Three-dimensional plastic coloring by laser plastic coloring method using waveguide CO2 laser

A laser plastic coloring method (LPC method) using a waveguide CO2 laser has been proposed in our laboratory. This method is coloring technique that is full-color drawing for plastic materials using cyan, magenta, yellow and black dyes. The conventional method has been made being possible to color a two-dimensional plane surface. In this study, full-color drawing on three-dimensional plastic surface using the improvement method has been attempted. In the case of using the conventional method for coloring on the three-dimensional plastic material, it is suggested to occur the two problems. First one is a difficult to fix of dye stream on a curve surface or a slope surface for liquid dye using. Second one is a difficult to control a focal point of the laser on an irregular surface. For the solution of these problems, a new method in combination with an ink jet print head and a X-Y-Z stage have been attempted in this study. In conclusions, the coloring on the three-dimensional plastic surface using the newly LPC method has been carried out.