On Sat, 9 Nov 2002, Robert Shanks wrote:

*>>*>How about using an inkjet to print on UV sensitised laminate, and then
*>>*>expose it using the inkjet print as a mask. This will get you around the
*>>*>water based ink problem if it works.
*>>
*>>This should be tried. Good idea.
*>I've used a Sharpie pen mounted in a SweetPea plotter to make boards before.
*>1-  I wonder if you could drive a print head with a Sharpie attached to it?

What is a SweetPea plotter ?

*>(print head movement Y axis - board movement X axis)
*>2 -  What I really wonder is, could you expose an UV sensitised laminate
*>with a laser pen attached to a print head...  ?

You are about to reinvent the photoplotter. Why UV when you can paint
directly ? It would be much more interesting to develop an inkjet head
(single nozzle) and paint with that. I half want to do that (probably in
one of my future lives). I'd go with piezo or electrodynamic ejection and
electrostatic deflection. The first inkjets used this technology afaik.
Some industrial printers (production line printers - like the kind that
print serial numbers and barcodes on foamboards and soft material packs)
still do afaik. I'd probably use plain refined wax as ink. It would take
me man-months to reach the required resolution (est. 300dpi). Btw certain
kinds of wax could be tried in a normal bubble jet print head assuming it
has an extra heater added to it (power resistor + thermostat worked into
the reservoir). Wax melts well under 100C and it should leave the plastic
alone. It would probably require a major rework of the ink channels though
and probably different timing to drive the heads (or different voltage).

Peter

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