EP1101628A1

EP1101628A1 - Printing method

Info

Publication number: EP1101628A1
Application number: EP99119608A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Luciano Malagoli; Matteo Malagoli; Marco Malagoli; Michela Malagoli
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1999-10-03
Filing date: 1999-10-03
Publication date: 2001-05-23

Abstract

The printing method, comprising printing of a written text and/or decorations on a print substrate and application onto the surface of said print substrate of a transferable means, further comprises impressing said text and/or decorations onto said surface by way of a printing method other than screen printing and applying said transferable means onto the areas of said surface on which said text and/or decorations have been impressed.

Description

The present invention relates to a printing method, in particular a method for printing texts and/or decorations by transferring, onto a print substrate, a printing material in a lamina or thin layer, or in any case a material which is transferable onto the print substrate.
The prior art includes printing methods in which a material in a lamina or a thin layer is transferred with heat and under pressure onto a print substrate and which envisage the use of punches on Which the texts or decorations to be printed are produced in relief. The printing material in a lamina or thin sheet, carried by a flexible substrate, is interposed between the punch and the print substrate and is hot pressed by the punch onto said print substrate, in such a way that the printing material is transferred onto the surface of the print substrate at the points corresponding to the texts and/or decorations on the punch.
Another known technique is to transfer with heat and under pressize a material in a lamina or thin layer onto a print substrate, using a screen printing method, which involves reproducing the required text and/or decorative motif by screen printing onto the print substrate, by means of an adhesive material, and transferring onto the print substrate, with heat and under pressure, the material in a lamina or thin layer by means of a flat or cylindrical press, by pressing the above-mentioned material against the surface of the print substrate. The material adheres to the print substrate only in the areas previously treated with the adhesive material.
The above-mentioned methods are unable to produce high image definition, which is particularly unsatisfactory if complex and high-quality decorations are required. Furthermore, in the case of printing with punches, the action of the punch can easily damage the surface of the print substrate and the printing can easily smudge, resulting in a low-quality finished product.
The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned problems.
The present invention envisages a printing method comprising printing a written text and/or decorations on a print substrate, applying onto the surface of said print substrate a transferable means capable of being transferred onto said print substrate, characterised by the fact that it further comprises impressing said text and/or decorations onto said surface by means of a printing method other than screen printing and applying said transferable means onto the areas of said surface onto which said text and/or decorations have been impressed. The invention allows a vary high image definition to be obtained resulting in vary high-quality printing.
The invention will now be described in greater detail purely by way of example.
The invention involves impressing a text and/or decorations onto a print substrate, using appropriate printing inks, by means of a printing method other than screen printing which allows high image definition to be obtained, such as rotogravure, lithography, off-set, letter set, digital or other. The print substrate may consist, for example, of paper, parchment, leather, fabric, plastic material or any other material capable of permitting printing impression on its surface. Printing may be carried out using a printing product suitable for the printing procedure used, for example printing ink, toner, etc, but it is also possible to use an adhesive material or any other substance that can be applied by means of a printing method that can give high image definition and is capable of guaranteeing adhesion onto it of material, in particular said transferable means. The transferable means is now applied onto the surface of the print substrate. The material adheres to the surface of the print substrate only in the areas covered by the printed text and/or decorations, thereby obtaining, on the surface of the print substrate, a text and/or decorations which have a surface with extremely uniform reflectivity and very high image definition.
In the case of printing with more than one colour, the method according to the invention allows the transferable means to be applied only to the areas on which the last colour has been printed, after the other colours have dried.
Before applying the transferable means, it may be advantageous to spread on the surface of the print substrate, using a screen-printing screen or a rotating element, a solvent compatible with the type of material used for making the print which will not damage the surface of the print substrate nor leave traces of any kind on it. In the areas of the surface of the print substrate to which the material used for printing has adhered, the solvent revives any material that has dried, in such a way that the exposed surface of the material can again permit adhesion onto it of material in a lamina or thin layer. This technique is particularly useful when it is expected that a sufficient length of time will elapse between making the print and applying the material in a lamina or thin layer for the print to be able to partially or totally dry out.
As a transferable means for application, it is possible to use, purely by way of example and without constituting limitations, materials in a lamina or thin layer, transfers, decals, holographs, signature holograms, etc. A suitable material in a lamina, for example, is a material of the type marketed by the German company L. Kurz GmbH & Co. under the brand names LUXOR and ALUFIN.
The transferable means may be applied with heat and under pressure by means of a flat or cylindrical printing press. Alternatively, the transferable means may be applied by way of deposition of vapours of said means on the surface of the print substrate. The vapours deposited on said surface will adhere only in the areas which have previously undergone printing, thereby covering the print with a substantially uniform layer.
In this case a suitable transferable means may be a metallic material or a colouring, such as a pastel or fluorescent colouring, and in any case a vaporisable material.
The method according to the invention can also be used in combination with the other known methods quoted above for application of material in a lamina or thin layer, for example when it is necessary to print on a print substrate both prints with high image definition and prints not requiring high image definition.
In addition, the method according to the invention may be used to obtain warranty means, such as, for instance, warranty seals comprising a graphic element, for instance a mark, obtained using said printing method, said mark warranting, for instance, the origin and the quality of a product, on which the warranty seal may be applied. In order to obtain warranty seals, the method according to the invention may be combined with the use of holograms, chalcographic printing, printing using inks capable of emitting a radiation in a pre-established wavelength range, for instance a radiation in visible or ultraviolet range. The use of the printing method according to the invention makes very difficult and uneconomic to counterfeit a warranty seal, because the use of a material in a lamina or thin layer applied on the printing support of the seal makes substantially impossible a counterfeit by means of photography or using a photocopying-machine. In fact the presence of the material in a lamina or thin layer makes very easy to distinguish, even simply to the touch, the original seal from a counterfeited seal obtained by means of photographic reproduction or by means of a photocopying-machine. In addition, it is possible to use materials in a lamina or thin layer which are expansive, so as to make uneconomical a counterfeit of the seal by using said materials and the printing method according to the invention.
Finally, it is possible to use check devices to verify the authenticity of the warranty seal obtained using the method according to the invention, alone or in combination with other methods.
For the same reasons explained above, the printing method according to the invention is particularly suitable, even in combination with other printing methods for obtaining paper money which is very difficult to be counterfeited.
In the practical implementation, the stages of the method, the construction details and the materials used may differ from but be technically equivalent to those indicated, without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Claims

A printing method comprising printing a written text and/or decorations on a print substrate and applying a transferable means onto the surface of said print substrate, characterised by the fact that it further comprises impressing said text and/or decoration onto said surface by a method other than screen printing and applying said transferable means onto the areas of said surface on which said text and/or decorations have been impressed.
A method according to claim 1, characterised by the fact that said printing method other than screen printing is a printing method with high image definition.
A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterised by the fact that said printing method other than screen printing is a rotogravure, lithographic, off-set, letter set or digital printing method.
A method according to one of the claims 1 to 3, characterised by the fact that said printing method other than screen printing uses a material that allows said transferable means to adhere onto it.
A method according to claim 4, characterised by the fact that said material is a printing product.
A method according to claim 4, characterised by the fact that said material is an adhesive material.
A method according to one of previous claims, characterised by the fact that, prior to application of said transferable means onto the areas of said surface on which said text and/or decorations have been impressed, a solvent means for said material is applied onto said print substrate.
A method according to claim 7, characterised by the fact that said solvent means is applied to said printing surface by means of a rotating element.
A method according to claim 7, characterised by the fact that said solvent means is applied to said printing surface by means of a screen-printing screen.
A method according to one of the previous claims, characterised by the fact that said transferable means is applied with heat and under pressure.
A method according to one of the claims from 1 to 9, characterised by the fact that said transferable means is applied by way of deposition of vapours of said transferable means.
A printing method according to one of previous claims, characterised by the fact that it is used to obtain warranty seals.
A printing method according to one of claims 1 to 11, characterised by the fact that it is used to obtain paper money.
A printing method according to one of claims 12, or 13, characterised by the fact that it is used in combination with other printing methods, or in combination with holograms, or in combination with fluorescent inks, or magnetic inks capable of emitting a radiation in pre-established wavelength range.
Warranty means comprising a print substrate and a transferable means applied on said print substrate, characterised by the fact that the application of said transferable means on said print substrate is obtained using the method according to one of claims 1 to 14.