ADDITIVE PRINTING METHOD FOR PRINTING A FUNCTIONAL PRINT PATTERN ON A SURFACE OF A THREE-DIMENSIONAL OBJECT, ASSOCIATED COMPUTER PROGRAM AND COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM

摘要

The present invention relates to an additive printing method for printing a functional print pattern on a surface of a three-dimensional object 100, an associated computer program and computer-readable medium having stored there on the computer program. The method comprises the steps of (i) providing a three-dimensional object 100 on a planar surface 10; (ii) providing a print head 200A having a plurality of print nozzles 200A1-200An, the plurality of print nozzles 200A1-200An defining at least one print nozzle plane 20, the print nozzle plane 20 being non-parallel to the planar surface 10; (iii) generating three-dimensional geometrical surface data of an exposed surface of the object 100 on the planar surface 10; (iv) generating two-dimensional geometrical surface data of the exposed surface of the object 100 on the planar surface 10 on the basis of the three-dimensional geometrical surface data; (v) determining an amount of printing fluid to be discharged at a discharge time from each of the plurality of print nozzles 200A1-200An; (vi) generating a relative movement between the object 100 and the print head 200A; and (vii) printing a print pattern on at least one portion of the exposed surface of the object 100 during the relative movement. The step of generating the two-dimensional geometrical surface data includes the step of projecting the two-dimensional geometrical surface data into the print nozzle plane 20 to correct distortions present in the two-dimensional geometrical surface data due to the print nozzle plane 20 being non-parallel with the planar surface 10, thereby obtaining two-dimensional print nozzle plane data of the object 100.