There is disclosed a print construction comprising: (a) a printing substrate having an image-receiving surface; (b) a receptive layer, at least partially covering said image-receiving surface, and having a particle reception surface distally disposed to said image-receiving surface, said receptive layer optionally having a thickness of at least 1000 nanometer (nm); and (c) a plurality of individual particles adhered to said particle reception surface, and forming a monolayer thereon, the features of which are described herein.

A sheet processing apparatus includes a sheet tray on which one or more sheets to be processed are placed, an adhesive applying unit, and a pressing member. The adhesive applying unit has an end portion that faces the sheet tray and holds an adhesive material and is configured to move towards the sheet tray up to a position at which the end portion is in contact with or proximate to a sheet on the sheet tray and apart from the sheet tray. The pressing member is configured to move into and out of a moving path of the adhesive applying unit. The pressing member is pressed against a sheet on the sheet tray by the adhesive applying unit, when the pressing member is in the moving path of the adhesive applying unit and the adhesive applying unit moves towards the sheet tray.

A method for applying a transfer ply of a foil to a substrate, with the steps of: a) applying a radically curable adhesive to at least one subregion of the transfer ply by means of an inkjet printhead; b) pre-curing the adhesive by UV irradiation; c) applying the at least one subregion of the transfer ply provided with adhesive to the substrate; d) fully curing the adhesive by UV irradiation; e) peeling a carrier ply of the foil from the at least one subregion of the transfer ply.

An application apparatus and also printing apparatus for implementing such a method.

A foil stamping system includes a foil stamping apparatus capable of arranging and mounting a plurality of foil rolls about a direction orthogonal to a sheet feeding direction for forming a foil image by applying an adhesive on the sheet and stamping foil thereon, and a hardware processor, wherein the hardware processor includes: a foil roil information acquisitor that acquires foil roll information from the foil stamping apparatus; a job information acquisitor that receives and analyzes a job, and acquires job information; and an instructor that specifies a foil roll on the basis of the foil roll information and the job information transmits data for designating the region to be applied to the foil stamping apparatus, and instructs the foil stamping apparatus to perform foil stamping by the specified foil roll.

Nanoimprint lithography forms a microfeature array on a substrate responsive to inkjet printing techniques for high resolution printing of circuit elements and other features with highly accurate fidelity to predetermined boundaries. The microfeature array is defined by micropillars formed between intersecting microchannels in the substrate. The micropillars are responsive to a sequence of ink droplets in a highly controlled and predictable manner based on the droplet volume, droplet spacing and temperature. The flow of liquid ink is restrained by the micropillars for pinning the ink for avoiding uncontrolled ink flow as occurs on a flat surface. Subsequent layers of deposited ink tend to follow pining of previous layers, allowing an iterative buildup of layers for forming a trace of sufficient thickness and a high aspect ratio allowing traces extending above the depth of the microchannels for aiding communication with surface mount components.

A material deposition technique is disclosed for transferring material to a substrate. The material may be a foil on a carrier and the substrate may be printable paper. A computer-controlled, material application subsystem is provided having a material roller assembly including one or more material pressing rollers. The entire assembly is configured for controlled rotation such that the material pressing rollers alternately engage and disengage an impression cylinder. In a first rotatable position, the material roller assembly is rotated so that one of the material deposition rollers over which the material carrier is fed engages the impression cylinder and deposits the material onto the substrate as it passes beneath the roller. In a second rotatable position, the material roller assembly is rotated so as to disengage the material roller from the impression cylinder thereby precluding deposition of material onto the substrate as it passes beneath the roller.

A method is provided for manufacturing an image on a substrate, wherein the image includes an indicia and a frame. The method includes covering at least a portion the substrate with a carrier comprising magnetically alignable flakes, aligning the magnetically alignable flakes with a magnetic field of a magnetic assembly comprising a metal plate with an opening, and solidifying the carrier. The frame is formed at an edge of the opening and the indicia is visible within the frame. The magnetic assembly includes two magnets disposed so that the North pole of one magnet and the South pole of another magnet are proximate to the metal plate at opposite sides of the opening.

The invention relates to a method of printing onto the surface of a substrate, which method comprises a. coating a donor surface with a monolayer of individual particles, b. treating the surface of the substrate to render the affinity of the particles to at least selected regions of the surface of the substrate greater than the affinity of the particles to the donor surface, and c. contacting the surface of the substrate with the donor surface to cause particles to transfer from the donor surface only to the treated selected regions of the surface of the substrate, thereby exposing regions of the donor surface from which particles are transferred to the corresponding regions on the substrate, and characterised in that at least 50 wt. % of the particles are flaky metal pigments comprising a flaky metallic substrate and a surface modification layer of the metallic substrate, wherein the surface modification layer has been made by a treatment of the metallic substrate surface by at least one of the modification substances from the group consisting of phosphate ester, phosphonic esters, phosphonic acids, phosphinate esters, organofunctional silanes, organofunctional titanates, organofunctional zirconates, organofunctional aluminates and mixtures thereof.

A device including a computing unit that is adapted to read a pattern of transfer portions to be realized by means of a printing process prior to operation of the device and to evaluate various options as to input of at least one foil web to the device and reuse of a length of foil web in the device so as to determine that option involves the most efficient use of the foil for realizing the pattern, so that output is obtained that is suitable to be used for realizing optimal control of the device.

A device including a computing unit that is adapted to read a pattern of transfer portions to be realized by means of a printing process prior to operation of the device and to evaluate various options as to input of at least one foil web to the device and reuse of a length of foil web in the device so as to determine that option involves the most efficient use of the foil for realizing the pattern, so that output is obtained that is suitable to be used for realizing optimal control of the device.