JP2000255153A - Method and device for automatic feeding of ink - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate the need of feeding of ink at all times by a worker and prevent the development of a defective due to the running short of the ink since the ink is automatically fed to a screen printing machine by a constitu tion wherein the ink in an ink bottle is sucked up under being agitated so as to be automatically fed on a screen. SOLUTION: An automatic ink feeding device 10 consists of an ink bottle 11, which is rotatable under the state that an ink 4 is housed therein, an ink feeding tube 12, which has both functions of the agitation of the ink 4 in the ink bottle 11 and of its suction, and a tube pump 14 provided in the midway of the tube 12. During the working of the device 10, the ink bottle 11 is rotated through a turntable 8. During a printing operation, the rotation of the ink 4 in the ink bottle 11 is hindered by a tube part 12s, resulting in keeping its rotation. By driving the tube pump 14, the ink 4 under an agitated state in the ink bottle 11 is sucked up through a tube 12 and fed on the screen 3 of a printing machine 1.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a compact disk (CD), a digital video disk (DV), and the like.
The present invention relates to a method for automatically supplying ink when screen printing is performed on an optical disk or the like used in D) and an automatic ink supply apparatus used for implementing the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, ink is supplied to a screen at the time of screen printing on a label such as a CD by manual operation by a person, for example, by inclining an ink bottle on the screen and dropping a predetermined amount. ing. When the viscosity of the ink is too high to drop naturally, the viscosity is lowered by stirring with a stirrer in advance, or the viscosity is lowered by stirring the ink in the bottle with a spatula or the like.

[0003] The reason that the ink supply cannot be automated is that the color of the ink is frequently changed in small lots of products, and a pump of the type that requires cleaning the inside each time is used, which is rather complicated and costly. There was a problem.

[0004] In addition, the method of sealing the ink bottle and pumping the ink with air, or the method of transferring the ink to a special container also have a problem in terms of complexity and cost. When stirred, the fluidity was increased, and when left to stand, it returned to a gel state. Due to the strong thixotropy, the viscosity was high and the solidity was high, and it was difficult to transport the ink.

[0005]

However, the method of supplying ink manually requires poor workability and low production efficiency, and often causes an accident such as running out of ink, so that it is necessary to stop the operation of the printing press. . When the operation of the printing press is stopped, defective products are likely to occur on the first 3 to 5 sheets after the operation is restarted, and there is a problem that the production efficiency is low.

The present invention provides an automatic ink supply method for screen printing to solve this problem and an automatic ink supply apparatus used for implementing the method.

[0007]

According to the automatic ink supply method of the present invention, the ink in the ink bottle is sucked up with stirring and automatically supplied onto the screen. In the automatic ink supply method according to the present invention, the ink bottle is rotated, and the ink, preferably an acrylic UV curable ink, is sucked up by a tube inserted obliquely into the ink bottle.

According to the automatic ink supply method of the present invention, since the printing ink is constantly stirred, the viscosity is reduced, and the ink can be stably sucked by the transfer tube. In addition, the transfer and supply of the ink are automated, so that almost no work is required, and there is no need to stop the operation of the printing press. Therefore, there is no defective product when the operation is restarted, and the quality is stable.

An automatic ink supply device according to the present invention is a rotatable ink bottle containing ink, and an ink supply tube having one end inserted obliquely into the ink bottle and the other end disposed on a screen. And a tube pump provided in the middle of the tube for sucking and supplying ink, and rotating the ink bottle with respect to the tube inserted obliquely, stirring the ink in the ink bottle with the tube. It becomes like this.

According to the automatic ink supply device according to the present invention, the printing ink is stirred by the rotating ink bottle and the tube during printing so that the viscosity is reduced, and the supply of the printing ink is automated. Since there is no printing operation, there is no need to stop the printing press.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The automatic ink supply method according to the present invention is a method for supplying ink for screen printing, in which ink in an ink bottle is sucked up with stirring and automatically supplied onto a screen. The automatic ink supply method according to the present invention is configured such that the ink bottle is rotated and the ink, preferably an acrylic ultraviolet curable ink, is sucked up by a tube inserted obliquely into the ink bottle.

An automatic ink supply device according to the present invention is an ink supply device for screen printing, wherein a rotatable ink bottle containing ink, one end is inserted obliquely into the ink bottle, and the other end is a screen. It has a tube for ink supply arranged above and a tube pump provided in the middle of the tube, for sucking and supplying ink, and rotating the ink bottle with respect to the tube inserted obliquely. The ink in the ink bottle is stirred by the tube.

An embodiment of an automatic ink supply method and an automatic ink supply apparatus for screen printing according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is an overall view of an automatic ink supply device 10 according to the present embodiment. Basically, a rotatable ink bottle 11 containing ink 4 and a rotatable ink bottle 11 in the ink bottle 11 are shown. It is composed of a tube 12 for supplying ink having both functions of stirring and sucking up the ink 4 and a tube pump 14 provided in the middle of the tube 12.

The ink bottle 11 containing the ink 4 is rotatably disposed together with a dust cover 21 and a tube 1 is provided.
A rotation mechanism is provided at the connection between the joint 2 and the lid 21. As the ink bottle 11, a commercially available ink can (for example, a cylindrical can having a diameter of about 90 mmφ and a height of about 200 mm) can be used as it is, and the turntable 8 can be used.
When the printing is performed, a predetermined number of rotations, for example, 20
It is rotated at low speed at about rpm.

The tube 12 is fixedly arranged and is inserted into the ink 4 in the ink bottle 11 to stir and suck the ink 4, and a stirring / suction tube section 12 s and a stirring / suction tube section via a pipe joint 13. 12s connected to the ink transport tube portion 12t. The transport tube portion 12t is extended to an ink 4 supply portion of the screen 3 via a pressure feeding portion by a tube pump 14 described later.

The agitating / suction tube portion 12s has its tip inserted obliquely with respect to the rotation axis of the ink bottle 11 through the lid 21, and is fixed to the outside of the ink bottle 11, and the ink 4 The ink bottle 11 rotates to agitate the ink 4 by acting as a baffle plate that hinders the rotation of the ink bottle 11. A tube having a predetermined curvature, for example, a curl of about 200 mmR is used as it is. Is also good.

The stirring / suction tube section 12s is provided with an ink 4
For example, it is preferable to use a nylon tube made of nylon 12 having a certain rigidity so as to be able to resist the viscosity of the ink bottle 11 having a diameter of about 9 mmφ. It is preferable because the remaining amount is small and can be used effectively.

Some of the inks 4 such as black ink have a strong thixotropic property. However, when the ink 4 is stirred, the viscosity sharply decreases, and the ink 4 is easily sucked into the tube portion 12s.
Further, the viscous resistance in the transport tube portion 12t is reduced, and the load on the tube pump 14 described later can be reduced.

As the ink 4, for example, an acrylic ultraviolet curable ink can be used. The viscosity of Ink 4 is determined by DIC (Dainippon Ink Co., Ltd.)
Those having a diameter of about 40 to 45 (± 9) mm (DM value) are frequently used.

As shown in FIG. 2, the tube pump 14 drives a rotary driving body 17 having a plurality of rollers 15 mounted on its circumference to press the transfer tube 12t between the tube press 16 and the tube holder 16 to transfer the tube. This is a type in which the ink 4 is transported so as to squeeze the tube 12t.

The tube pump 14 operates for a certain period of time in response to a signal indicating that there is no ink from the ink detection sensor 7 disposed on the screen 4 of the screen printing machine 1 to supply a predetermined amount of ink 4 onto the screen 3. Has become. The tube retainer 16 has a structure in which the transfer tube 12t can be easily attached to and detached from the tube pump 14 when changing colors.

The transport tube 12t is pressure-fed by the tube pump 14 to transport the ink 4 to the ink supply section of the screen 3, so that the stirring / suction tube section 12t
Unlike s, it is preferable to use a silicon tube that is soft and has a certain degree of bending resistance, for example, an outer diameter of about 10 mmφ and a thickness of about 1.5 mm.

Next, the operation of the automatic ink supply apparatus 10 and the automatic ink supply method will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the ink bottle 11 is rotated via the turntable 8, and the ink 4 in the ink bottle 11 is stirred during the printing operation by being hindered by the rotation of the tube portion 12 s. The rotation is maintained while the viscosity is reduced.

When the tube pump 14 is driven, the stirred ink 4 in the ink bottle 11 is sucked up through the tube 12 and supplied onto the screen 3 of the printing press 1.

In the printing press 1, as shown in FIG. 3, a screen 3 placed on a gantry (not shown) and an ink 4
Blade 5 that stretches the ink over the entire screen 3 and a squeegee 6 that pushes the ink 4 through the gap between the screens
Is arranged. Then, as shown in FIG. 3A, a screen 3 is placed on a work (substrate to be printed) 2 placed on a gantry, and a predetermined amount of ink 4 is dropped onto one end of the screen 3 through a tube 12 of an automatic supply device 10. You.

Next, the ink 4 is stretched over the entire surface of the screen 3 from the left end to the right end in FIG. 3B by the doctor blade 5. Next, the doctor blade 5 is lifted, and the squeegee 6 is pressed against the screen 3 instead.
C moves from the right end to the left end, and the ink 4 is pushed out from the gap of the screen 3 to be printed on the work 2 (printing completion).

As shown in FIG. 3D, the doctor blade 5 and the squeegee 6 are actually fixed to one arm, and move up and down alternately while moving left and right. That is, in FIG. 3B, the doctor blade 5 moves down and the squeegee 6 moves upward, and in FIG. 3C, the squeegee 6 moves down and the doctor blade 5 moves upward.

A reflective tape is stuck on the screen 3, and when the ink runs out, as shown in FIG. 3B, the light from the sensor 7 provided on the screen 3 for detecting the absence of ink is reflected. Therefore, the reflected light is detected by the detection sensor 7 and an out-of-ink alarm is issued.

As described above, while the ink 4 is present on the screen 3 of the printing press 1, the light from the detection sensor 7 does not reflect and the screen printing is repeated. When the ink 4 runs out on the screen 3 as the printing progresses, the detection sensor 7 detects the reflected light from the reflection tape, and the tube pump 14 is operated by the detection signal to compress the tube portion 12t and convey the ink 4. At the beginning, the ink 4 in the ink bottle 11 is transferred to the tube 1
If it is sucked into 2s and has been running for a certain period of time,
A predetermined amount of ink 4 is supplied onto the screen 3 and the tube pump 14 stops.

In the present embodiment, the printing press 1 is stopped when the detection sensor 7 detects that there is no ink even after a predetermined time has elapsed after the operation of the tube pump 14. By estimating the remaining amount of the ink 4 from the accumulated operation time of the tube pump 14 and replacing the ink bottle 11 before the ink 4 becomes empty, it is possible to prevent the printing press 1 from stopping.

In the method of changing the color of the ink 4, the rotation of the ink bottle 11 is stopped, the tube pump 14 is stopped, and then the tube holder 16 is released to release the tube pump 14.
After removing the tube portion 12t from, the ink bottle 11 and the tube portions 12s and 12t are integrally replaced with another ink bottle 11 and the tube portions 12s and 12t, thereby making it easy to carry out.

Since this replacement part is as inexpensive as consumables, it can be discarded as it is after use. Only the suction tube 12s or the transfer tube 12t is detached from the pipe joint 13 and easily replaced at any time. It is also possible.

According to the printing ink automatic supply method according to the present embodiment, since the ink 4 is automatically supplied to the screen printing machine 1, it is not necessary for the operator to always supply the ink 4 and the ink 4 runs out. Accidents are eliminated, and defective products due to running out of ink do not occur. In particular, with appropriate stirring, a black ink having a strong thixotropy can be used in the same manner, and the efficiency is high and the quality is stable.

Further, since the tube 12 and the ink bottle 11 can be replaced at the time of color change, the color of the ink 4 can be easily changed, and the tube 12 and the ink bottle 11 do not need to be washed. Savings and working time is reduced.

Automatic ink supply device 1 according to the present embodiment
According to 0, the ink 4 can be conveyed at a low viscosity and supplied to the screen printing machine 1, and when the ink 4 runs out, the ink 4 is automatically supplied to the screen 3; Accidents are eliminated, and the occurrence of defective products is significantly reduced.

[0037]

According to the automatic ink supply method of the present invention, the ink is automatically supplied to the screen printing machine, so that there is no need for the operator to constantly supply the ink, and the accident of running out of ink is eliminated. Defective products caused by running out of ink do not occur. In addition, the color change of the ink can be easily performed, and the cleaning of the inside of the tube and the tube pump is unnecessary, so that the ink can be supplied to the screen printing machine very efficiently.

According to the automatic ink supply device of the present invention, there is no need to transfer the ink to a dedicated container or the like, the ink can be directly sucked from the ink container (bottle), and the ink is transported with low viscosity and supplied to the screen printing machine. Since the ink is automatically supplied when the screen runs out of ink, there is no ink run-out and the work efficiency is improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a layout view of an automatic ink supply device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a tube pump according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of screen printing.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 printing press, 3 screen, 4 ink, 5 doctor blade, 6 squeegee, 7 ink detection sensor, 8
Turntable, 10 automatic ink supply device, 11
Ink bottle, 12 (12s, 12t) tube, 1
3 pipe fittings, 14 tube pumps, 15 rollers,
16 Tube holder, 17 rotary drive

Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Koichi Ishihara 1-4 Term Yatacho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo F-term in Sony Music Entertainment Inc. (reference) 2C035 FD34 2C250 DB25 DB27 FA05 2H113 BA09 BC02 CA17 DA53

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An ink supply method for screen printing, comprising: sucking up ink in an ink bottle while stirring, and automatically supplying the ink onto a screen. 2. The ink bottle according to claim 1, wherein the ink bottle is rotated, and the ink is sucked up while being stirred by a tube obliquely inserted into the ink bottle.
3. The automatic ink supply method described in 1. above. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the ink is an acrylic ultraviolet curable ink. 4. An ink supply device for screen printing, comprising: a rotatable ink bottle containing ink; an ink supply device having one end inserted obliquely into the ink bottle and the other end disposed on a screen. A tube for, provided in the middle of the tube, sucks the ink,
A tube pump for supplying the ink, wherein the ink bottle is rotated with respect to the obliquely inserted tube, and the ink in the ink bottle is stirred by the tube. Automatic ink supply device.