JP2000255025A - Offset printer, method for offset printing and highly definite pattern base plate obtained by using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase an ink-filling amount in an intaglio and to easily print a multilayer film at a low cost by installing a plurality of doctor blades, and providing at least one exclusive inking mechanisms corresponding to the blades. SOLUTION: A plurality of doctor blades are installed, and at least one exclusive dispensers are correspondingly provided. That is, dispensers 101A to 101C are scanned in a direction perpendicular to a print advancing direction, an ink 107 is supplied onto an intaglio 105, and thereafter moved in a direction of an arrow, squeezed by the blades 117A to 117C to scrape off the excess ink 107 on the intaglio 105, and the ink 107 is filled in a pattern of the intaglio 105. As a result, its ink-filling rate is raised, a film thickness of the printing pattern is made uniform, and set to a thickness near a depth of the intaglio. The ink is regulated to obtain a laminar printing pattern by one time printing operation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an offset printing apparatus suitable for high-definition pattern printing for patterning, for example, parts of a printed wiring board or an image display device, an offset printing method using the same, and an offset printing method using the same. And a high-definition pattern substrate obtained by the method described above.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there have been considered various methods for producing an electron source substrate building in which elements such as a circuit board, a liquid crystal display element, an image forming apparatus, and wiring are arranged on a substrate. There is a method in which device electrodes, wirings, and the like are all formed by photolithography. For example, when forming fine-pattern wiring, the photolithography method first forms a conductive layer, forms a resist layer thereon, exposes and develops this resist layer, and etches the conductive layer where there is no resist layer,
Further, the remaining resist layer is peeled off.

On the other hand, the printing method is suitable for forming a large-area pattern. For example, the element electrodes of a surface conduction electron-emitting device are printed on a substrate so that a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices can be formed on a substrate. And it is advantageous in terms of cost.

In the formation of device electrodes by a printing method,
For example, an offset printing technique suitable for forming a thin film is used. An example in which this offset printing technique is applied to a circuit board is disclosed in JP-A-4-290295. In the substrate disclosed in this publication, the angles of a plurality of bonding electrodes connected to circuit components are changed in order to eliminate bonding defects due to variations in electrode pitch dimensions due to pattern expansion and contraction during printing. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-290295 describes that an electrode pattern is formed by offset printing.

Hereinafter, a general offset printing apparatus and a printing method for forming an electrode pattern, a color filter and the like will be described. FIG. 8 to FIG. 10 are views showing a printing stage moving type offset printing apparatus that performs the offset printing method. FIG. 8 is a plan view of a conventional offset printing apparatus. In FIG. 8, a blank cylinder 110 on a main body frame 108 is provided with gears 111 on both sides, and a blanket 113 is mounted around the circumference. Also one
Reference numeral 02 denotes a printing stage, which intaglio-fixes an intaglio 105 or a work (not shown) which is a printing material during printing. The printing stage can be moved in one axis direction by a servomotor. Two rack gears 109 are provided on both sides of the printing stage 102. When the printing stage moves to the blanking cylinder, the gears of the blanking cylinder and the rack gear of the stage accurately engage with each other to enable stable operation. Reference numeral 101 denotes a dispenser device that supplies the ink 107, and supplies ink in a linear manner onto the intaglio 105 by moving one axis. 117 is a doctor blade.

FIGS. 9A to 10D are views showing an offset printing process using the offset printing apparatus shown in FIG. 9A to 10D, the intaglio 105 is vacuum-adsorbed on the printing stage 102, and the ink 107 is supplied on the intaglio by the dispenser device 107. Then, as the printing stage moves, the doctor blade 117 fills the intaglio pattern portion with ink (FIG. 9A).

When the stage further moves, the rack of the stage (not shown) and the gear of the blanket cylinder (not shown) are accurately engaged with each other, so that the ink filled in the concave portion of the intaglio 105 is received on the blanket in a stable operation. (FIG. 9
(B)).

Next, the intaglio on the stage is removed, the stage is returned to the printing start position, and the blank cylinder is also returned to the initial rotation position. Then, the work 106, which is a printing material, is fixed on the stage by vacuum suction (FIG. 10C).

Next, when the stage is moved, the stage rack (not shown) and the gear of the blanket cylinder (not shown) are engaged with each other with high precision, and the ink 107 is formed in a pattern having the intaglio 105 on the work 106 by a stable operation. Transfer (FIG. 10 (d)). Thus, the printing process is completed.

[0010]

However, the printing method described above has the following problems. That is, in offset printing, in order to stabilize the shape accuracy of the print pattern, it is necessary to stabilize the filling rate of the ink 107 into the intaglio 105 first. Further, in order to achieve uniformity in the thickness direction of the printing pattern, the filled ink film only needs to be faithful to the concave shape of the plate. Therefore, it is desirable that the filling rate is as close as possible to 100%.

However, in many printings, the filling of the ink into the intaglio 105 by the doctoring blade 117 depends on the rheological properties of the ink 107 and the conditions of the doctoring method. Stays on. Therefore, the pattern shape after the offset printing has a thickness unevenness, the printed shape becomes smaller than expected, and the blanket 113 enters the concave portion to receive the ink, so that the surface of the blanket 113 can be received. May be complicatedly deformed and affect shape accuracy and position accuracy.

Heretofore, in order to increase the filling rate of the intaglio, the angle in the doctoring direction with respect to the pattern shape has been devised as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-128520. However, as the pattern becomes finer and the shape becomes more complicated as in recent years, it has become difficult to uniformly increase the filling rate by such a method.

[0013] In addition, conventionally, there have been various demands for the print formed matter, such as adhesion to a printing medium, functionality (material performance), surface properties, and the like. It is becoming more difficult to incorporate materials that have special functions into them. For this reason, it is inevitable that a method is required in which printing is performed several times using materials corresponding to each requirement, and the required physical properties are expressed by forming a multilayer film.

[0014] However, when the required pattern becomes finer as in recent years, it is necessary to increase the rigidity of the apparatus in order to attain the accuracy that allows the printing to be performed precisely and repeatedly in the same place. As a result, cost increases are inevitable.

An object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism capable of increasing the amount of ink to be filled into an intaglio in order to solve such problems. In addition, by devising and using this mechanism, it is possible to easily print a multilayer film satisfying various requirements at low cost.

[0016]

Means for Solving the Problems As a result of intensive studies, the present inventors have found that the above-mentioned problems can be solved by attaching a plurality of doctor ring mechanisms to a printing apparatus and inking mechanisms respectively dedicated to the doctor ring mechanisms. The present invention led to the heading.

That is, the offset printing apparatus of the present invention is provided with a plurality of doctor blades for supplying ink to the intaglio plate and removing excess ink, and a dedicated inking mechanism corresponding to each of the doctor blades. It is characterized by having at least one each.
Here, the inking mechanism is preferably a curtain coat.

Further, the present invention is a printing method using the above offset printing apparatus. Here, each of the inking mechanisms can be filled with a different ink using the offset printing apparatus described above. For example, a layered printing pattern can be obtained by filling each inking mechanism with a different thixotropic ink.

Further, the present invention is a high-definition pattern substrate printed by using the above-mentioned offset printing method. Here, the high definition pattern substrate is, for example, an electron source substrate for forming a large number of electron-emitting devices, a liquid crystal display device source substrate,
It is a circuit board.

[0020]

According to the present invention, the amount of ink to be filled in the intaglio, that is, the filling amount, can be increased by one doctoring operation. In addition, by applying the printing apparatus and imparting necessary rheological properties to the ink to be used, a multilayer film having various functions can be obtained by the same operation as a normal printing operation. Therefore, the cost of patterning using the functional multilayer film can be significantly reduced.

[0021]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIGS. 1A to 3F are side views showing a doctoring mechanism and an inking mechanism in an offset printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and using a printing machine provided with these mechanisms. 4 schematically illustrates a printing process.

In the figures, 101A to 101C denote ink supply dispensers, 102 denotes a printing stage, 105 denotes an intaglio, 1
06 is a work, 107 is an ink, 108 is a main body frame, 110 is a blanket cylinder, 113 is a blanket, 117
A to C represent doctor blades, and 125 represents an ink receiver.

FIG. 1A shows a state in which the ink 107 is supplied onto the intaglio 105 from the ink supply dispensers 101A to 101C.

In FIG. 1B, after (a), the printing stage 102 is operated to operate the doctor blades 117A to 117C.
2C, a state in which the stage 102 moves to perform a receiving operation by the blanket cylinder 110 in FIG. 2C, a state in which the receiving operation is completed in FIG. FIG. 3 (e) shows the intaglio 105 with the work 10
6 and a state where the transfer operation is performed, and FIG. 3F shows a state where the transfer operation is completed and printing is completed.

In the present invention, the doctor blade 117 is
It is characterized in that a plurality of the dispensers are provided, and they are provided with at least one dedicated dispenser 101. In this embodiment, three doctor blades and three dispensers are provided, but this does not limit the embodiment of the present invention.

However, in these installation methods, at least one dispenser must be installed so as to correspond to each blade. A major feature of the present invention is that at least two or more doctoring and inking mechanisms including at least one dispenser are provided for one blade.

The doctor blade 117A of the present invention
To C are not particularly limited. Normal,
Any commercially available resin or metal doctor blade may be used, as well as a cutter blade or any other type, and in some cases, multiple installed doctor blades may be replaced by another if necessary. The shape and material may be used.

Any of the ink supply dispensers 101A to 101C in the present invention may be used. It is also desirable to use a liquid supply mechanism such as a curtain coat in addition to an ordinary dispenser which is usually commercially available. In this case, the ink supply can be performed almost simultaneously with the doctoring operation, which is very effective in shortening the process tact.

It is also desirable to use a curtain coater when the properties of the ink are thixotropic.
By performing the doctoring operation after the concave portion 112 has been filled with ink using a curtain coater in advance, the thixotropic property works more effectively, and the filling rate of each doctoring blade is further improved and improved.

In other words, once the ink that has entered the recesses settles down and the doctor blade applies a shearing force to the edge of the recesses, the viscosity of the ink that has been applied and that has protruded from the recesses decreases due to its rheology, resulting in a drop in the liquid. The blade is easily cut off and scraped off at the tip of the blade. On the other hand, the ink contained in the concave portion does not receive a shearing force, so that the ink behaves in a solid state and remains in the concave portion as it is.

As the blanket 113, a general silicone blanket can be used. Besides that,
All common rubber types can be used.

In the present invention, a general intaglio 105 is used, and any intaglio, such as a metal plate or a glass plate, may be used as long as it can be patterned with required accuracy.

Similarly, the work 106 is also made of blue glass, silica glass, other various glasses, and several hundred
The coating is not particularly limited, for example, a resin coated with a coating of a few μm or a resin, a wafer, or a metal.

The printing ink 107 can be appropriately selected depending on the function of the pattern to be produced. That is, ink containing organic Au metal called Au resinate paste is mainly used for an electrode pattern of a recording thermal head or the like, and R, G, B pigments are used for a color filter used in a liquid crystal display device or the like. Dispersed inks, inks containing organic dyes, and the like are used.

[0035]

The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to examples. [Embodiment 1] In FIGS.
As 17A to 17C, commercially available MDC doctor regular (manufactured by MDC) was used. The dispenser used was a dispenser AD-2000 (manufactured by Iwashita Engineering Co., Ltd.). As the blanket 113, a general silicone blanket was used.

FIG. 1A shows the dispensers 101A to 101A.
C is scanned in a direction perpendicular to the printing progress direction, and an appropriate amount of ink 107 is supplied onto the intaglio 105. During this ink supply, the printing stage 102 is stopped. After the ink supply is completed, the doctor blades 117A to 117C move in the directions of the arrows in the drawing.
FIG. 1B shows the state of squeegees. Intaglio 105 by doctor blades 117A-C
The upper surplus ink 107 is scraped off, and the pattern portion 112 of the intaglio 105 is filled with the ink 107.

FIG. 2C shows a state where the stage 102 moves as it is and the ink in the intaglio 105 is received by the blanket 113. In this embodiment, an ink receiving tray 125 is prepared behind the printing stage and the intaglio, and the excess ink 117 is dripped from the doctor blades 117A to 117C which have finished squeegeeing the plate. The plate, work, stage, etc. were kept clean.

FIG. 2D shows a state where the stage has advanced and the reception has been completed. Then, the intaglio 105 on the stage 102 is removed, the stage 102 is returned to the original position, and the state where the work 106 is placed on the stage 102 is shown in FIG.
(E). The stage 102 moves again in the direction indicated by the arrow in the figure to transfer the ink film received on the blanket, and printing is completed [FIG. 3 (f)].

In this embodiment, the intaglio 105 is 350
× 350 × 3mm blue glass, depth 20μm, length and width 3
A recess of 50 × 150 μm is formed with a vertical and horizontal pitch of 700 × 400.
250 μm pieces of μm were used. As the work 106, a 350 × 300 × 3 mm blue plate glass was used. The ink 107 was prepared by diluting a Pt resinate paste E-3100 (MO Paste, manufactured by NE Chemcat Co., Ltd.) made of an organic metal with a BCA solvent.

Printing was performed by the above method, and ten printed substrates were prepared. Thereafter, the printed substrate was subjected to a drying process at 80 ° C. for 15 minutes, and then put into a belt furnace and fired. The temperature profile of the belt furnace was set from room temperature, and was set so that the substrate temperature was raised to a maximum of 530 ° C. for a charging time of 60 minutes.

[Embodiment 2] FIG. 4 shows a printing press similar to that of Embodiment 1, except that the ink supply dispenser is changed to a curtain coater.
FIG. 9 is a side view in which A to C are put and supplied on the intaglio 105.

In the second embodiment, actually, after the intaglio 105 is placed on the stage, the discharge amount of the curtain coater, which is a dispenser, is adjusted to a very small amount, and the discharge is performed in accordance with the doctoring operation. Supplied over the front. Thereafter, in the same manner as in Example 1, the ink film received on the blanket cylinder was printed on a work, which was a blue plate glass.

FIGS. 5A to 5C schematically show a state in which ink is being filled into the plate by the doctoring operation according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing a state after the ink film thus filled is transferred onto a work.

As the inks 107A to 107C, Bonmark A type red # 1, green # 2, yellow # 2, and [all made by Sakata Inx] were used.

After the printed pattern was dried in an oven at 80 ° C. for 30 minutes and observed with a microscope, it was found that the pattern surface was covered with yellow ink, and that it was red when viewed from the back of the work substrate. Was. Also, when the pattern is cut and observed from the side, the red
It turned out that it became a green-yellow gradation state.

The inks 107A to 107C used in the present invention
In the case where the print pattern is intended to be layered as in this embodiment, a thixotropic property must be used. If a Newtonian ink is used, the ink is not filled in layers in order as shown in the schematic diagram in Fig. 5, but is mixed in the recess at each filling operation and becomes clear. It does not form a layered structure. Therefore, when the present invention is applied for the purpose of a layered printing pattern, a thixotropic ink is used. The stronger the thixotropic properties, the more difficult each ink is to mix during filling and the pattern is printed in layers.

The viscosity of this ink is several tens to several hundreds Pa · s.
The degree may be easy to use. If the viscosity is too high, even if the doctor blades 117A to 117C are sharp, it is difficult to scrape the doctor blades 117A to 117C properly, which causes a defective filling.

When printing in a layered form using thixotropic ink, the ink filled in the intaglio may not be acceptable on a normal blanket. In particular, when the ink has a high viscosity, acceptance becomes difficult.

In such a case, it is preferable to apply a release coating to the intaglio recess. (The content is not shown.) The release coating may be any coating that reduces the surface energy of the plate recesses and is resistant to ink. A silicone resin-based or fluororesin-based coating is preferably used.

Example 3 A printing operation was performed using the same apparatus and members as in Example 1. At this time, the blank cylinder was raised during the intaglio filling operation, only the filling was performed, and immediately thereafter, observation was performed with a laser microscope, and the depth of the meniscus of the filled ink from the intaglio surface was measured.
It was measured at 3 μm. FIG. 7A schematically shows the state of the ink filled at this time.

[Comparative Example 1] Using a conventional printing machine as shown in FIGS.
Offset printing was performed using an intaglio, blanket, and workpiece. The pattern after printing was dried in the same manner as in the example, and then fired in a belt furnace.

[Comparative Example 2] As shown in FIGS.
Using a conventional printing press, the same intaglio as in Example 1,
Offset printing was performed using a blanket and a work. As the ink, the color ink used in Example 2 was used.

First, the work was filled with red ink, printed on a work, and dried in an oven at 80 ° C. for 15 minutes. Thereafter, the intaglio plate was washed, filled with green ink, and the printing operation was performed by adjusting the position on the work. Similarly, 80
After drying in an oven at a temperature of 15 ° C. for 15 minutes, printing was performed in the same position using a yellow ink in the same manner. Finally 80
Drying was performed in an oven at 30 ° C. for 30 minutes.

When the printed pattern was observed with a microscope, the ink layers were slightly displaced from each other, and the shape was not good. In addition, as a result of the positional deviation, a missing or missing pattern has occurred.

[Comparative Example 3] With the same printing machine and printing member as in Comparative Example 1, the filling operation was performed with the blank cylinder raised, as in Example 3, and the ink film in the intaglio immediately after filling was inspected with a laser microscope. And the depth of the meniscus up to the ink was measured to be 13 μm. FIG. 7B schematically shows a state of the ink filled at this time as a side view. Table 1 shows the above results.

[0057]

[Table 1]

In Table 1, for Examples 1 and 2 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2, the film thickness immediately after printing was measured with a laser microscope. In Example 1 and Comparative Example 1, the resistance value after pattern firing was measured by directly dropping a probe on the pattern. Table 1 shows the average of these measured values.

With respect to Example 3 and Comparative Example 3,
Table 1 also shows the values calculated from the laser microscope reading immediately after ink filling and the intaglio depth.

[0060]

As described above, according to the printing method using the offset printing apparatus according to the present invention, the ink filling rate is increased and the film thickness of the printed pattern is made uniform as compared with the conventional offset printing apparatus. The thickness can be made closer to the depth of the intaglio. Further, by adjusting the ink used, a layered print pattern can be obtained by one printing operation.

By using a printing apparatus provided with these mechanisms, it is possible to eliminate troublesome steps and
Development time for incorporating all properties into the ink can be minimized. As a result, it is possible to stably perform high-definition printing through the present invention.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a printing apparatus and a printing operation for explaining an offset printing process according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of a printing apparatus and a printing operation for explaining an offset printing process according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a side view of a printing apparatus and a printing operation for explaining an offset printing process according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a side view of an offset printing apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention and a state immediately after inking in an offset printing process using the same.

FIG. 5 is a side view schematically showing an intaglio plate showing a filling state of the intaglio plate at the time of ink filling in Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a side view schematically showing a print pattern according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

7 (a) is a side view of an intaglio plate after ink filling, schematically illustrating Example 3 of the present invention and (b) of Comparative Example 3. FIG.

FIG. 8 is a plan view showing a conventional offset printing apparatus.

FIG. 9 is a side view showing a conventional offset printing process.

FIG. 10 is a side view showing a conventional offset printing process.

[Explanation of symbols]

101, 101A-C; ink supply dispenser, 1
02; printing stage, 105; intaglio, 106; work,
107, 107A to C; ink, 108; body frame, 109; rack gear, 110;
Gear, 112; print pattern portion, 113; blanket, 117, 117A to C; doctor blade, 12
5; ink receiver, 201; depth measured by laser microscope.

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Kazunari Yonemoto 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo F-term in Canon Inc. (reference) 2H113 AA01 AA05 AA06 BA03 BA18 BA19 BB07 BB09 BB10 BB22 BC00 BC09 CA17 CA46 DA64 FA29 FA35 FA54

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. In offset printing, a plurality of doctor blades for supplying ink to an intaglio plate and removing excess ink are installed, and at least one dedicated inking mechanism corresponding to each of the doctor blades is provided. An offset printing apparatus comprising: 2. The offset printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the inking mechanism is a curtain coat. 3. A printing method using the offset printing apparatus according to claim 1. 4. An offset printing method using the offset printing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein each inking mechanism is filled with a different ink. 5. The offset printing method according to claim 4, wherein each of the inking mechanisms is filled with a different thixotropic ink to obtain a layered print pattern. 6. A high-definition pattern substrate printed by using the offset printing method according to claim 3. 7. The high-definition pattern substrate according to claim 6, wherein the high-definition pattern substrate is an electron source substrate for forming a large number of electron-emitting devices. 8. The high definition pattern substrate according to claim 6, wherein the high definition pattern substrate is a liquid crystal display element source substrate. 9. The high definition pattern substrate according to claim 6, wherein the high definition pattern substrate is a circuit board.