JP2000127335A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer having simple operability, a low cost, a small size and a compact constitution. SOLUTION: The printer fundamentally comprises a printing plate drum 1A for containing a plate, a thermosensitive water repellent printing plate 1B contained in the drum, a writer 2 for writing data printed on the plate on the drum, a developing unit 3 for supplying printing ink to the plate on the drum, a transfer unit 4 having a transfer 4A for transferring ink printed on the plate on the drum, a transfer roller unit 5 for transferring the ink transferred on the transfer onto a printing sheet S, a printing sheet supply unit 7 for supplying a printing sheet to the roller unit, a fixing unit 9 for fixing the ink transferred to the sheet, a sheet delivering unit 10 for delivering the printed sheet after fixing, a discharged sheet receiver 11 for receiving the discharged sheet, and a cleaning unit 6 for cleaning the transfer after the printing is finished and the like. Thus, a small size and a compact constitution can be performed as compared with a conventional printer.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus generally used in the field of printing machines such as offset printing machines and stencil printing machines, and more particularly, to a commercial printing field represented by offset printing, DTP, and the like. The present invention relates to a printing apparatus applied in fields such as short-run printing and OA equipment printing, and more particularly to a printing apparatus capable of performing multicolor printing using a heat-sensitive and water-repellent printing plate.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Offset printing machines and stencil printing machines are known as conventional printing apparatuses, and are widely used in the field of commercial printing and the like. 2. Description of the Related Art In a printing machine in a full-scale printing field represented by an offset printing machine, a printing operator generally requires a dedicated operator who is called a skilled craftsman.
This is because skill is required in setting the printing plate, preparing and supplying the printing ink, replenishing the printing paper, and preparing the color matching for multi-color printing, and cleaning the printing press after printing. This is because it takes time.

[0003] Furthermore, printing machines are very expensive, ranging from several millions to tens of millions of yen, and can only be purchased at printing shops and the like. Among the consumables, PS plates are the most popular and widely used printing plates, and the number of printings that can be performed is tens of thousands. If it is not a copy unit, the printing cost cannot be paid. Furthermore, since offset printing presses are generally very large and require a large installation space, they can only be installed in large rooms such as printing shops or factories. In addition, there has been a problem for many years, such as the working environment represented by so-called 3K (tight, dirty, odor, etc.), such as the smell of printing ink and the smell of volatile solvents for handling and cleaning.

On the other hand, stencil printing machines can be printed by simple operations and are inexpensive (price of printing machines is millions, but stencils, which are consumables, are very low-priced). However, the stencil printing machine cannot perform full-color printing, and the printing quality of one-color single-color printing is lower than that of offset printing, and has not been able to meet the demands of a full-scale printing press.
At present, it is content for the A field (office machine field).

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the performance of the offset printing press and the stencil printing press described above in the field of printing.
It aims to solve problems such as machine price and easy operability. More specifically, the present invention is provided to solve some of the problems that the conventional printing press described above has not been able to solve for many years, and utilizes a heat-sensitive water-repellent printing plate, It is intended to provide a printing apparatus which can exhibit the characteristics of the above to the maximum.

This heat-sensitive water-repellent printing plate is made of a material having water repellency, and has the property that the water repellency when heated is lost from the material and the property is reversed to the water repellency, that is, the property becomes hydrophilic. Writing can be easily performed by a writing device such as a thermal head. Also, since the heat-sensitive water-repellent printing plate is very cheap and comparable to the stencil,
The printing cost is low, and printing is possible from a small number of copies.

[0007] Accordingly, the present invention provides a printing apparatus which uses the heat-sensitive water-repellent printing plate having the above-mentioned features, is simple in operation, is inexpensive, and is small and compact. The purpose is.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention relates to a printing apparatus using a heat-sensitive water-repellent printing plate, and a printing plate drum for storing the plate, and a printing plate drum stored in the plate drum. A heat-sensitive water-repellent printing plate, a writing device for writing data to be printed on the plate on the plate drum, a developing device for supplying printing ink to the plate on the plate drum, and a plate on the plate drum Transfer device having a transfer member for transferring and receiving ink printed on the transfer member, a transfer roller device for transferring the ink transferred on the transfer member to printing paper, and printing paper for supplying printing paper to the transfer roller device A supply device, a fixing device for fixing the printing ink transferred to the printing paper, a paper discharging device for discharging the fixed printing paper, a paper discharging receiving device for receiving the discharged printing paper, and Transcription It is characterized in that a cleaning device for cleaning as the basic configuration (claim 1).

Further, according to the present invention, in the printing apparatus having the above-described basic configuration, one of the transfer devices is disposed at the center of the printing device main body, and a plurality of plate drums are respectively disposed corresponding to the transfer devices. On the other hand, a developing device is arranged, a writing device is arranged in the vicinity of each plate drum, a printing paper transport route is formed at a lower portion of the printing device main body, and a printing paper supply device and a transfer roller device are formed in the transport route. , A conveying device, a fixing device, a paper discharging device, a paper discharging receiving device, and the like are sequentially arranged (claim 2).

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printing apparatus showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printing apparatus showing another embodiment of the present invention.

First, the configuration example of FIG. 2 will be described. FIG.
Is an example of a blanket drum type printing apparatus using a heat-sensitive water-repellent printing plate, and includes a printing plate drum 21A for storing a plate and a heat-sensitive water-repellent printing plate 21B stored in the plate drum. Plate drum device 21 and writing device 2 for writing data to be printed on the plate on plate drum 21A
2, a developing device 23 for supplying printing ink to the plate 21B on the plate drum 21A, a transfer blanket drum 24 for receiving and transferring the ink printed on the plate 21B on the plate drum 21A, and a transfer to the transfer blanket drum 24 Transfer device 28 having a transfer roller 26 for transferring the transferred ink to the printing paper, a printing paper supply device 27 for supplying the printing paper to the transfer device, and a fixing device for fixing the printing ink transferred to the printing paper. The basic configuration includes a device 29, a paper discharge device 30 for discharging the print paper after fixing, a paper discharge receiving device 31 for receiving the discharged print paper, and a cleaning device 25 for cleaning the transfer blanket drum 24 after printing is completed. The plate drum device 21, the writing device 22, and the developing device 2 are provided (corresponding to claim 1).
3. The transfer blanket drum 24 and the like constitute a printing station, and four printing stations are arranged side by side along the transfer / conveying device 28. Each printing station prints an image of a different color (eg, yellow, magenta, cyan, black).
The images of the printing stations of each color are sequentially superimposed on the printing paper conveyed by the transfer conveyance device 28 and transferred, and a multicolor image is printed.

The heat-sensitive water-repellent printing plate 21B is made of a water-repellent material, and has the property that the water-repellency when heated is lost from the material and the property is reversed to the water-repellency, that is, the property is changed to hydrophilic. Thus, writing can be easily performed by the writing device 22 including a thermal head or the like.

In the example of FIG. 2, the printing station for each color is a printing plate 21B, a plate drum 21A holding the plate, a developing device 23 for supplying printing ink to the plate on the plate drum, and a printing device formed on the plate. Since there are a plurality of transfer blanket drums 24 for transferring image ink for color printing (four printing stations in FIG. 2), the size of the printing apparatus is not so small, but the conventional printing machine, For example, there is no plate supply device or plate discharge device used in a stencil printing machine or the like, and the cost is reduced.

The plate drum 21A of the plate drum device 21
Inside, a plate supply roller 21B-1 around which an unused printing plate 21B is wound, and a plate supply mechanism composed of a take-up roller 21B-2 for winding up a used plate are housed. The plate 21B sent out from the plate supply roller 21B-1 goes out through the slit-shaped opening of the plate drum 21A, is wound around the outer periphery of the plate drum, and then enters the plate drum from the slit-shaped opening of the plate drum 21A. It is configured to return and be wound by the winding roller 21B-2. Therefore, in the printing apparatus having the configuration shown in FIG. 2, the plate supply is automatically supplied to the surface of the plate drum by the plate supply mechanism housed in the plate drum 21A, and after the printing is completed, the plate of the used portion is placed in the plate drum. Since the next new plate is automatically wound and supplied to the plate drum surface, the operation is considerably easier than the offset printing machine, and the heat-sensitive water-repellent printing plate This is the most orthodox printing device that supports multicolor printing.

The above is an example of a printing apparatus having a configuration in which a plurality of printing stations are arranged side by side. However, in this configuration, since the apparatus becomes large in the horizontal direction, there remains a problem that it is difficult to reduce the size and size of the printing apparatus. Therefore, next, a specific example of a printing apparatus having a further advanced configuration capable of achieving miniaturization and compactness will be described.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a full-color printing apparatus using a heat-sensitive and water-repellent printing plate according to the first and second embodiments of the present invention.
A and a plurality of plate drum devices 1 each comprising a heat-sensitive and water-repellent printing plate 1B stored in the plate drum, a writing device 2 for writing data to be printed on the plate on each plate drum 1A,
A transfer device (transfer belt) having a developing device 3 for supplying printing ink to the plate 1B on each plate drum 1A and a transfer belt 4A for transferring and temporarily receiving the ink printed on the plate 1B on each plate drum 1A Device) 4, a transfer roller device 5 having a transfer roller 5A for transferring the ink transferred to the transfer belt 4A to the printing paper S, a printing paper supply device 7 for supplying the printing paper S to the transfer roller device 5, and printing. A fixing device 9 for fixing the printing ink transferred to the paper S, a paper discharging device 10 for discharging the fixed printing paper S, a paper discharging receiving device 11 for receiving the discharged printing paper S, and a transfer after printing is completed A cleaning device 6 for cleaning the belt 4A is provided as a basic configuration. In this configuration example,
One transfer belt device 4 is arranged in the center of the printing device main body,
A plurality of plate drum devices 1 are respectively arranged corresponding to the transfer belt 4A of the transfer belt device 4, a developing device 3 is arranged for each plate drum 1A, and a writing device 2 is arranged substantially near the upper portion of each plate drum 1A. Then, a transport route for the printing paper S is formed in the lower portion of the printing apparatus main body, and the printing paper supply device 7, the transfer roller device 5, the transport device 8, the fixing device 9, the paper discharging device 10, and the paper discharging The receiving device 11 and the like are sequentially arranged.

As described above, the heat-sensitive and water-repellent printing plate 1B is made of a material having water repellency, and the water repellency when heated is lost from the material. It has properties and can be easily written by the writing device 2 including a thermal head or the like.

In the configuration shown in FIG. 1, in order to solve some of the problems in the conventional printing press, each unit is arranged most effectively or rationally. And
In order to reduce the size and size of the entire apparatus, the blanket drum system shown in FIG.
The transfer belt device 4 using A is configured to be vertically long (there is no device that conventionally transfers printing ink onto a belt in a printing press). The plate drum device 1 is disposed substantially at the center, and a plurality of plate drum devices 1 are disposed corresponding to the transfer belt 4A of the transfer belt device 4, respectively. As a result, the size of the apparatus in the horizontal direction is halved as compared with the blanket drum system used in a conventional offset printing machine or the like, so that a reduction in size, size, and space can be achieved.

In the transfer blanket drum system used in the conventional multicolor offset printing press, a blanket drum is provided for each color similarly to FIG. 2. For example, a full-color compatible model requires four blanket drums. And had In a current offset printing press or the like, full-color printing is performed by overlaying printing ink on printing paper. On the other hand, in the configuration of FIG. 1, after the four color inks are superimposed on one transfer belt 4A,
The principle is that the image is transferred to printing paper at a time (for this purpose, it goes without saying that the characteristics of the ink in the process, the characteristics of the transfer belt, and the like have the properties and performances that make it possible). As described above, since the transfer belt device 4 is used in the configuration of FIG. 1, only one transfer belt is required for the transfer member, which greatly contributes to downsizing of the machine. Further, since only one transfer device is required, this greatly contributes to reduction of the machine price.

Further, in the configuration of FIG. 1, the printing plate 1B is housed in the plate drum 1A for miniaturization and cost reduction. For this reason, a printing device of a type that supplies a plate from the outside of a plate drum, such as a stencil printing press or a waterless sheet-fed printing press, does not require a plate storage space, a plate feeding device, a plate discharging device, and the like. This configuration is far more advantageous for miniaturization and cost reduction. Further, the plate drum device 1 provided with the plate 1B and the plate drum 1A is designed to further reduce the size and cost of the entire device including the transfer belt device 4, the plate 1B, and the plate drum 1A, and to be advantageous in performance. Transfer belt 4A
Are arranged symmetrically on the left and right, and have a common configuration on the left and right, and the whole is rationally arranged in a well-balanced manner.

Further, in the configuration shown in FIG. 1, in order to smoothly convey the printing paper S, to reduce the jam of the printing paper as much as possible, and to effectively utilize the curvature separation performance as an effective performance means of the transfer belt. In order to eliminate a large-scale separation device and to make the conveyance path of the printing paper from the paper supply to the transfer, fixation, and discharge almost linear, the printing paper S is provided at the lower portion of the printing apparatus main body. Are formed, and the printing paper supply device 7, the transfer roller device 5, the transport device 8, the fixing device 9, the paper discharge device 1
0, a paper receiving device 11 and the like are sequentially arranged.

As described above, in the printing apparatus having the configuration shown in FIG. 1, the plate drum device 1, the writing device 2, the developing device 3 and the like are disposed symmetrically with respect to the transfer belt 4A and the configuration is made common. In order to reduce the size, size, and cost of the printer, a transport route for the print paper S is formed at the bottom of the printer body to transport the print paper. The configuration is almost linear, so that stable performance can be ensured even for conveying printing paper.

Next, the configuration of each section of the printing apparatus shown in FIG. 1 will be described. First, in the plate drum 1A of each plate drum device 1 corresponding to each color of full-color printing, a plate supply roller 1B-1 around which an unused heat-sensitive and water-repellent printing plate 1B is wound, and a used plate Roller 1 for winding up
A plate feeding mechanism composed of a plate drum B-1 is accommodated therein.
A, after being wound outside around the outer periphery of the plate drum 1A through the slit-shaped opening of A, returned to the inside of the plate drum from the slit-shaped opening of the plate drum 1A, and taken up by the winding roller 1B-2. Has become. Therefore, the plate supply is automatically supplied to the surface of the plate drum by the plate supply mechanism housed in the plate drum 1A, and after the printing is completed, the used portion of the plate is automatically wound into the plate drum, and the next new plate is supplied. Plate is supplied to the plate drum surface

As is clear from FIG. 1, the plate 1B and the plate drum 1A are prepared for the full color basic colors (process colors), for example, for the inks of the yellow, magenta and cyan colors. Further, there is another plate and plate drum for black ink for characters and inking, etc., and it is provided with a plate and plate drum of four colors in total, and a developing device described later.

The writing device 2 provided on each plate drum device 1 is provided with a plate 1 wound on a plate drum 1A.
This is a device for writing print data to B, for example, a thermal thermal head is used, but this is not limited to a thermal head, and a laser writing device or the like may be used.

The developing device 3 provided in each plate drum device 1 prints each color (yellow, magenta, cyan, black) on the plate 1B on which the print data is written by the writing device 2 on the plate drum 1A. It is a device that supplies ink. The developing device 3 includes a developing roller 3a, an oscillating roller 3b that rotates and oscillates on the developing roller 3a, and a blade 3 that adjusts the amount of ink on the developing roller 3a to an appropriate film thickness.
c and an ink magazine 3d for replenishing ink.

The transfer belt device 4 is a device having a transfer belt 4A for transferring and temporarily receiving the developed ink on the plate 1B on each plate drum 1A as described above. Naturally, the surface properties of the transfer belt 4A are made of a material having good transferability of the printing ink. Transfer belt 4 of transfer belt device 4
A is a pressure roller which is supported by a plurality of rollers such as a driving roller and a driven roller, and presses the transfer belt 4A against the plate drum 1A at a position corresponding to each plate drum 1A in the transfer belt 4A. The platen roller 4B is arranged. Although not shown, these platen rollers have a structure capable of selectively applying pressure to a plate drum to be selectively used.

A transfer roller device 5 installed opposite to the lower portion of the transfer belt device 4 includes a transfer roller 5A for pressing and transferring the printing ink on the transfer belt 4A to the printing paper S, and a transfer belt for transferring the transfer ink 5A. The transfer mechanism 5B includes a transfer roller support arm, a cam, a spring, and the like, and a mechanism that swings the arm to move the roller toward and away from the roller 4A. And the transfer belt 4
The printing paper S is supplied by the printing paper supply device 7 and the registration roller 7A at the time when the printing ink on A is just below, and the transfer roller 5A is brought into contact with the transfer belt 4A at the timing at that time, and the printing is performed. The sheet is pressed against the transfer belt 4A and the sheet is conveyed.
The above printing ink is transferred to printing paper.

The cleaning device 6 serves to clean the transfer belt 4A when the printing ink on the transfer belt 4A has been transferred to the printing paper S and printing has been completed, and a cleaning roller (or cleaning brush) is prepared for the next printing. ) And a cleaning blade to remove residual ink from the previous printing from the transfer belt 4A and perform cleaning.

The printing paper supply device 7 includes a storage section for the printing paper S, a paper feed roller, and the like, and feeds the printing paper S one by one toward the transfer section at the timing of printing.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, the transport device 8 comprises a transport belt, and transports the printing paper S to which the printing ink has been transferred and separated from the transfer belt 4A to the fixing device 9 in the next step.

The fixing device 9 is a device for firmly fixing the ink in a dry state on the printing paper S to the paper.
A, and a pressure roller 9B that presses against the fixing roller 9A. In the fixing of the printing ink, the fixing roller 9A is made of an oil-resistant rubber (for example, a silicone rubber, a fluorine rubber, or the like) that absorbs the solvent of the printing ink. It is a configured roller. Further, if a heat source (electric heater, halogen lamp, or the like) for promoting fixing is provided inside the fixing roller, better fixing can be achieved.

The printing paper S after the above-mentioned fixing is discharged out of the apparatus by a paper discharging device 10 comprising a pair of rollers and the like, and the discharged printing paper S is discharged to a paper receiving tray installed at the side of the printing apparatus main body. The paper is discharged onto a tray of the apparatus 11.

[0034]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, in a printing apparatus using a heat-sensitive and water-repellent printing plate, a printing plate drum for storing a plate, and a printing plate drum stored in the plate drum. A heat-sensitive water-repellent printing plate, and a writing device for writing data to be printed on the plate on the plate drum,
A developing device for supplying printing ink to the plate on the plate drum, a transfer device having a transfer member for receiving and transferring the ink printed on the plate on the plate drum, and a transfer device for transferring the ink transferred onto the transfer member. A transfer roller device for transferring to a printing paper, a printing paper supply device for supplying the printing paper to the transfer roller device, a fixing device for fixing the printing ink transferred to the printing paper, and discharging the printing paper after fixing Conventionally, a paper discharge device, a paper discharge receiving device for receiving discharged print paper, and a cleaning device for cleaning the transfer body after printing are provided as basic components. Thus, it is possible to provide a printing apparatus having a novel configuration which is not described above, and it is possible to provide a printing apparatus which is small, compact and inexpensive as compared with a conventional offset printing press.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the printing apparatus according to the first aspect, one transfer device is arranged at the center of the printing device main body, and a plurality of plate drums are respectively arranged corresponding to the transfer device. A developing device is disposed for each plate drum, a writing device is disposed near each plate drum, and a printing paper transport route is formed at a lower portion of the printing device main body. Since the supply device, transfer roller device, transport device, fixing device, paper ejection device, paper ejection receiving device, etc. are sequentially arranged, compared with the blanket drum system used in the conventional multicolor offset printing press, etc. The size of the device in the lateral direction can be considerably reduced, and further miniaturization, compactness and space saving can be achieved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printing apparatus showing another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 21: Plate drum device 1A, 21A: Plate drum 1B, 21B: Plate for heat-sensitive and water-repellent printing 1B-1, 21B-1: Plate supply roller 1B-2, 21B-2: Winding roller 2, 22: Writing device 3, 23: developing device 4: transfer belt device (transfer device) 4A: transfer belt (transfer body) 5: transfer roller device 5A: transfer roller 6: transfer belt cleaning device 7, 27: printing paper supply device 8 : Conveying device 9, 29: Fixing device 10, 30: Discharge device 11, 31: Discharge receiving device 24: Transfer blanket drum (transfer body) 25: Transfer blanket drum cleaning device 26: Transfer roller 28: Transfer convey device

Claims (2)

[Claims] A printing apparatus using a heat-sensitive water-repellent printing plate, a printing plate drum for storing the plate, a heat-sensitive water-repellent printing plate stored in the plate drum, and printing on the plate. A writing device that writes data to be printed on the plate drum, a developing device that supplies printing ink to the plate on the plate drum, and a transfer body that transfers and receives the ink printed on the plate on the plate drum. An apparatus, a transfer roller device for transferring the ink transferred on the transfer body to printing paper, a printing paper supply device for supplying printing paper to the transfer roller device,
A fixing device for fixing the printing ink transferred to the printing paper, a paper discharging device for discharging the printing paper after fixing, a paper discharging receiving device for receiving the discharged printing paper, and cleaning the transfer body after printing is completed A printing device comprising a cleaning device as a basic configuration. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein one of said transfer devices is arranged at the center of the printing device main body, and a plurality of plate drums are respectively arranged corresponding to said transfer devices. And a writing device is disposed in the vicinity of each plate drum, and a printing paper transport route is formed at a lower portion of the printing device main body. The printing paper supply device, the transfer roller device, and the transport device are provided in the transport route. , A fixing device, a paper discharging device, a paper receiving device, and the like are sequentially arranged.