JP2002172871A - Blanket for offset printing and method for offset printing using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a blanket for offset printing capable of suppressing a deterioration of the blanket itself to the minimum limit by simply removing a volatile component of an ink from the blanket and restarting a printing operation immediately after a treatment by shortening a stopping time of an offset printer for a recovering work. SOLUTION: The blanket comprises a blanket body having a base material part and a surface part. The base material part has a heating mechanism to be a self-temperature regulation type. A method for offset printing using the blanket comprises the steps of supplying an ink to an intaglio, scraping the excess ink by a doctor blade, then receiving a pattern on the intaglio by an ink placing surface of the blanket, transferring the received pattern to a matter to be printed, and offset printing the matter.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a blanket in offset printing suitable for high-definition pattern printing, for example, for performing required patterning on a printed wiring board, parts of an image display device, and the like. Related to the printing method used.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there are various methods for producing a so-called electron source substrate in which elements and wiring such as a circuit board, a liquid crystal display element, and an image forming apparatus are arranged on a substrate. For example, there is a method in which device electrodes, wirings, and the like are all formed by a photolithography method.

For example, when forming a fine pattern wiring, in the photolithography method, first, a conductive layer is formed, a resist layer is formed thereon, and the resist layer is exposed and developed, and a portion without the resist layer is formed. Is etched, and the remaining resist layer is stripped 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 can be used to form a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices. Since the element can be formed on the substrate, the use efficiency of the direct material, the number of steps can be reduced, and the like, it is advantageous in terms of cost.

[0005] In particular, in the formation of element electrodes by a printing method, for example, an offset printing technique suitable for forming a thin film is used. An example of applying this offset printing technique to a circuit board is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 4-290295. The substrate disclosed in this publication, from the pattern expansion and contraction caused by the printing format at the time of offset printing, in order to eliminate electrical bonding failure due to variations in electrode pitch dimensions, the angle of the plurality of bonding electrodes connected to the circuit component Is changing.

Hereinafter, a general offset printing apparatus and printing method for forming an electrode pattern, a color filter, and the like will be described. FIG. 5 is a plan view showing an offset printing apparatus, and FIG. 6 is a side view illustrating a conventional offset printing process.

Here, the main body frame (printing platen) 108
The upper blanket cylinder 110 has gears 111 on both sides, around which a blanket 133 is mounted. Reference numeral 102 denotes a printing stage on which an intaglio 105 or a work 106 (see FIG. 6D) as a printing medium is fixed by vacuum suction during printing. Further, the printing stage 102 can be moved in one axis direction (the left-right direction in FIG. 5) by a servomotor.

[0008] On both sides of the printing stage 102, 2
The print stage 10 is provided with
When 2 moves to the blanket cylinder 110, the gear 111 of the blanket cylinder 110 and the rack gear 109 of the printing stage 102 mesh with each other with high accuracy, and stable operation is possible.

Reference numeral 101 denotes a dispenser device for supplying ink 107. The printing stage 102 moves in one axis direction to supply the ink 107 onto the intaglio 105 in a line shape (width of the printing stage). Reference numeral 117
Is a doctor blade.

In FIG. 6A, a printing stage 102
Above, the intaglio 105 is vacuum-adsorbed, and the ink 107 is supplied in a line onto the intaglio 105 by the dispenser device 101. Then, as the printing stage 102 moves, the ink 107 is filled into the printing pattern portion 112 of the intaglio 105 by the doctor blade 117.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6B, when the printing stage 102 moves, the printing stage 102
The rack 109 and the gear 111 of the blanket cylinder 110 shown in FIG.
The ink 107 filled in the concave portion of the intaglio 105 is received on the blanket 133.

Next, the intaglio 10 on the printing stage 102
6 and the printing stage 102 is returned to the printing start position, and the blanket cylinder 110 is also returned to the rotation initial position, as shown in FIG. Then, a work (for example, a substrate to be printed) 106 which is a material to be printed is fixed on the printing stage 102 by vacuum suction.

When the printing stage 102 moves, the rack 109 of the printing stage 102 and the gear 111 of the blanket cylinder 110 are engaged with each other with high precision, and the intaglio 105 is placed on the work 106 in a stable operation.
Of the ink 107 (FIG. 6)
(D)).

Thus, the printing process is completed. The material of the printing ink 107 can be appropriately selected depending on the function of the pattern to be produced. That is, the electrode pattern of the recording thermal head or the like mainly uses an ink containing an organic Au metal called an Au resinate paste, and if a color filter used for a liquid crystal display device or the like is used, red R and green are used. An ink in which pigments of G and B colors are dispersed or an ink containing an organic dye is used.

[0015] In the offset printing press used for the production of such a precise device (work), the influence of a printing failure such as a printing position shift or doubling is large. One of the factors is a blanket surface rubber. And the blanket 133 itself is displaced or bent. Therefore, it is necessary to stretch the blanket 133 to the blanket cylinder 110 strongly and uniformly.

This is described in JP-A-11-01083.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 5 (1993), a method has been proposed in which a blanket is pulled with a standardized tension, wound around a blanket cylinder while maintaining the value, and the end is fixed to the blanket cylinder. I have.

[0017]

However, the printing method as described above has the following problems. That is, in offset printing, the blanket surface portion that always comes into contact with the ink gradually absorbs the components in the ink, whereby the physical properties of the surface rubber change over time in a relatively short time. As a result, the state of ink reception / transfer changes, and compared to the initial stage, the exactly same state is not maintained in the printing process, so-called collapse of the print pattern shape or poor transfer, so-called,
Causes poor printing.

Until now, there have been various studies on the influence of ink solvent permeation on the blanket, which causes aging over time and adversely affect printing. Examples of measures to prevent the absorption of the solvent that causes such a change include: JP-A-8-3
As disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4176, a method of forcibly removing the solvent in the blanket by evacuating the solvent from the back side of the blanket and intermittently removing the blanket from the blanket cylinder and applying heat. And a method of volatilizing the solvent (for example, a method of removing the solvent by using a heating means is disclosed in
No. 18,705).

The blanket used here generally has a multilayer structure in many cases, and these are bonded together with an adhesive layer or the like. Therefore, the ink component absorbed by the surface rubber causing the print deterioration is absorbed and removed from the back side of the blanket, or the method of heating the blanket itself and volatilizing it from the blanket is removed. When a structure having a weak property is used, there is a fear that the structure may be deteriorated. As a result, the removal of the ink component for recovering the printing failure deteriorates the life of the blanket itself.

In the case where the blanket is heated to volatilize and remove the ink components, the entire blanket is warmed by the heating operation, thereby changing the surface condition of the blanket. Printing cannot be resumed until it drops. In addition, the method of taking off the blanket from the blanket cylinder and performing the heating operation as an offline method requires that the offset printing device be stopped each time the blanket is removed and attached, and that a new blanket be installed and the installation adjustment operation be newly performed, Production efficiency will be reduced.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to easily absorb absorbed ink components from a blanket to reduce printing defects due to absorption of ink components. It can be removed and the degradation of the blanket itself can be minimized, minimizing the downtime of the offset press for recovery work and restarting the printing operation immediately after appropriate measures To provide a blanket in offset printing that can be used.

[0022]

The above object is achieved by the present invention described below. That is, the blanket of the present invention is characterized in that it has a blanket main body composed of a surface portion necessary for ink transfer transfer and at least a substrate portion provided with a heating mechanism.

In other words, the present invention relates to offset printing in which ink is supplied to an intaglio plate, excess ink is scraped off with a doctor blade, the pattern on the intaglio plate is received, and the received pattern is transferred to a printing material and printed. The blanket itself used for this has a heating mechanism.

As an embodiment of the present invention, it is desirable that a cooling mechanism is provided on the base portion having the heating mechanism, and that the base portion is preferably made of metal. Further, it is desirable that the surface rubber directly involved in the ink receiving / transferring has a structure in which the surface rubber is directly integrated with the base portion having the heating mechanism. In an offset printing press, it is desirable to have a function as a blanket cylinder.

Further, the present invention provides a method of printing using an offset printing machine equipped with a control means capable of effectively mounting a blanket mounting mechanism and / or a heating / cooling mechanism of the blanket. In addition, a printed printed circuit board is included in the technical scope.

In the present invention, when the ink component is absorbed into the blanket during printing, the ink solvent that has been quickly absorbed is operated by operating a heating mechanism provided in the base material portion. Can be volatilized and removed from the blanket.

Thereafter, preferably, by operating the built-in cooling mechanism, the temperature of the blanket can be promptly returned to the normal use temperature state.
This makes it possible to minimize the time during which the offset printing press is stopped.

When the surface rubber is directly integrated with the base member provided with the heating mechanism, the surface rubber swells due to the absorption of the ink component, and then the ink is heated by heating the base material. Promote volatilization of components, change to normal temperature by cooling, and repeat offset printing, and use the blanket repeatedly to keep the blanket in good print condition over a long period of time, even when using the blanket. Can be.

[0029]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to FIGS. Note that this embodiment does not limit the technical scope of the present invention, and its application is effective in various fields.

(First Embodiment) Hereinafter, a blanket and an offset printing machine using the same according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail. FIG. 1 is a side view schematically showing a blanket according to this embodiment.

In the drawing, reference numeral 113 denotes a blanket upper layer, and 114 denotes a blanket base fabric. Also, 114
Represents a heating mechanism, and 115 represents a cooling mechanism. The blanket 11 according to this embodiment includes a blanket upper layer (surface portion) 113 and a blanket base fabric (base portion) 114, and the blanket base fabric includes a heating mechanism 115.
And a cooling mechanism 116.

FIG. 2 is a schematic side view for explaining the mounting of the blanket 11 on the blanket cylinder 110. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 110 denotes a blanket cylinder, 11
Represents a blanket. 113 is a blanket upper layer, 114 is a blanket base cloth, 115 is a heating mechanism,
Reference numeral 116 denotes a cooling mechanism.

FIG. 2A shows a state in which one end of the blanket 11 is fixed to the blanket cylinder 110 and the blanket 11 is
This shows a state from the start of mounting, in which a constant tension is applied and the wire is gradually wound while being pulled. FIG. 2 (b)
Is a state slightly advanced from the state of (a), that is,
As shown in FIG. 2A, a state in which the blanket cylinder 110 is rotated and the blanket 11 is wound while the tension on the blanket 11 is kept constant as in FIG. FIG. 2 (c) shows the blanket cylinder 1 extending to the end of the blanket 11 with the tension still applied.
FIG. FIG. 2D is a schematic diagram showing the state of the blanket 11 in the state of FIG. 2C in detail.

In this procedure, the blanket 11 was actually wound around the blanket cylinder 110, and the time required for this winding was 25 minutes.

In the present invention, the blanket upper layer 1
13, any material may be used,
Here, the solvent content of the penetrating ink is changed to the blanket 11.
Since the entire blanket 11 is heated for the purpose of volatilizing quickly, the material used for the blanket upper layer 113 is selected from materials that do not easily deteriorate within a required temperature range. Further, it is more preferable that undesired irreversible changes in physical properties do not occur in the temperature range in which the blanket is used from the time of heating the blanket to the time of receiving / transferring.

In addition, the blanket upper layer 113 needs to have at least a surface rubber layer directly involved in reception / transfer at the time of printing.
If necessary, it may be made of an appropriate material. For example, when the impact at the time of reception / transfer cannot be absorbed by the surface rubber layer alone, a cushion layer or the like may be combined, or a multilayer structure may be used as necessary.

The blanket base cloth 114 may be of any material or shape. This is appropriately selected depending on all members related to the printing to be performed and the required printing accuracy. In the present invention,
Since it is necessary to perform heating and cooling, a material having good thermal conductivity is preferable if possible. In particular, those having a thermal conductivity of 10.0 W / (m · K) or more are preferably used, and more preferably 100.0 W / (m · K) or more.

If a material having good thermal conductivity is used, the time required for heating and cooling is shortened, and the waiting time from the start of the treatment to the printing operation can be shortened. Therefore, especially when trying to shorten this time, the thermal conductivity of the blanket base fabric is important.

In this embodiment, the heating mechanism 115
A general heater with high flexibility was used.
Any thing may be used. If there is a restriction on the thickness or size of the entire blanket depending on the printing or printing machine to be performed, the heating mechanism 115 is used to cope with the restriction.
As for the method (1), an appropriate means may be selected. In addition, the cooling mechanism 116 includes a coolant circulation path drawn around a thin tube,
As with the heating mechanism 115, an appropriate method may be selected according to the thickness and size of the entire blanket.

In this embodiment, the blanket upper layer 113 is made of silicon rubber and has a thickness of 450 μm.
m. The silicon rubber used was so-called dimethyl silicon, which is a material equivalent to a general silicon blanket.

As the blanket base cloth 114,
A heating mechanism 115 is mounted on a stainless steel plate having a thickness of 1.5 mm.
, And a cooling pipe as the cooling mechanism 116.

FIGS. 3 (a) to 3 (d) schematically show printing on a work using the blanket 11 installed as described above. 3, 101 is a dispenser, 102 is a printing stage, 105 is an intaglio, 106 is a work, 107 is ink, 108 is a body frame, 110
Represents a blanket cylinder, 11 represents a blanket, and 117 represents a doctor blade.

FIG. 3A shows a state in which the ink 107 supplied by the dispenser 101 is squeezed by the doctor blade 117 by moving the printing stage 102 in the direction of the arrow. The surplus ink 107 is scraped off by the doctor blade 117, and the pattern portion of the intaglio 105 is filled with the ink 107.

FIG. 3B shows the printing stage 1 as it is.
2 shows a state in which the blanket 11 has moved and the ink in the concave portion of the intaglio 105 has been received by the blanket 11. Thereafter, the intaglio 105 on the printing stage 102 is removed, and as shown in FIG. 3C, the printing stage 102 is returned to the original position.
The work 106 is placed on the print stage 102. The printing stage 102 moves again in the direction indicated by the arrow in the figure to transfer the ink film received by the blanket 11 to the work 106 as shown in FIG. Ends.

In the present invention, a general intaglio 105 is used, and any intaglio 105 such as a metal plate or a glass plate can be used as long as it can be patterned with required accuracy.
Similarly, the work 106 is also made of blue plate glass, silica glass,
Various other glasses, several hundred square meters to several μm on various glasses
Or a resin, a wafer, a metal, or the like.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 4 is a side view schematically showing a blanket according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Here, the blanket is completely integrated with the blanket cylinder. In the figure, reference numeral 113 denotes a blanket upper layer, reference numeral 114 denotes a blanket base fabric, and this portion functions as a blanket cylinder in a printing press. 114 is a heating mechanism, 1
Reference numeral 15 denotes a cooling mechanism.

The blanket 110A is made up of the blanket upper layer 113 and the blanket base cloth 11
4, a heating mechanism 115 and a cooling mechanism 116. Note that this function is the same as in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.

[0048]

EXAMPLES (Example 1) A specific example of the first embodiment will be described below. Here, the intaglio 105 has a length and width of 3
A recess having a depth of 20 μm, a width of 350 × 150 μm, a pitch of 700 × 400 μm, and a width of 251 × 60 is formed on a soda lime glass having a size of 50 × 350 mm and a thickness of 3 mm.
One piece was used. The work 106 is vertically and horizontally: 3
A blue plate glass having a size of 50 × 300 mm and a thickness of 3 mm was used. The ink 107 was prepared by diluting a Pt resinate paste made of an organic metal (MO Paste E-3100, manufactured by N-Chem Cat Co., Ltd.) with a BCA solvent.

After attaching the blanket 11 to the blanket cylinder 110, test printing is performed eight times while adjusting the printing press, and the entire printing press is adjusted so that the blanket 11 is evenly wound around the blanket cylinder 110. did. The adjustment required a total of one hour.

Thereafter, the printing was repeated 50 times in total by the method described above, and the printing was continuously performed. Then, every five times of printing, the blanket upper layer 11 is
The surface of No. 3 was heated until it reached 100 ° C., and was kept at 100 ° C. for one minute, after which cooling water was passed through the cooling pipe 116,
The blanket was quickly cooled to 25 ° C. The total time required for these heating and cooling operations is one of the heating and cooling operations.
Each time was for 7 minutes.

Observation of the pattern of the resulting printed matter (work) showed that the pattern was printed in a beautiful rectangle almost faithfully to the intaglio pattern from the first printing to the fiftieth printing.

(Example 2) Here, a specific case in the second embodiment will be described. The blanket 11 described above
OA was mounted on a printing press, and printing adjustment was performed. The mounting required 20 minutes, and the adjustment required 10 minutes to perform one test print.

Thereafter, printing was continuously performed 50 times in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the blanket cylinder 110 and the blanket 11 in Example 1 were used. The heating and cooling operations were performed every five printings in exactly the same manner as in Example 1. The time required for the heating / cooling operation was 7 minutes for each operation, as in Example 1.

As a result of this printing, the printed matter is 50 times from the first time.
A pattern similar to the pattern of the intaglio was formed almost uniformly over the second time.

(Comparative Example 1) Next, in order to clarify the features of the present invention, as Comparative Example 1, offset printing was performed using a conventional printing machine as shown in FIGS. The offset printing was performed using the blanket 133 used in the above and the intaglio 105, the work 106, the ink 107, the blanket cylinder 110, and the like as in the first embodiment.

At this time, the blanket 133 was wound around the blanket cylinder 110 by applying tension to the blanket cylinder 110 in the same procedure as in Example 1, and fixed. In addition, blanket 13
It took 25 minutes to fix 3 to blanket cylinder 110.

Thereafter, while adjusting the conditions, about 7 test prints were performed to complete the blanket adjustment. The adjustment took one hour. Next, as in the case of the first embodiment, the continuous 5
Printing was repeated 0 times. The printing was performed in the same procedure as in Example 1 as shown in FIG.

After this printing was repeated 50 times continuously, the pattern of the printed matter was observed.
In the range of about the number of sheets, the shape was very similar to the pattern of the intaglio 105, but after the 20th sheet, it was found that the shape gradually collapsed every time the number of sheets passed. 4
After the 0th sheet, the printed pattern shape becomes intaglio 1
It was distorted, far from the pattern of 05.

(Comparative Example 2) In this comparative example, an ordinary blanket 133, an intaglio 105, and a work 1 similar to those in Example 1 were used using a conventional printing machine as shown in FIG.
06, ink 107, blanket cylinder 110, etc., offset printing was performed.

Here, similarly to Comparative Example 1, first, the blanket 133 was wound around the blanket cylinder 110, and adjustment was performed. These include 25 minutes and 1
It took time. Printing was performed in the same procedure as in Example 1 as shown in FIG.

Printing was repeatedly performed on 20 sheets, and the blanket 133 was removed from the blanket cylinder and placed in an oven heated to 100 ° C. Blanket 133
Removal took 5 minutes.

The removed blanket 133 was heated in an oven for 15 minutes until it was sufficiently warmed. Thereafter, the blanket 133 was taken out of the oven and allowed to stand for 25 minutes until the surface temperature became equal to room temperature.

Thereafter, the blanket 133 was mounted on the blanket cylinder 110 again, adjusted, and the 21st to 40th printings were performed in the same manner as the 20th printing from the first printing. At this time, the mounting and the adjustment required 25 minutes and 1 hour, respectively, as in the beginning.

After the 40th printing, the 41st to 50th printings were carried out after removing the blanket, heating in an oven, taking out, and cooling at room temperature, and mounting and adjusting the blanket cylinder. At this time, each operation required 5 minutes for removal, 15 minutes and 25 minutes for heating and cooling, and 25 minutes and 1 hour for mounting and adjustment, respectively.

After the printing was completed, the pattern of the completed printed matter was observed. From the first printing to the fiftieth printing, a pattern almost identical to the pattern shape of the concave portion was observed. This indicates that if the working time is not taken into account, the reception and transfer of the printing pattern by the blanket by heating and cooling is effective.

Table 1 summarizes what has been described above.

[0067]

[Table 1]

[0068]

As described above, in the offset printing press according to the present invention, it is possible to perform the same printing in a required shape for a long time in continuous printing. Also,
At this time, the state of the blanket can be maintained without removing the blanket from the printing press. Therefore, the winding adjustment of the blanket need only be performed when the blanket is first mounted.

Further, if a blanket and a blanket cylinder are integrated, an adjustment operation for making the blanket winding state uniform becomes almost unnecessary, so that the maintenance time of the printing press can be shortened.

Therefore, according to the offset printing method using the blanket of the present invention, the operation rate of the printing press can be improved, and high-definition printing can be performed stably for a long time. Fine printing can be performed at lower cost.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a blanket according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 2A to 2D are side views of a blanket cylinder and a blanket for describing a blanket mounting step in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 3A to 3D are side views for explaining an offset printing machine according to the present invention and an offset printing process using the same.

FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically illustrating a measurement reference position and a measurement position of a print pattern in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing the offset printing apparatus.

FIGS. 6A to 6D are side views showing a conventional offset printing process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 11 blanket main body 101 ink supply dispenser 102 printing stage 105 intaglio 106 work 107 ink 108 main body frame 109 rack gear 110 blanket cylinder 111 gear 112 print pattern portion 113 blanket upper layer (surface portion) 114 blanket base fabric (base material portion) 115 heating mechanism 116 Cooling mechanism 117 Doctor blade 133 Normal blanket

Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (Reference) B41M 3/00 B41M 3/00 Z (72) Inventor Yasuyuki Saito 3- 30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Stock In-company (72) Inventor Nobuyuki Ishikawa 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo F-term in Canon Inc. (reference) 2H113 AA05 AA06 BA03 BA05 BB09 BB22 CA17 2H114 AA02 CA02 CA04 CA10 DA46 EA08

Claims (7)

[Claims] An ink is supplied to an intaglio plate, and excess ink is scraped off with a doctor blade. Then, the pattern on the intaglio plate is received on an ink receiving surface of a blanket, and the received pattern is transferred to a printing material. In the offset printing for printing, the blanket body is a self-temperature-adjustable type, wherein the blanket body is composed of a base portion and a surface portion, and the base portion is equipped with a heating mechanism. 2. The blanket according to claim 1, wherein the blanket is provided with a cooling mechanism in the base portion together with the heating mechanism. 3. The blanket according to claim 1, wherein the surface portion of the blanket main body is constituted by a surface rubber portion directly involved in ink transfer. 4. The blanket according to claim 1, wherein at least a part of a base portion of the blanket main body provided with the heating mechanism is made of a metal. Blanket described in. 5. The blanket according to claim 1, wherein the base portion of the blanket main body also serves as a blanket cylinder of an offset printing machine. 6. An offset printing method, comprising printing on a surface of a work using the blanket according to claim 1. Description: 7. A printed circuit board used and printed as a workpiece in the offset printing method according to claim 6. Description: