Non-Printing Applications

Torrey Pines Research (TPR) has found that the same expertise, which can put marks on a sheet of paper, can be effectively utilized in non-printing and/or material deposition applications. As an example, traditional inkjet technology has wide appeal in that it can deposit, in an extremely precise manner, liquid materials on unusual substrates, each of which can have a wide range of properties. The liquid materials can be applied in virtually any pattern or layered fashion as desired. Likewise, dry powder deposition as utilized in traditional electrostatic imaging processes, can be tailored to controllably deposit materials in dry powder form onto non-traditional substrates. As an additional benefit, using digital file capabilities, allows the user to change images on the fly rather than experience costly set-up and teardown processes that results from traditional hard tooling. TPR has had significant experience in adapting numerous traditional printing technologies to other applications. Some examples of applications are discussed below.

• Pharmaceuticals
  Certain pharmaceutical tablets require precision deposition of drugs (medicines) and/or coatings in a dry powder form. TPR developed a material deposition process and technology using extensions to traditional electrostatic dry powder development principles to successfully "load" and/or coat the tablets.  The customer outsourced the complete technical development to TPR, thereby resulting in the rapid development of proprietary material deposition capabilities.

• Flat Panel Display (FPD) Display Manufacturing
  The use of inkjet printing technology has proved to be quite advantageous in the manufacturing of flat panel display (FPD) panels. Producing organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays is possible at significantly lower costs with high precision, drop-on-demand inkjet techniques. TPR has worked with a number of FPD companies to develop and build fixtures & equipment for the purpose of developing and manufacturing OLED panels for precision displays. Using industrial inkjet printheads, x-y motion control devices, and high precision measurement equipment, TPR has supplied a number of fixtures to allow FPD companies to achieve their precision OLED material deposition requirements. TPR development has included x-y motion control to within one micron, ability to layer materials, lines as narrow as 50 microns, use of multiple printheads, printhead maintenance stations, inert environments, and video alignment systems.

• 3D Imaging
  Some printing technologies lend themselves to work in 3D imaging and rapid prototyping. Digital technology combined with either inkjet or dry powder deposition has allowed a number of companies to achieve significant competitive advantages for model making in terms of minimizing time and cost. By layering either liquid or dry materials, TPR has the technology to allow rapid prototyping with processing times a mere fraction of what is possible with traditional methods. Using a wide variety of materials, models can be quickly constructed to include fine detail.

• Other
  There are numerous other applications and production requirements that can be satisfied using extensions of traditional digital printing expertise. Combining its liquid and dry powder deposition knowledge with its electro-mechanical product development expertise, TPR has been able to provide mission-critical solutions to companies in the "non-printing" world. This work has ranged from technology feasibility studies to the actual design, integration and implementation of various production systems.

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