CNC MACHINING OF HALFTONE AND LITHOPHANE IMAGES

INTO WOOD-BASED PANELS

Riga 2016

Kiiman, K., Luga, Ü. & Kers, J.

The aim

• Develop the processes of CNC-machining of halftone and 3Dlithophane images into wood-based panels.

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What is a halftone?

• A halftone, or halftone image, is an image comprised of discrete dots rather than continuous tones. When viewed from a distance, the dots blur together, creating the illusion of continuous lines and shapes.

3

What is a lithophane?

• CNC machined/printed lithophanesare pieces of material that when back lit will reveal the routed image.

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a b c

CNC Machining HalftonesProcess

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Image Halftoner V1.4 Woodwop 5.0 Weeke CNC CNC milling

PC

Drag and drop

via local networkCNC PC

(.txt) Gcode

(.ply) Toolpaths

(.mpr) All information

Converting program

Gcode

PC

CNC Machining HalftonesMaterials

• Requirements:

- Contrast (dying the routed part)

- High adhesion of the top layer

• Different for line and dot style

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CNC Machining LithophanesProcess

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CNC Machining LithophanesMaterials

• Plywood

- Quality

- Adhesive

• Price

• Availability and

accessibility

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Results and discussion

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Image typeSuitable materials

Main problems

Machining time example Esthetics

Halftone

images

Line style

Melamine faced MDF

Breakage of the material surface layer

15 min for 187x280mm image → 35 cm2/min

Average

Dot style

Melamine faced MDF and chipboard and HPL laminated MDF

High time consumption, dyeing holes (dots) for higher contrast

65 min for 187x280mm image → 8 cm2/min

Good

Lithophane

Images

Birch plywoods produced using melamine formaldehyde and urea formaldehyde adhesives

Needs special lightning to display the image

130 min for 540x691mm image → 29 cm2/min

Very good

Conclusion

• CNC machined halftone images can be successfully manufactured using freeware program Halftoner V1.4.

• Vectric’s program PhotoVCarveallows easy production of lithophane images using plywood.

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!