Unit 1 Task 2 P3

Unit 1 Task 2 P2

unit 1 task 1 p1

unit 30, task 7a, D1

D1

Vinyl cutters and Laser cutters for signage -

Vinyl cutters use a small knife to precisely cut out an outline of a picture to put on a vinyl sheet. Laser cutters work by a laser beam which cuts out the thing that you need. Vehicle wrapping is a non-permanent process which many companies use to advertise their businesses. The graphics are printed onto an adhesive vinyl and placed onto the vehicles. The image file for vehicle wrapping would be bitmap so the pixels in the image were not distorted.Illuminated shop signs are created by laser cutters. Opaque acrylic material is usually used. The process of this is to get the shop sign cut out by a laser, then lights are placed behind the opaque acrylic which makes signs illuminate at night. This would be a vector image file. Over the past 10 years, these cutters have developed massively as bigger laser and vinyl cutters are available.

Inkjet & wide format printing for bitmap displays and posters -

Inkjet printers is a type of computer printing that creates a digital image by propelling the drops of ink onto substances such as wood and plastic. The droplets are between 50 and 60 microns in diameter and images can have resolutions of up to 1440x720 droplets per inch. This gives images higher resolutions. Before inkjet printing was available you would have to print the image onto an adhesive roll and then stick it to the material which you wanted the image, for example on wood. Now you can do this automatically without using an adhesive roll on any material up to 50mm thick. RIP software would be ideal for this type of printing for bitmap displays.

Laser printers for leaflets and flyers -  

Laser printers work by sending a laser beam from side to side of the page and scanning the document. This can then be transformed into a toner and then transferred onto the paper.Adobe Illustrator is a good program to use for laser printing.  Duplex printing is a new type of printing that has been developed within the last decade. It allows you to print on two sides of the paper without removing the paper and having to turn it over, they can be printed in colour too. The printer can collate the documents together making sure that everything is in the correct order and can be stapled together into a little booklet. This is all done inside the printer making it very practical and less time consuming.

3D printing -

3D printing has been developed within the last 5 years. 3D printing begins by making a virtual design of the item and is made in CAD file using a 3D modelling program. A 3D scanner can also be used to scan the object and makes a digital  copy of it. This is also put into a 3D modelling program. A layering method is used to build up the object when printing. Thousands of layers can be used and are built up horizontally. Once the whole object has been printed you cannot see the individual layers as they are blended together during the printing. New ways to develop 3D printing have already been suggested such as selective laser sintering.