JP2001353844A - Method and apparatus for performing printing by rotary screen - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and apparatus for performing printing by a rotary screen having novel constitution holding the same processing quality as printing due to a conventional flat screen and capable of performing printing (printing processing) high in productivity. SOLUTION: A material to be printed is held on a feed belt 2 running under tension and a printing mold 10 comprising an endless screen is trained over the support rollers 13, 13 arranged at a required interval on the upper side of the running feed belt 2 under tension in parallel to the running feed belt 2 to apply printing to the material to be printed held on the feed belt 2 by the squeegee device 15 arranged in the printing mold 10.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for screen printing on a web such as a fabric, and more particularly, to a rotary screen printing method for printing on a web such as a fabric using a squeegee by rotating an endless screen gauze. And its device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, in order to print various designs on various fabrics (cloths), a screen gauze is spread on a formwork, a photosensitive agent is applied on the surface, and a pattern tressed on a film is overlapped with a light source. Using a screen mold with a flat plate made by the irradiation method, the fabric (web) attached to a wide conveyor belt is run intermittently, and the screen mold is placed on top of it and the form fixing belt is moved for printing. A screen printing method of the type, a so-called flat screen printing method, is widely used.

[0003] In addition, a cylindrical mold (printing cylinder) using a cylinder plate made by applying a photosensitive agent to a mesh cylinder made of nickel alloy steel and irradiating a light source with a pattern formed by tressing a film on the surface of the mesh cylinder. There is a rotary screen printing method in which the printing cylinder is rotated to print on a cloth running with a squeegee arranged inside.

[0004]

In these conventional screen printing methods, according to the flat screen printing method, a high degree of finish (good quality) can be adopted, and it is possible to adopt advanced techniques such as a blur pattern. The cost required for plate making is relatively low, but the printing speed is slow, and the productivity is inferior to the latter rotary screen printing system.
In addition, the rotary screen printing method is inferior to the flat screen printing method in the degree of finishing (quality) of printing, but it is much higher in terms of productivity, and the cost of plate making is expensive, but it is suitable for mass production processing. It is. Therefore, it can be said that the flat screen printing method is suitable for printing many kinds of small lots, and the rotary screen printing method is suitable for printing many kinds of small lots.

[0005] Comparing these two printing methods, Table 1 shows
There are advantages and disadvantages as indicated by.

[0006]

[Table 1]

In view of the above, a rotary screen printing system is preferable in order to increase productivity.
Due to problems in processing quality and the production cost of the printing type is significantly higher than that of the flat screen type, it is not often adopted. By adopting a flat screen printing method with good quality in spite of poor productivity. That is the current situation. However, recently, there has been a demand for a printing process capable of lowering production costs and obtaining high-quality products.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and has a novel structure capable of performing high-productivity printing (printing) with a processing quality similar to that of conventional flat screen printing (printing). It is an object of the present invention to provide a rotary screen printing method and apparatus therefor.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a rotary screen printing method according to a first aspect of the present invention maintains a tension on a printing material supplied on a receiving portion. The printing is performed by contacting a printing mold made of an endless screen gauze that is driven or driven.

[0010] According to the printing method of the first aspect of the present invention, the printing die formed by using the endless screen gauze is used to move the printing object (web such as cloth).
, By printing in accordance with the travel of the printing material, it is possible to continuous printing, especially,
For printing on a fabric, an endless screen gauze can be used for the printing die, so that a high-quality product can be obtained with a fine die. The printing die may be pressed against a running printing material by a squeezing device to perform printing, and the screen gauze (printing die) may follow the movement of the printing material by the contact pressure of the squeezing device. In addition, printing can be performed effectively without the need for driving force. Further, when the printing medium is not a continuous web, for example, the printing mold may be driven in synchronization with the movement of the printing medium.

In the above-mentioned printing method, the printing material is held on a belt running in tension, and a printing mold formed of a screen gauze made endless between rollers arranged at a predetermined interval above the running belt. It is preferable that the printing material is wound around a belt in parallel with the belt and printed on a printing material held on the belt by squeezing means arranged inside the printing die. By doing so, the screen printing mold is driven in synchronization with the traveling belt on which the printing material is held in parallel, and the printing paste is slid by the squeezing means along the flow of the printing material. This has the effect of effectively implementing a printing method that has not existed in the past, in which continuous printing can be easily performed with a printing type. Also,
Since printing can be performed continuously in this manner, it is possible to increase the endless length of the printing type, and thus it is possible to easily print a large pattern and provide an inexpensive pattern.

In addition, a required number of print units, each of which includes a printing die made of an endless screen gauze and squeezing means, are arranged along a belt that holds and runs a printing material to perform multicolor printing. Good. As described above, according to the present invention, since multi-color printing can be performed without intermittently feeding the printing medium, it is possible to produce a high-quality multi-color printed product at low cost.

A rotary screen printing apparatus according to a second aspect of the present invention for realizing the above-described printing method includes: a) a transport belt for holding and transporting a printing material in a tensioned state; b) a required interval above the transport belt. A printing mold consisting of an endless screen gauze tensioned by at least two rollers arranged in parallel with the conveyor belt and tuned in parallel with the conveyor belt; c) on the conveyor belt inside the winding of the print mold A squeezing device and a printing glue supply means for rubbing the printing glue toward the object to be printed, d) means for holding a transport belt facing the squeegee device, and cleaning means for the transport belt. Is what you do.

[0014] According to the second aspect of the present invention,
The operation and effect of the printing method according to the first aspect can be easily obtained.

Further, the printing unit comprising the endless screen gauze and its holding means, and the printing unit comprising the squeezing device and the printing paste supply means are provided.
Preferably, a plurality of units are arranged along the transport belt, and a means for holding the transport belt at a lower position of the transport belt opposite to the squeezing position of each print unit is preferably provided. This has the effect of enabling mass production of high-quality multi-color print products by screen printing, in particular, fabric print products.

As means for holding the transport belt,
It is preferable that a receiving roller is rotatably disposed directly below the conveyor belt facing the print-type squeezing device. With this configuration, the receiving roller is rotated in accordance with the travel of the transport belt, so that the upper surface of the transport belt can be kept constant at a fixed position. This makes it possible to print continuously and continuously, and to maintain high quality.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the rotary screen printing method according to the first invention will be described with reference to a second embodiment.
Specific embodiments of the rotary screen printing apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, as a printing apparatus for fabric,
The rotary screen printing device will be described.

FIG. 1 is a front view showing the outline of a rotary screen printing apparatus. Note that FIG. 1 shows a state in which one print mold is provided for convenience of explanation.

This rotary screen printing apparatus 1 comprises:
It is composed of a wide conveying belt 2 for conveying a fabric to be printed, a driving device 5 for the conveying belt 2, a printing die 10 formed endlessly, supporting means and a squeezing device 15, and a cleaning device 20 for the conveying belt 2. I have.
It is to be noted that a known apparatus is used for a supply device of a material to be printed (cloth) attached before and after the rotary screen printing apparatus 1 and a post-processing apparatus of the cloth after printing, and these are not shown.

Conveying belt 2 for conveying the printing material
Is a wide endless belt, which is wound between a driving drum 3 and a driven drum 4 arranged at a required distance, kept in tension by a known means, and driven by a driving device 5 whose driving speed is controlled. It is provided to run at a required speed.

As shown in FIG. 2, the printing die 10 is formed by applying a photosensitive agent to an endless screen gauze 11 having a required length (required diameter) wider than the width of the continuous fabric to be handled. The plate is made by overlapping film illustrations and irradiating a light source. The both edges in the width direction are provided with reinforcing edges 12 reinforced by a belt or the like, so that distortions do not occur in the plate-making mold due to torsion or shrinkage deformation.

Such a printing die 10 is installed on the upper side of the transport belt 2 in a tensioned state by two support rollers 13, 13 perpendicular to the traveling direction of the transport belt 2 at a required interval. A screen gauze 11 constituting the print mold 10 is provided at both ends of the support rollers 13 and 13.
A grooved sheave 14, which receives the reinforcing edges 12 on both sides,
14 is provided so that the screen gauze can be moved while keeping its surface flat. The support roller 1
Reference numerals 3 and 13 are rotatably supported by a frame (not shown) via bearings.

As shown in FIG. 3, the squeegee 16 has a squeegee 16 having a length corresponding to the working width of the printing die 10 (the width that can be actually printed). It is attached to a holder 17 which is supported in a vertically adjustable manner by means, and is disposed at an intermediate portion between the support rollers 13, 13 so as to be pressed against a back surface of the screen gauze 11 of the print mold 10 with a required pressing force. On both sides of the squeegee 16, the screen gauze 11 of the squeegee 16 is brought into contact with the reinforcing edges 12, 12 of the printing die 10 to contact the printing surface (fabric) on the conveyor belt 2. Press rollers 19, 19 for maintaining an equilibrium state are provided. In addition,
The press roller 19 is supported by a printing means (not shown) so as to interlock with the vertical movement of the squeegee 16.
0 support frame.

A receiving roller 25 is provided below the running of the conveyor belt 2 so as to face the squeegee device 15.
The receiving roller 25 receives the pressing force for printing by the squeegee 16 without difficulty and maintains the balance.

The printing paste is supplied to a position in front of the squeegee 16 (upstream in the running direction of the conveyor belt 2) so as to spread in the width direction as a printing paste (dye paste for printing). A gutter-shaped glue bat 18 is provided. The glue bat 18 is supplied with printing paste from the outside, and the glue bat 18 can control the supply amount of the printing paste to the squeegee 16 by changing the inclination angle according to the printing conditions. .

On the return side of the conveyor belt 2, a belt cleaning device 20 is disposed. This belt cleaning device 20
Is a device for washing and cleaning the printing paste that has reached the back surface through the fabric and adhered to the belt surface when the printing is performed on the conveyor belt 2 by the printing mold 10 and the squeezing device 15. It is composed of a squeeze roller 21 for loosening the printing paste adhered to the belt surface, a plurality of brush rollers 22 for cleaning the surface, and a washing water tank 23.

The rotary screen printing apparatus 1 constructed as described above is stuck on the conveyor belt 2 by a cloth supply device (not shown) to be printed and supplied to a print location at a required speed. Is done. At the printing position, an endless printing die 10 composed of a screen gauze 11 wound around the support rollers 13 and 13 in tension is placed on the conveyor belt 2 running by a pressing force applied to a squeegee 16 of a squeegee device 15. Is contacted by the contact and follows the travel of the conveyor belt 2, and at the same time, the printing paste is printed on the fabric by the squeegee 16 through the screen gauze 11 of the printing die 10. Since the receiving roller 25 is disposed below the conveyor belt 2 in response to the pressure applied during printing by the squeegee 16, the contact pressure against the fabric by the squeegee 16 acts without difficulty to perform printing. .

Therefore, the support mechanism (not shown) of the squeegee 16 of the squeegee device 15 is adjusted up and down so that a uniform pressing force (pressing force) is applied to the print mold 10 from the back surface in the width direction. if,
Since the printing die 10 is endless, it is possible to print continuously while maintaining a constant state while the supply of the fabric is performed continuously. In particular, if the pattern of the printing mold 10 is made into an endless plate, the printing is continuously performed without any seam of the printed pattern, which is a problem in the conventional printing method. Is continuously printed while maintaining a certain optimum condition, so that the conventional printing type intermittent operation causes the shivering (the screen type flexes when it leaves the fabric after printing, and the printing paste splashes. Phenomenon) does not occur, and high quality printing can be performed.

The printed fabric is directly transferred to the conveyor belt 2.
Is sent to the driven drum 4 side, and is taken into a post-processing device (not shown), where the printing paste is fixed. Further, the portion of the conveyor belt 2 from which the printed fabric has been removed is turned downward at the position of the driven drum 4 and moved on the return stroke, and the surface thereof is cleaned by the cleaning device 20 to be cleaned. After that, the cloth is inverted upward along the drive drum 3 to hold a new cloth.

In the cleaning device 20 for the transport belt 2,
First, the cleaning liquid is adhered to the belt surface by the squeeze roller 21. Next, the operation of removing the adhesion of the printing paste with the cleaning liquid by the cleaning water by the plurality of brush rollers 22 and washing and cleaning the dirt are performed.

As described above, the printing die 10 is provided between the two support rollers 13 and 13 at the reinforcing edges 12 on both sides.
Since the screen 12 is supported by the grooved sheaves 14 and 14 and tensioned in the width direction, and maintained in a longitudinally tensioned state by the support rollers 13 and 13, the screen gauze 11 does not twist or wrinkle. It is possible to print while following the running of the conveyor belt 2 while always maintaining a stable state.

In the above description, one print mold 10 is described. However, the print unit including the print mold 10, the pair of supporting rollers 13 thereof, and the squeezing device 15 is provided with the required number of prints and the required number of prints. Multicolor printing can be performed by disposing the receiving roller 25 below the conveyor belt 2 at intervals with the upper side of the conveyor belt 2 facing the squeezing device 15 of each print unit.

In the case of a printing apparatus for performing such multi-color printing, each printing die is not shown, but the driving means for positioning the die from the first printing roller to the supporting roller portion of each printing die, for example, a worm gear A mechanism for adjusting the position of the screen gauze (printing mold) supported by the support rollers (13, 13) back and forth so as to eliminate the misalignment of the screen gauze by sequentially connecting the mechanisms by a line shaft is provided.

In the above description, the configuration in which the printing die 10 is tensioned and supported by the two support rollers 13 has been described. However, when the squeegee 16 is pulled up to cut off the contact with the fabric, the tension is raised. In order to prevent the force from being loosened, a roller for adjusting the tension may be provided so that the tension always acts on the printing die.

As described above, the rotary screen printing apparatus of the present embodiment can use an endless screen gauze made by photoengraving a design or the like as the print mold 10, so that the object to be printed (printed) can be used. Fabrics) can be easily manufactured and used. Therefore, even if it is a large printed pattern, it can be implemented even if the length dimension and the width dimension of the printing mold are dimensions that could not be predicted conventionally. Also, even if screen gauze to be a print type cannot be manufactured endlessly,
When the screen gauze of the required length is connected endlessly to form a print mold, and the design is interrupted at the joint,
By lifting the squeegee for the print mold running following the conveyor belt at the seam position by an electric signal and temporarily stopping the printing operation, the pattern of the type made on the print mold is continued Can be printed.

Further, even when the object to be printed is not continuous, printing can be performed by intermittently moving the conveyor belt or the support base at the printing speed and intermittently operating the squeezing device up and down. . In such a case, the transport support that supports the print object may be a table other than the belt, and the table does not require a receiving roller.

As described above, according to the printing method of the present invention, since printing can be performed in a printing format using a printing die made by an endless screen gauze, high quality equivalent to conventional flat screen printing can be obtained. Can be printed at a high speed, and the printing mold can be manufactured by a simple photoengraving method, so that it can be obtained at a low cost. You get it. In addition, since the apparatus does not require a mold supporting apparatus such as a flat screen type which requires complicated and high precision and an intermittent feeding apparatus of the conveyor belt, the apparatus can be provided at low cost.

The receiving roller 2 of the present embodiment described above
5 or the table corresponds to the receiving portion of the first invention. Further, the printing paste of this embodiment corresponds to the printing paste of the present invention.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an outline of a rotary screen printing apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway plan view showing a printing die and a supporting means thereof.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a squeezing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Rotary screen printing apparatus 2 Conveying belt 3 Drive drum 4 Drive drum 5 Drive apparatus 10 Print type 11 Screen gauze 12 Reinforcement edge of screen gauze 13 Support roller 15 Squeegee 16 Squeegee 17 Squeegee holder 18 Glue bat 19 Screen gauze Roller 20 Belt cleaning device 25 Receiving roller

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A printing medium supplied on a receiving portion,
A rotary screen printing method, wherein printing is performed by contacting a printing mold made of an endless screen gauze driven or driven while being kept in tension. 2. The printing method according to claim 1, wherein the printing medium is held on a belt running in tension, and the screen is endless between rollers arranged at required intervals above the running belt. A rotary screen, wherein a print mold made of gauze is wound around and stretched in parallel with the belt, and printing is performed on a printing material held on the belt by squeezing means arranged inside the print mold. Printing method. 3. A multi-color printing is performed by arranging a required number of printing units each including a printing die made of an endless screen gauze and squeezing means along a belt that holds and runs a printing material. 3. The rotary screen printing method according to 1 or 2. 4. A transport belt for holding and transporting a printed material in a tensioned state, b) A tension belt is provided above the transport belt by at least two rollers arranged at a required interval, and the transport belt is stretched. A printing die made of an endless screen gauze that is operated in parallel and tuned; c) a squeezing device and a printing glue supply means for rubbing the printing glue toward the printing material on the conveyor belt inside the winding of the printing die. D) a rotary screen printing apparatus comprising: means for holding a transport belt facing the squeegee device; and means for cleaning the transport belt. 5. A printing mold comprising the endless screen gauze and a printing unit comprising a holding means thereof and a squeezing device and a printing glue supplying means are arranged in a plurality of units along the transport belt. 5. The rotary screen printing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising means for holding the conveyor belt at a position below the conveyor belt opposite to the squeezing position of the print unit. 6. The rotary screen according to claim 4, wherein, as means for holding the transport belt, a receiving roller is rotatably disposed directly below the transport belt facing a print-type squeezing device. Printing device.