Injection-Molded Digital Watermarks With Microscopic Surface Marks
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Solution Overview
Problem
The adoption of digital watermarks on physical objects is hindered by misconceptions about aesthetics and the time-consuming process of mold machining for plastic objects, which can result in unsightly markings and increased production costs.
Innovation Solution
The use of laser-textured injection molds to rapidly create minute surface features on plastic objects, allowing for the formation of inconspicuous digital watermarks that are reliably readable, while reducing mold creation time and expense.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If traditional mold machining methods are used to create digital watermark patterns on plastic objects, then the watermarks can be reliably formed, but the mold creation time and expense increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical mold machining methods with laser marking technology. The laser system directly marks the plastic object during or after molding without requiring pre-machined mold features, thereby eliminating time-consuming mold machining while maintaining watermark precision through controlled laser parameters
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies laser marking as a post-molding or in-molding process rather than requiring pre-prepared mold features. This preliminary action on the finished or semi-finished plastic object allows watermark creation without extending the mold manufacturing cycle
2Loss of information
If visible markings like 2D barcodes are used on plastic objects, then digital information can be encoded, but the aesthetics of the object are impaired
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from global visible markings to localized microscopic features. The laser marks create subtle surface modifications at the microscopic level that are imperceptible to human vision but detectable by machine readers, thus preserving overall object aesthetics while enabling digital information encoding
Solution Approach 2:
The laser marking process induces subtle optical property changes in the plastic surface, creating refractive or absorptive variations that encode digital information. These changes are too fine to be visually detected but sufficient for machine reading, maintaining aesthetic appearance
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables the widespread adoption of digital watermarks on plastic objects by maintaining aesthetics and reducing production time and costs, allowing for efficient and unobtrusive encoding of information on consumer products.
Implementation Method 1
Surfaces of injection molds can be laser-textured to form features that are just a few tens of microns in lateral dimension
Implementation Method 2
The laser milling action can occur very quickly
Data Source
AI summary
2D code patterns, such as digital watermark patterns, are formed on plastic objects by injection molding. In some implementations, a marked cell of the code pattern is not formed by a single mark on the mold surface, but by multiple discrete marks. Such marks can be exceedingly small (e.g., 50 microns or less—smaller than the width of a human hair), yet the resulting code pattern on the molded object is still readable from a distance. The small scale of the marks assures that the code pattern does not detract from object aesthetics, while also speeding the mold-marking process. Style transfer networks are employed in some implementations. The detailed technologies facilitate digital marking and identification of a great number of consumer plastic objects, thereby aiding recovery of such objects for recycling. Many other features and arrangements are also detailed.