JP2007076038A - Offset printing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a precision printing machine, which reduces quality troubles due to the scattering in nips in a printing direction under the condition that waviness exists on the surface of a blanket or on the surface of a machine plate/board and in the direction normal to the printing direction. <P>SOLUTION: In the offset printing equipment equipped at least with a dispenser device for supplying ink to a printing plate, a doctor blade for scraping off an excess ink on the plate and a blanket, which receives an ink pattern on the plate and transfer it to a matter to be printed, the offset printing equipment has a vertical mechanism, which measures the surface waviness of the blanket stuck on a blanket cylinder and then calculates a desired nip from the measured waviness so as to adjust the transfer nip of the blanket cylinder to a desired nip at the transfer of ink from the plate to the blanket and/or from the blanket to the board. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for forming a fine pattern on a subject uniformly and with high positional accuracy and continuously and stably by an offset printing method.

  In particular, high patterns such as patterns in color filters (CF) for liquid crystal displays (LCD), light emitting layers and charge transport layers of organic electroluminescence (EL) elements, electrode patterns on organic thin film transistor (TFT) substrates, shield patterns in electromagnetic wave shields, etc. The present invention relates to an improvement of an offset printing apparatus suitable for forming a fine pattern.

  At present, a photolithography method is mainly used as a method for forming a fine pattern on a subject uniformly in a plane with high positional accuracy and more continuously and stably.

  However, the photolithography method has a problem in that the process is complicated and the manufacturing equipment necessary for pattern formation is expensive, resulting in an increase in manufacturing cost.

  Therefore, in place of the photolithography method, an offset printing in which a silicone rubber is used as a printing blanket, and printing ink is transferred from a printing blanket to a substrate such as glass as a substrate to be printed is attracting attention.

  In addition, in this application, the method of transferring a printing ink pattern to a to-be-printed body through a blanket regardless of the method of prescribing an image line part / non-image line part for forming a printing ink pattern on the blanket surface is a general term. Thus, this is referred to as offset printing.

  A peripheral portion of a blanket cylinder of a conventional offset printing press will be described with reference to FIGS.

  As shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2, the offset printing machine is composed of a blanket cylinder 1, a plate surface plate 3 (or plate cylinder, hereinafter referred to as a plate surface plate), and a substrate surface plate 7 for transferring to a substrate. The blanket cylinder 1, the platen surface plate 3, and the substrate surface plate 7 have a bearer serving as a reference surface. When transferring ink, the bearer 4 of the platen surface plate 4 and the bearer 6 of the substrate surface plate are in contact with the bearer 2 of the blanket cylinder. The ink is transferred while maintaining a certain interval by contacting each other (bearer contact).

Patent documents are as follows.
Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-347264

  However, as described above, when ink is transferred with the blanket cylinder 1 and each surface plate kept at a constant interval, if there is a undulation on the surface of the blanket, the plate or the substrate, the nip variation in the printing direction and its vertical direction. Has been found to affect print quality when performing precision printing.

  Here, the swell refers to the level of the convex amount and the concave amount on the blanket surface, printing plate / substrate surface.

  In offset printing, as shown in FIG. 3, ink is applied to the blanket in advance, and then the blanket cylinder 1 is mounted on the printing plate and the substrate to check the nip at each point. Each surface plate is adjusted while looking at the confirmed nip, and the nip is adjusted by the above method until the nip becomes uniform in the surface.

  If the blanket is replaced after each platen is adjusted, the nip needs to be adjusted each time depending on the solid difference of the blanket and the pattern shape to be printed, and the work load is large.

  The purpose of the present invention is to provide a printing mechanism having a mechanism capable of printing with a stable quality by automatically adjusting the nip variation in the blanket surface when replacing the blanket and adjusting the nip width according to the pattern shape to be printed in a conventional offset printing machine. It is to provide machines.

In order to achieve the above object, in the offset printing according to the present invention,
It is characterized by having a mechanism for changing the amount of blanket cylinder in real time while measuring the waviness of the blanket surface, printing plate, and substrate surface during ink transfer. In this case, as shown in FIG. 8, the relationship between the amount of wearing and the nip is defined as the nip 0 when the blanket surface wound around the cylinder comes into contact with the plate or substrate on the surface plate (or cylinder), and the radius of the blanket cylinder. Is R (distance from the center of the blanket cylinder to the blanket surface wound around the cylinder), and the pushing amount of the blanket cylinder from the nip 0 position (amount of wearing) is Δd, the nip is 2√ (2RΔd− (Δd ² ) Since there is a relationship of ² ), the amount of wearing and the adjustment of the nip are substantially the same.

Specifically, in the invention according to claim 1, a dispenser device that supplies ink to a printing plate, a doctor blade that scrapes off excess ink on the plate, an ink pattern on the plate, and a substrate to be printed In an offset printing apparatus comprising at least a blanket that is transferred above,
The blanket surface undulation applied to the blanket cylinder is measured, the desired nip is calculated from the undulation, and the transfer nip of the blanket cylinder is adjusted to the desired nip during ink transfer from the plate to the blanket and / or from the blanket to the substrate. Provided is an offset printing apparatus characterized by having an up-and-down mechanism.

Specifically, in the invention according to claim 2, a dispenser device that supplies ink to the surface of the blanket, a plate that selectively receives the ink on the blanket in a non-image portion pattern, and the plate is removed. In the offset printing apparatus comprising at least the blanket for transferring the ink pattern in the image line pattern to the printed material,
The blanket surface undulation applied to the blanket cylinder is measured, the desired nip is calculated from the undulation, and the transfer nip of the blanket cylinder is adjusted to the desired nip during ink transfer from the plate to the blanket and / or from the blanket to the substrate. Provided is an offset printing apparatus characterized by having an up-and-down mechanism.

Specifically, in the invention according to claim 3, a dispenser device that supplies ink to the printing plate, a doctor blade that scrapes off excess ink on the plate, an ink pattern on the plate, and a substrate to be printed In an offset printing apparatus comprising at least a blanket that is transferred above,
Measure the surface waviness on the plate or substrate, calculate the desired nip from the waviness, and adjust the transfer nip of the blanket cylinder to the desired nip during ink transfer from plate to blanket and / or blanket to substrate An offset printing apparatus having a mechanism is provided.

Specifically, in the invention according to claim 4, a dispenser device that supplies ink to the blanket surface, a plate that selectively accepts ink on the blanket in a non-image area pattern, and the plate is removed. In the offset printing apparatus comprising at least the blanket for transferring the ink pattern in the image line pattern to the printed material,
Measure the surface waviness on the plate or substrate, calculate the desired nip from the waviness, and adjust the transfer nip of the blanket cylinder to the desired nip during ink transfer from plate to blanket and / or blanket to substrate An offset printing apparatus having a mechanism is provided.

  According to the present invention, the undulation of the blanket surface and the undulation of the substrate surface are controlled by feedback or the like, and by automatically controlling the amount of wearing, it is possible to adjust the printing surface to have a constant nip. This eliminates the need for nip adjustment every time after replacing the blanket, and prevents printing quality from being degraded due to nip variations in the printing surface.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the embodiment of the present invention is composed of a blanket cylinder rolling bearing 14 attached to both ends of the blanket cylinder and a holder for holding the same. Furthermore, the holder is an eccentric cam with a double structure, and the inner side of the holder holding the rolling bearing supporting the cylinder is an eccentric cam (second eccentric cam 12). The inner side of the outer holder that holds the outer ring is held by an eccentric cam having a structure that is an eccentric cam (first eccentric cam 11). The first eccentric cam 11 (explained as an outer ring cam in this case) operates to switch between a printing state and a non-printing state, and the second eccentric cam 12 (explained as an inner ring cam in this case) finely adjusts the nip during printing. To do. The first eccentric cam 11 is rotated by a predetermined amount by a driving actuator, and the blanket wound on the blanket cylinder 1 is brought into contact with or separated from each surface plate. The second eccentric cam 12 is a mechanism that uses a servo motor 16 to finely adjust the rotation amount of the eccentric cam and adjust the nip between the blanket and each surface plate. In the second eccentric cam 12, both ends of the blanket cylinder 1 can be controlled and moved separately.

  On the other hand, FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a undulation measuring instrument for feedback to the position control of the blanket cylinder 1, and at least two undulation sensors 17 are arranged in the width direction of the blanket cylinder 1 to measure the undulation of the blanket surface. It is a swell sensor to do. Further, the waviness sensor 18 is a waviness sensor for measuring the waviness of the printing plate on each surface plate and the substrate surface, at least two of which are arranged in the width direction of the traveling carriage 21. The undulation sensor 17 measures the blanket surface undulation in the circumferential direction of the blanket cylinder 1 as the blanket cylinder 1 rotates during printing, and the undulation sensor 18 is attached to a traveling carriage 21 to which the blanket cylinder 1 is fixed. The printing plate on each surface plate and the surface waviness of the substrate are measured in the moving direction in which the carriage moves during printing. The undulation sensor 17 has calibration base points 19 and 20 on the blanket cylinder, and the undulation sensor 18 has a base point 19 and 20 for calibration in the printing direction of each surface plate. Calibration can be performed before measurement. .

  The blanket surface waviness measured above and the waviness on each surface plate are fed back to the rotation amount of the second eccentric cam 12 so that the nip is uniform, and automatically adjusted so that the nip in the printing direction is always constant. . At this time, by separately controlling the second eccentric cam 12 for driving, the automatic adjustment is performed so that the optimum nip is obtained even in the width direction of the blanket cylinder 1.

The relationship between the blanket surface waviness, the plate / substrate surface waviness, and the nip is that the nip width is widened when the blanket surface and the plate / substrate surface waviness is high, and the nip width is narrow when it is low.

  Specifically, the blanket surface waviness and the plate / substrate surface waviness are measured, and each surface waviness is positive if it is convex, and if it is concave, it is negative. In this case, feedback control is performed on the amount of the blanket cylinder in the direction in which the blanket cylinder is moved away from the printing plate or the substrate.

  In the width direction, the measurement is measured at least at two points by two waviness sensors or movable waviness sensors, and the amount of subtraction between the blanket surface and the plate or substrate surface waviness is calculated at the point where the blanket contacts the printing plate or substrate. Feedback control is performed on the amount of wear so that an appropriate nip width is obtained.

With respect to the control of the amount of wearing at this time, as shown in FIG.
Y = (B × tan θ) + Z
= (D × B) / A + Z
A: Lateral distance between the undulation sensors B: Lateral distance between the body drive part and the swell sensor on the far side X: Movement amount of the operation side body drive part Y: Movement of the drive side body drive part Amount Z: Target movement distance of measurement point on operation side d: Difference in target movement distance between measurement points on operation side and drive side θ: Angle of inclination between two measurement points on the blanket surface tan θ: d / A
It is obtained from this relationship and used for feedback control.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but includes not only offset printing using a flat plate and a flat substrate, but also offset printing on a cylinder plate or an object to be printed on the cylinder. Improvements, modifications and the like within the scope that can be achieved do not depart from the gist of the present invention.

  The offset printing apparatus capable of controlling the amount of the blanket cylinder according to the present invention during printing is not limited to the commercial offset printing using a normal blanket, but also to the landing control with a reverse printing color filter that requires printing accuracy. Is also applicable.

Schematic of a blanket cylinder and plate surface plate used in offset printing. Schematic of a blanket cylinder and substrate surface plate used in offset printing. The conceptual perspective view which put the blanket coated with ink on the plate surface plate and the substrate surface plate, and performed nip confirmation. It is the figure which looked at the blanket cylinder from the printing direction, and the figure which illustrated the eccentric cam part of the jacket Explanatory drawing illustrating the wearing mechanism on the side of the blanket cylinder Explanatory drawing illustrating the image of mounting the undulation sensor on the side of the blanket body It is the figure which looked at the blanket cylinder from the printing direction, and is explanatory drawing which illustrated the image which changed the wearing amount of the cylinder by the blanket cylinder operation by the undulation of the blanket. Explanatory drawing illustrating the nip on the side of the blanket cylinder It is the figure which looked at the blanket cylinder from the printing direction, and the figure explaining the control method of the amount of wearing

Explanation of symbols

1 Blanket cylinder 2 Bearer with blanket cylinder 3 Plate surface plate (or plate cylinder)
4 Plate surface plate bearer 5 Printing plate 6 Board surface plate bearer 7 Substrate surface plate 8 Substrate 9 Blanket cylinder-plate nip 10 Blanket cylinder-substrate nip 11 First eccentric cam (outer ring eccentric cam)
12 Second eccentric cam (inner ring eccentric cam)
13 Traveling Cart Frame 14 Blanket Rolling Bearing 15 Air Cylinder 16 Servo Motors 17 and 18 Waviness Sensors 19 and 20 Base 21 Traveling Cart

Claims (4)

Dispenser device for supplying ink to the printing plate,
A doctor blade to remove excess ink on the plate,
A blanket that accepts the ink pattern on the plate and transfers it onto the substrate;
In an offset printing apparatus comprising at least
The blanket surface undulation applied to the blanket cylinder is measured, the desired nip is calculated from the undulation, and the transfer nip of the blanket cylinder is adjusted to the desired nip during ink transfer from the plate to the blanket and / or from the blanket to the substrate. An offset printing apparatus having a vertical mechanism. Dispenser device for supplying ink to the blanket surface,
A plate that selectively accepts the ink on the blanket in a non-image area pattern,
The blanket that transfers the ink pattern of the image part pattern shape removed by the plate onto the substrate,
In an offset printing apparatus comprising at least
The blanket surface undulation applied to the blanket cylinder is measured, the desired nip is calculated from the undulation, and the transfer nip of the blanket cylinder is adjusted to the desired nip during ink transfer from the plate to the blanket and / or from the blanket to the substrate. An offset printing apparatus having a vertical mechanism. Dispenser device for supplying ink to the printing plate,
A doctor blade to remove excess ink on the plate,
A blanket that accepts the ink pattern on the plate and transfers it onto the substrate;
In an offset printing apparatus comprising at least
Measure the surface waviness on the plate or substrate, calculate the desired nip from the waviness, and adjust the transfer nip of the blanket cylinder to the desired nip during ink transfer from plate to blanket and / or blanket to substrate An offset printing apparatus characterized by having a mechanism. Dispenser device for supplying ink to the blanket surface,
A plate that selectively accepts the ink on the blanket in a non-image area pattern,
The blanket that transfers the ink pattern of the image part pattern shape removed by the plate onto the substrate,
In an offset printing apparatus comprising at least
Measure the surface waviness on the plate or substrate, calculate the desired nip from the waviness, and adjust the transfer nip of the blanket cylinder to the desired nip during ink transfer from plate to blanket and / or blanket to substrate An offset printing apparatus characterized by having a mechanism.

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