US 12,138,953 B2
Inkjet printing methods for decorative laminate panels
Rudi Lamproye, Mortsel (BE); and Peter Frings, Mortsel (BE)
Assigned to Agfa NV, Mortsel (BE)
Appl. No. 16/965,362
Filed by Agfa NV, Mortsel (BE)
PCT Filed Jan. 15, 2019, PCT No. PCT/EP2019/050910
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jul. 28, 2020,
PCT Pub. No. WO2019/149517, PCT Pub. Date Aug. 8, 2019.
Claims priority of application No. 18154415 (EP), filed on Jan. 31, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2020/0353773 A1, Nov. 12, 2020
Int. Cl. B44C 5/04 (2006.01); B41M 5/00 (2006.01); B41M 7/00 (2006.01)
CPC B44C 5/04 (2013.01) [B41M 5/0023 (2013.01); B41M 5/0047 (2013.01); B41M 5/0064 (2013.01); B41M 5/0088 (2013.01); B41M 7/0027 (2013.01)] 10 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of manufacturing decorative laminate panels from a decorative surface comprising staggered decorative laminate panel images, the method comprising the steps of:
i) digitally dividing a first master image (15, 30) into decorative laminate panel images (16);
ii) digitally staggering neighboring decorative laminate panel images (18) over a selected staggering distance (17) having a value between L/2 and L/20 with L representing a length of a decorative laminate panel;
iii) digitally composing a second master image (19, 33) from the neighboring staggered decorative laminate panel images (18); and
iv) inkjet printing the second master image (19, 33) with one or more inkjet inks on a substrate;
wherein the second master image (19, 33) shows vertical cutting lines (20, 34) and horizontal cutting lines (21, 35) which may be inkjet printed or not;
wherein a decorative board or laminate including the substrate printed with the second master image (19, 33) is cut into the decorative laminate panels (40, 50) following the vertical lines (20, 34) and the horizontal lines (21, 35); and
wherein (a) a personalized image (10) and a background image (14) are combined to the first master image (15) or (b) a personalized image is taken as the first master image (30) and modified to an image (31) containing staggered decorative panel images, whereafter the image (31) is combined with a background image (32) to compose the second master image (33).