief into the surface of Corian."

"That’s as much as Wing will divulge about the process. He only smiles when asked if it is accomplished by laser-cutting, chemical bath, sandblasting or CNC equipment."


you can read the article here

http://www.specialfxmagazine.com/specfx ... x0801.html

The part about inlays has got me thinking....
inlays in corian...then carve?......the pics xy would have to be dead on with the inlay placement..
that would be quite the challenge...

of course I would never infringe upon his patent pending process

his website shows how to build a large lightbox...
http://www.blimages.com/new.html

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Post by Nappy1 »

I once had a patten pending idea. I can tell you this, if you want to know what his idea is just go to uspto.gov and search using his name, or any word or phrase in the process. My first guess would be Lithophane.
The process can only be patented if is unique and has no standard engraving proceedures in it. Corian can only be cut or blasted , Laser melts it. He may even have to get permission to use the name corian from Dupont, since it a registered trademark.
Worse case senario, if he gets the patent he must first catch you using HIS PROCESS, then send you a seise order via a lawyer.

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dighsx
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Post by dighsx »

I worked with a guy who had about 20 "patent pending" things, and for the 6 years I worked with him they remained "patent pending", if you catch my meaning...

When ever I see "patent pending" I always wonder how long it's been pending. I should start putting that on everything I do just to make it look more official.
Take it easy.
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Burchtree
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Post by Burchtree »

Well the guy said corian is the only material to use with his process It toke a long time to develop and he scraped out a lot of material before he got it right.
He should have came here first. We get it right the first time and on more then just corian
Dan

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Post by Nappy1 »

The thing about patent pending is no one can steal your idea until you run out of money trying to get it approved. I gave up after $10,000. It usually takes $6000. just to get started.
I like my Photo V. Now there's intelectual property..

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Les_linton
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Post by Les_linton »

that article was August of 2001....

Lot has happened since then

Les

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dighsx
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Post by dighsx »

The copyright on his site says 2002. You wonder if he's given up. Like I said we should start saying any thing we do is patent pending but we just have gotten to the post office to mail the forums yet. Or would that be pre-patent pending? hehe
Take it easy.
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CRFultz
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Post by CRFultz »

Even though his process is old news, he still has innovation on his side.
The inlay thing has be baffled...I can't figure that one out.
Attachments
BLI not only creates images in Corian, but can colorize specific features with inlays. Her lips are Tea Rose, eyes are Beach Glass and the flower is Butter Cream.
BLI not only creates images in Corian, but can colorize specific features with inlays. Her lips are Tea Rose, eyes are Beach Glass and the flower is Butter Cream.
backlight3.jpg (3.77 KiB) Viewed 7810 times

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dighsx
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Post by dighsx »

You know if I was going to do it a real stupid but easy way would be to do the following:
1. Cut the litho in your base color
2. Cut the litho or parts of the litho in whatever extra colors you want to add to the litho.
3. Cut out the parts of litho in the base color that will get the inlays
4. Cut the parts of the lithos in the other colors that will be inlayed
5. Stick all the parts together and use the glue they use to glue corian up. This melts the corain to itself so I be you'd get a nice transition between inlayed part and base color.


What do you think? Seems like it's dumb enough to work.


Maybe I call this the Vectric Forum Lithopane Patent Pending Process or VFLPP.... hehe




One other thing I'd like to add. What always kills me about things like this is you never see a zoom in shot of the inlayed sections. Which if I had mastered this I'd show the whole thing but then I'd have a ton of shots showing the colored sections. Not seeing any of these shots makes you wonder just how good they're inlayed. Or how great his process is? I could make some colored lithos with a little paint, and long as you didn't get closer then 10 feet it might look pretty good.
Take it easy.
Jay (www.cncjay.com)

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Post by CRFultz »

Cutting out the individual parts is what has be baffled....how would you know where the x-y is for the separate pieces.
the x-y of the photo would have to known in order to have the machine go there to create the pocket.
I'm thinking the inlay almost has to be in the stock before the picture is engraved...
the picture of the glass of beer in his gallery shows a darker color on the unlit litho...
so inlay before the cut or after the cut and engrave the whole thing a second time????
if you could take the pvc file and view it has a separate individual vectors then you could pocket cut it and in turn profile cut the colored pieces.....

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dighsx
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Post by dighsx »

Why not create a PVC litho file, bring it into VCPro and then draw a path around the section you want the inlay. Then create two toolpaths (one for the pocket and one for the colored piece). Long as you have a way to set the different lithos on the table with the alignment right I'd think you could pull it off.

Doing it this way assumes you cut the full litho in different colors. Which is kinda stupid but....
Take it easy.
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Les_linton
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Post by Les_linton »

Depending on the size, when I do an inlay, I place the base material at a location centered on the machine and put location stops there and decide on an x-y position that will be 0,0 for that part.

I cut all the insert pieces at original x,y one at a time and them move the carriage to the base material 0,0 and zero the machine there and cut the pockets. It's kind of a slow process, but it works pretty good.

Les

CRFultz
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Post by CRFultz »

dighsx wrote:Why not create a PVC litho file, bring it into VCPro and then draw a path around the section you want the inlay. Then create two toolpaths (one for the pocket and one for the colored piece). Long as you have a way to set the different lithos on the table with the alignment right I'd think you could pull it off.

Doing it this way assumes you cut the full litho in different colors. Which is kinda stupid but....
I see what you mean...I'll try it ...

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dighsx
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Post by dighsx »

What'd be cool is to use other things than corian to do the inlays. But this might be trickier becuase I'm betting part of this process relies on the corian glue melting things together.
Take it easy.
Jay (www.cncjay.com)

CRFultz
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Post by CRFultz »

Jay I think that might work....I'll give it a go and see what happens....

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