Computer and Automation Institute HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Laser and Computertechniques Department
Head of Department:	Iván Kas

Address:		MTA SZTAKI Laser and Computertechniques Dep. Budapest Kende u. 13-17. HUNGARY, H-1111 Tel.: (+36) 1/166-5644 Fax: (+36) 1/166-7503
Mail address:		MTA SZTAKI Laser and Computertechniques Dep. Budapest POB 63. HUNGARY, H-1518

 

ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT

LaserGraph Workstation The Laser and Computer Techniques Department has twenty years of experience in the development of intelligent computer peripheries and their implementation in various systems. During this period, the key elements of laser data recording have been developed (e.g. the acousto-optical modulator, various optical system) and, on this basis, text and image input/output units have been constructed, such as a laserprinter, a family of laserplotter and image recorders (LASERGRAPH), as well as a binary input scanner. The most outstanding result is the LASERGRAPH family with excellent technical parameters in its kind. These equipments, together with commercially available and specially developed softwares made it possible to integrate multipurpose workstations for the electronic and printing industries and in cartography. Approximately sixty LaserGraph systems have already been installed.   Electronic industry Fast and accurate phototooling for the manufacturing PCB, hybrid circuits and oher products is supported by our integrated CAM software modules. The LGCAM system facilitates both interactive and autonomous (batch) processing of plot data, received from practically any PCB-CAD/CAM systems in many different formats. (e.g.: GERBER, HPGL, PostScript). The main features of the system are format conversion, visual examination, checking, aperture adjustment, editing, interactive graphical placement, merging and artworking of plot files. This product has been successfully introduced also in Western-European markets.   Printing industry The members of the LASERGRAPH family are excellent phototypesetting machines even for large format (newspaper size) pages. Our department has developed several software tools for desktop publishing. Thus, we can accept files from any pre-press software. We have been carrying out applied research on integrated handling of text and image. This problem is solved by the RIP software package which drives our laser plotters using data from various professional publishing software-hardware systems with PostScript output format. In addition to these software tools by the use of our PostScript Interpreter program, it is possible to produce films of computer generated synthetic images and graphic art prints, as well as of the finest guilloche graphics. The R3 integrated windowing software system can solve the most refind needs of the electronic pre-press studios. The R3 software and the Sigth for R3 is an interactive handler surface by which you can radically improve the mass-pocessing of PostScript files. Unprecedented methods are at hand to modify the pages, to repair printfile failures, to make-up pages, to impose.The high-speed interpretation of PostScript files and the efficent film usage improves the overal pre-press efficiency. The random (FM) screening option is built-in.   Cartography The aim of this work is to get high-quality film for print-ready offset plate from a computerized cartographic system or a geographical information system (GIS, LIS) or digitally processed air or satellite photos.

 

RECENT RESEARCH

- Extremely high resolution ( 4000; 8000dpi) laser   plotters, laser imaging systems, - Computer-to-Plate direct imaging plattesetters, - New methods of color separation and rasterization, - Design methods for laser optical systems of enhanced   performance and for their optimization, - Optimizable random (FM) screening.

 

LASERGRAPH MILESTONES

A calendar of noteworthy events leading to the family of the LaserGraph setters, imagesetters,platesetters and laserplotters.

1973:

The first hungarian acoustooptical modulator (AOM) made of TeO2 for red and blue wavelengths.

1974:

AOM and Q-switch made of LiNbO3 and PbMoO4 for YAG laser.

1976:

Multisegmented multibeam (up to24) AOM.

1977:

A 210 dpi resolution, 6000 line/min laserprinter.

1979:

A 254 dpi resolution, 30 A4/min laserprinter.

1984:

LG-1 LaserGraph laserplotter with Gerber to bitmap converter program   500x600 mm/8 min speed; 1016 dpi resolution.

1988:

OMIKRON-200 rollfilm laser typesetter (inner drum)   22 A4/min speed; 1016 dpi resolution.

1990:

LG-2 LaserGraph PostScript imagesetter/plotter   500x600 mm/10 min speed; 2032 dpi resolution.

1993:

LG-2/AFS LaserGraph: imagesetter with automatic loading, unloading of sheet films; (30 shets of film) unattended operation.

1994:

LG-25 LaserGraph A2+ imagesetter   663x533 mm/15 min speed; 2540 dpi resolution,   color accurate COMPUKORN random screening (FM)   software embedded in the PostScript RIP   GRANIT random screening (FM) software adaptively   parameterised for the changing print-enviroments.   (e.g. quality of paper, inking, condition of   press)

1995:

LG-25 Color Plus LaserGraph rollfilm imagesetter (A2+ format)   630x450 mm/12 min speed; 2540 dpi resolution   unattended operation   460 mm x 60 m roll film

1996-97:

CTP-LaserGraph platesetter (B1 format)   500x750 mm/14 min speed; red sensitive material.

All of the members of the LaserGraph family are outer drum imagers, except OMIKRON-200. The LaserGraphs are built with He-Ne or diode lasers, with 8 beam acoustooptical modulators. We sold a more then 60 LG-machines for PCB filming and for the pre-press market.

 

KEY PUBLICATIONS


 Tôkés, Sz.:

Application of Multi-Beam Acousto-Optical Modulators in Laser- Electrographic Printing and Drawing Machines. Proceeding of SPIE. Vol. 396. Advances in Laser Scanning and Recording. ed. by Leo Beiser. April 1983. pp. 10/16.

 Podmaniczky, A.;Tôkés, Sz.:

Multi-Beam Laser Film Plotter. Proceeding of SPIE. Vol. 473. Symposium OPTICA'84. ed. by Lupkovics-Podmaniczky. 1984. Budapest. pp. 250-4.

 Kas, I.; Palotási, A.; Vörös, K.:

New hardware algorithm and architecture for hihgspeed laser plotting. MIMI'85 MICROCOMPUTERS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS CONFERENCE. Barcelona, Spain, June 25-28. 1985.

 Eszenszky, J.;Kas, I.; Monchaud, S.; Palotási, A.:

Integration of PC, processors and dedicated hardware into photo computer system. Proceedings of the JASTED international symposium pp. 135-13. (ISBN 0-88.986-097-1) APPLIED INFORMATICS CONFERENCE GRINDELWALD, Switzerland, February 16-18, 1988.

 Felipe, E.; Kas, I.; Zalán, F.:

A tool for converting document into bitmap. INFORMATICA'90 CONFERENCE Havanna, Cuba, February 19-25, 1990.

 Kovács, Gy; Kas, I.:

Computer graphic applications in public administration. The Senior Executive Roundtable on Information Technology and Infrastructure Developement in Public Administration. Budapest, Hungary, November 3-7, 1991.

 Tôkés, Sz.:

Varifocal Lens System for Multibeam Laser Scanning. Proceedings of the SPIE Vol. 1983. Aug. 1993. pp. 177-181.

 

AUTHOR OF THIS WEB SITE

RICHÁRD PALOTAI WWW address: next-1b.manuf.bme.hu/~palotai E-mail address: palotai@next-1b.manuf.bme.hu This Web site was created in September, 1996.