GB2601118A

GB2601118A - Jig for Flatbed Printing

Info

Publication number: GB2601118A
Application number: GB2018045.1A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Peckett Henry
Original assignee: Tainted Lips Ltd
Current assignee: Tainted Lips Ltd
Priority date: 2020-11-17
Filing date: 2020-11-17
Publication date: 2022-05-25
Also published as: GB202018045D0

Abstract

A jig 100 for use with a flatbed printer 300 comprises a base plate (110, Fig.1) having an upper and a lower surface. The lower surface engages with the bed of the flatbed printer and the upper surface further comprises a plurality of recesses (150, Fig.1) engraved therein. The jig further comprises a plurality of modular pucks 200, each puck has an upper and a lower surface. The lower surface or each puck is shaped to releasably engage with a recess of the base plate via interference fit. The upper surface of each puck comprises a recess (210, Fig.2b) shaped to hold a predetermined item for printing. The item to be printed may be a mobile phone case 350, an electronic tablet case or a laptop case. The base plate may be made from aluminium composite material and the pucks may be made from Foamex. The plurality of recesses in the base plate may be arranged in a regular grid pattern.

Description

Jig for Flatbed Printing [001] The present invention relates to a jig for use with a flatbed printer. Particularly the present invention relates to a jig for flatbed printing having a plurality of holding sections for holding a specific item for printing. More particularly the invention relates to a jig for flatbed printing having a plurality of holding sections, wherein the holding sections are modular and interchangeable.

Background of the Invention

With the ever growing prevalence of personal electronic items in modern society, there is an ever growing desire by individuals to want to personalise their personal electronic items such as phones, tablets, and laptops. One of the most popular ways to do this is through accessories for these items, such as cases and the like.

To meet this demand there has been a growing need for effective ways to get artistic designs onto cases and the like for electronic items. One of the current leading methods is to use flatbed printers, typically UV flatbed printers. The cases etc being held inside a jig which in turn in is held in place on the bed of the flatbed printer (normally by vacuum suction). The jig having a plurality of specific cut out sections for respective items therein.

This method is reasonably effective although there are inefficiencies, for one there are a wide variety of electronic items, all of these have different specific shapes and therefore need different shaped cases. The jigs currently available are only cut for one or two specific items. For example one traditional foamex jig could be cut to hold 10 cases for an iphone 11, or for 5 iphone 11 cases and 5 iphone Xr cases. The holes are physically cut into the foamex, limiting the jigs use to the pre-determined arrangement, such as the aforementioned [2] [3] [4] ten phone cases. This is because all phones are different in height, width, depth. A hole in a jig has to accurately be cut to the size of a phone to ensure accuracy of print. 1 or 2 mm out of place would cause a defective print position. In production terms this results in hundreds of jigs if you want to print hundreds of models of case, and also often wasted print space as its unlikely for an order to exactly match the allowances of the jig(s).

[0051 It is an object of the present invention to address the limitations discussed above by providing a jig comprising a plurality of modular interchangeable holders (or "pucks") held within a base frame of the jig so as to maximise potential print efficiency and reduce storage requirements when not in use.

Summary of the Invention

[0061 According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a jig for use with a flatbed printer comprising: a base plate having an upper and a lower surface, the lower surface engages with the bed of the flatbed printer and the upper surface further comprises a plurality of recesses engraved therein; the jig further comprises a plurality of modular pucks, each puck has an upper and a lower surface, the lower surface shaped to releasably engage with a recess of the base plate via interference fit, the upper surface comprising a recess shaped to hold a predetermined item for printing.

[007] An embodiment of the first aspect wherein the plurality of pucks can include pucks for a variety of specific items.

[0081 An embodiment of the first aspect wherein at least one of the plurality of pucks is for holding a mobile phone case.

[9] An embodiment of the first aspect wherein at least one of the plurality of pucks is for holding an electronic tablet case.

[10] An embodiment of the first aspect wherein at least one of the plurality of pucks is for holding a laptop case.

[11] An embodiment of the first aspect wherein the base plate is made from aluminium composite material.

[012] An embodiment of the first aspect wherein the plurality of pucks are made fromljoamex.

[13] An embodiment of the first aspect wherein the plurality of recesses in the base plate are arranged in a regular grid pattern.

Brief description of the Drawings

[14] The invention will be described in more detail, by way of example, with reference to the following drawings: [15] Figure 1 depicts an embodiment of a base plate of the invention; [16] Figures 2 depicts an embodiment of a puck of the invention; [17] Figure 3 depicts an embodiment of the invention in use with a flatbed printer.

Detailed Description

[018] To address the issues discussed above a "frame and puck" system was developed. The frame is the base of the proposed jig and is preferably cut from aluminium composite material (ACM) and acts as a frame, although any suitable material known to the skilled person can be used. The jig has standardised cut out shape to hold a standard size puck in a regular pattern. The base frame made from ACM. Size is not limited but the frame is cut according to the bed of printer. The frame sits on bed of printer, preferably it is not manually fixed to the printer bed, instead the frame is held in place by using the printer's inbuilt vacuum (which is a common feature of flatbed printers) to keep in position.

[019] Individual recesses are cut into the jig frame, but not all the way through. This allows for the vacuum of the printer bed to get suction and hold the jig in place, but also allows for fine positional adjustment of the jig. This also catches any overspray from the printer and protects printer bed from this. Nach cut in the jig frame is standardised. Although this application mainly discusses mobile phone cases, the invention can be designed for any item/case such as macbook cases, or ipad cases, other goods etc. [020] The puck is cut from foamex in the same way as a normal jig would be, with an engraving to match a specific phone model. The puck then sits into a recess of the jig frame. The puck is preferably made from 2 pieces of black lOmm foamex, bonded together. Black in colour is preferred so UV light reflects less from the printer. The shape of the item to be printed on is engraved into the Puck. The puck fits into a recess of the jig frame and can in theory go into any position across the grid lay out of the jig frame. The co-ordinates of each recess in the base frame is known, the shape of each accessory or phone case to be printed on is known, therefore, exact print registration of the items we put into the base grid is known and can be used when programming the flatbed printer as is known in the art.

S

[21] Tn a preferred embodiment 200 recesses were cut into a jig frame, allowing for 200 pucks to be placed, and this was used with a UV flatbed printer. This allowed for 200 phone cases to be printed in one pass, with no empty bed space. Essentially achieving 100% print efficiency which is not achievable with current jig systems.

[22] With reference to figure 1 there is depicted a segment of a jig frame 100. Only a segment is shown as the jig frame size is determined by the size of the flatbed it is to be used with. The jig 100 comprises a base plate 110 having an upper and lower surface, the base plate 110 is preferably made from ACM. The base plate is shaped to match that of the flat bed that it is to be used with (typically rectangular) and has a plurality recesses 150 etched into an upper surface thereof with un-etched spacings 123,125 separating recesses 150, the width of spacings 123 and 125 is uniform and consistent, and defines the rows and columns of the grid layout of recesses 150. The recesses are arranged in a regular grid pattern and have dimensions to match a protrusion 250 of an individual puck (discussed in more detail below). Preferably the recesses 150 are cut into base plate 110 making use of as much of the available space as possible, however there is often a margin 120 of the base plate 110 left for ease of positioning etc. In a preferred embodiment the jig frame 100 has dimensions of 2500mm by 1300rrun, each recess 150 is 78mm by 162mm by 5rrun and each spacing 123,125 is 10min wide.

[23] With reference to figures 2 and 3 there is shown a preferred embodiment of a puck for holding a mobile phone case for printing. The puck 200 is made from two hard foam sheets 201,202 bonded together. '1'he puck 200 has an upper surface and a lower surface. cut into the upper surface of the puck 200 is a recess 210. Recess 210 is shaped to match a specific phone case shape. There is often also a slight protrusion 215 in the recess 210 for the specific phone case to rest upon to ensure that the phone case stays at the appropriate height for printing. Specific details of the dimensions of the recess 210 and protrusion 215 are not given as these arc determined by the specific item to be held by the puck 200.

[24] On thc underside of the puck 200 a margin 225 is cut away to leave a protrusion 250. The margin 225 has a width exactly half of the width of spacers 123 and 125, and the dimensions of protrusion 250 compliment the recess 150 such that they can form an interference fit. This means that the pucks can be placed in very close proximity of one another and make maximum use of the space available. In a preferred embodiment the top section of the puck 200 has dimensions of 172mm by 87.8mm by 131-nm, and the protrusion 250 has dimensions of 161.8mm by 77.8mm by 5mrn. which means the margin 225 is 5mm.

[25] Figure 4 shows an image of thc jig frame 100 and plurality of pucks 200 on a UV flatbed printer 300. Thc jig frame 100 is placed on the bed of the printer 300 and held in place by the vacuum of the printer 300, although in other embodiments different suitable securing means can be used. A plurality of pucks 200 arc placed onto the frame 100 and held in place via the interference fit of protrusion 250 and recess 150. As can be seen in figure 4 there is a near complete coverage of the available printing space. In the depicted embodiment the pucks are for holding phone cases 350.

[026] The invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment. The description is intended to enable a skilled person to make the invention, not to limit the scope of the invention. The scope of the invention is determined by the claims.

Claims

Claims 1 A jig for use with a flatbed printer comprising: a base plate having an upper and a lower surface, the lower surface engages with the bed of the flatbed printer and the upper surface further comprises a plurality of recesses engraved therein; the jig further comprises a plurality of modular pucks, each puck has an upper and a lower surface, the lower surface shaped to rcleasably engage with a recess of the base plate via interference fit, the tipper surface comprising a recess shaped to hold a predetermined item for printing. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
A jig according to china 1 wherein the plurality of pucks can include pucks for a variety of specific items.
A jig according to any preceding claim wherein at least one of the plurality of pucks is for holding a mobile phone case.
A jig according to any preceding claim wherein at least one of the plurality of pucks is for holding an electronic tablet case.
A jig according to any preceding claim wherein at least one of the plurality of pucks is for holding a laptop case.
A jig according to any preceding claim wherein the base plate is made from aluminium composite material.
A jig according to any preceding claim wherein the plurality of pucks are made from Foamcx.
8. A jig according to any preceding claim wherein the plurality of recesses in the base plate are arranged in a regular grid pattern.