JP2008080699A - Printing device and its cleaning method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing device with a plate cleaning mechanism which can prevent a deterioration in the suction force and save a cleaning labor by easily cleaning the interior of piping path after cleaning and further, can easily recover a part of a printing material from cleaning a waste liquor. <P>SOLUTION: This printing device comprises at least a relief printing plate 5 which has a printing pattern wound around a drum 4, a dispenser device which supplies ink to the relief printing plate 5, a base platen 9 which holds non-printed matter for transferring the ink on the relief printing plat 5, a cleaning nozzle 3 which supplies a cleaning liquid to the relief printing plate 5, a suction nozzle 2 which sucks the cleaning liquid supplied to the relief printing plate 5, a waste liquor tank 13 which stores the cleaning liquid and piping which is connected with the suction nozzle 2 and the waste liquor tank 13. In addition, an ejector 11 is inserted into the piping. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a printing apparatus for high-precision pattern printing for forming a fine pattern on a subject uniformly and with high positional accuracy and continuously and stably by a flexographic printing method.
Specifically, high-definition patterns such as patterns in color filters for liquid crystal displays (LCDs), light-emitting layers and charge transport layers of organic electroluminescence (EL) elements, electrode patterns on organic thin-film transistor (TFT) substrates, and shield patterns in electromagnetic wave shields The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing apparatus cleaning method that are suitable for the formation of these and cleaning after printing.

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.

  There is also offset printing that uses silicone rubber as a printing blanket instead of photolithography, and transfers printing ink from the printing blanket to a substrate such as glass as the substrate to be printed. Since the non-image area ink that has not been removed is removed by the printing plate and discarded, a flexographic printing method that excels in ink mileage is drawing attention.

In this flexographic printing machine, the ink supplied to the relief plate from the dispensing device is selectively printed and transferred onto a transparent substrate, which is a non-printed product. However, due to the nature of the ink, it is not transferred and remains on the relief plate. Further, when printing is performed continuously, ink enters a groove called a relief between the convex portions of the relief printing, and the selective ink transfer may be hindered, resulting in a decrease in printing quality.
Therefore, during continuous printing, it is necessary to periodically wash the plate to wash off excess ink adhering to the printing plate.

Conventionally, the following methods are known as cleaning of printing apparatuses. For example, a method is known in which a cleaning liquid is applied to the plate surface or the plate surface is wiped with a waste cloth soaked with the cleaning solution (Patent Documents 1 and 2). Moreover, drying of the used cleaning liquid with an air gun is known (Patent Document 3).
However, in manual cleaning, uneven cleaning due to uneven discharge of the cleaning liquid occurs in the width direction, and a large amount of cleaning liquid is used, which requires much cleaning time. In some cases, particles such as fiber debris are generated from the used waste to adversely affect the printing quality, and the load on the operator is also a problem.

When collecting the cleaning fluid of the printing device by suction with a nozzle, etc., the waste fluid after cleaning is suctioned and discarded via the piping. However, if the piping dirty by cleaning is not cleaned regularly, the suction power This leads to a decrease in the cleaning waste liquid. This is because if the suction inside is a complicated mechanism, the labor required for cleaning is large, and it may become a particle generation source.
Further, when forming an organic electroluminescence element with a printing apparatus, a part of the organic light emitting material is discarded at the time of cleaning, leading to waste of rare materials and a decrease in yield.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-76740 JP 7-68747 A JP-A-10-309800

  The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has a plate cleaning mechanism that can prevent a reduction in suction force and reduce cleaning labor by easily cleaning the inside of the piping path after cleaning. It is to provide a printing device. It is another object of the present invention to provide a printing apparatus that can easily recover a part of the printing material from the cleaning waste liquid.

  Specifically, in the cleaning of the printing apparatus, particles that cause deterioration in the quality of the printed matter during pattern formation by the printing method are not generated, unnecessary printing members are completely removed from the printing plate, and the printing plate surface is dried. Providing a printing apparatus and a cleaning method for the printing apparatus that can be performed and that can easily clean the piping and the suction portion, and that can efficiently collect the printing material from the piping portion and the suction portion; Let it be an issue.

A configuration of the present invention for solving the above-described problems will be described below.
(First invention)
At least a letterpress formed with a printed pattern wound on a drum,
A dispenser device for supplying ink to the relief plate, a substrate surface plate for holding a non-printed material for transferring the ink on the relief plate, a cleaning nozzle for supplying a cleaning liquid to the relief plate,
A printing apparatus comprising a suction nozzle for sucking the cleaning liquid supplied to the relief plate, a waste liquid tank for storing the cleaning liquid, and a pipe connected to the suction nozzle and the waste liquid tank,
An ejector is inserted into the pipe.

(Second invention)
In the above, the pipe includes a sanitary pipe.

(Third invention)
In the above, the ejector is connected to the pipe via a ferrule.

(Fourth invention)
In the above, it is a printing apparatus provided with the gas flow feed nozzle which introduces gas into a letterpress.

(Fifth invention)
At least a letterpress formed with a printing pattern wound on a drum, a dispenser device that supplies ink to the letterpress, a substrate surface plate that holds a non-printed material for transferring ink on the letterpress, and the letterpress A cleaning method for a printing apparatus, comprising: a cleaning nozzle that supplies a cleaning liquid to the relief printing plate; and a suction nozzle that sucks the cleaning liquid supplied to the relief printing plate, the step of supplying the cleaning liquid from the washing nozzle to the relief printing plate, and the suction A step of sucking the cleaning liquid supplied from the nozzle to the relief plate, a step of storing the cleaning liquid in a waste liquid tank via a pipe connected to the suction nozzle and the waste liquid tank, and periodically removing the ejector, And a step of cleaning the printing apparatus.

(Sixth invention)
In the above, the method for cleaning a printing apparatus, wherein the ink includes at least an organic light emitting material, and the step of periodically removing and cleaning the ejector includes a step of recovering the organic light emitting material.

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the cleaning in the duct of the piping which becomes dirty by washing | cleaning was made easy. For this reason, the labor required for the regular maintenance of the printing apparatus can be reduced. In addition, the regular cleaning of the printing device enabled the piping to be kept in a clean state, and it was possible to suppress poor cleaning and particle generation due to suction problems.
In addition, by collecting rare printing materials such as organic light emitting materials without wasting them, it was possible to improve the manufacturing efficiency of organic EL panels and the like.

The printing apparatus of the present invention includes at least a letterpress, a dispenser device, a substrate surface plate, a cleaning nozzle, a suction nozzle, a waste liquid tank, and piping.
The letterpress is wound on a drum to form a printing pattern. A water-soluble resin relief plate can be used as the relief plate.
The dispenser device supplies ink to the relief plate. As an apparatus for supplying ink to the relief printing plate, for example, an anilox roll can be used.
In order to remove excess ink adhering to the relief printing plate, a doctor blade, a doctor roll, or the like can be provided. The cleaning nozzle supplies a cleaning liquid to the relief printing plate. As the cleaning liquid, an organic solvent, water, an emulsion of an organic solvent and water, a solution containing a surfactant in these, specifically, toluene or the like can be used.
The substrate surface plate is for fixing the substrate. Specifically, a stone surface plate or the like can be used.
The suction nozzle sucks the cleaning liquid supplied from the cleaning nozzle, and is connected to a pipe which will be described later. The waste liquid tank stores the cleaning liquid introduced from the suction nozzle through the pipe.
In the present invention, an ejector can be connected to the pipe. This simplifies the mechanism of the suction location and facilitates cleaning. Here, the ejector is a device that draws and sucks out another fluid by jetting a fluid such as compressed air.
For example, a silent cleaner manufactured by Osawa & Company can be used as an ejector. Exhaust gas containing waste liquid and cleaning liquid mist sucked from the ejector has a mechanism that separates liquid and gas through a cyclone and discharges only the exhaust gas. Here, the cyclone is a device that rotates a fluid and separates solid fine particles in the fluid using centrifugal force and gravity.
For example, as a cyclone, a miniporter cyclone manufactured by Osawa & Company can be used and connected from a cleaning device via an ejector.
In addition, it is desirable to use a sanitary pipe in order to incorporate these mechanisms into the pipe. This is because by using a sanitary pipe, it is possible to easily disassemble a part of the pipe and recover the organic light emitting material and the like. An example of a sanitary tube that can be preferably used is a sanitary tube made by MISUMI and having an inner diameter of about 35 mm.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
As shown in FIG. 1, the embodiment of the present invention comprises a cleaning nozzle 3 for cleaning, a suction nozzle 2 for collecting waste liquid after cleaning, and an air knife 1 for drying the plate after cleaning. In order to prevent mist scattering due to cleaning, these cleaning devices are covered with a cover 6 and the atmosphere is exhausted.

  Here, a sanitary pipe is used for the pipe 7 which is the atmosphere exhaust path in the cleaning cover 6 and the suction pipe 10 for collecting the cleaning liquid to facilitate periodic cleaning, and ferrules 14 are arranged at appropriate intervals. It can be dismantled. Further, an ejector 11 for inducing suction of each exhaust fluid is disposed in these piping paths, and a cyclone type waste liquid tank 13 for separating the cleaning mist in the exhaust is provided behind the ejector 11. Finally, the cleaning exhaust gas has a structure in which only exhaust gas not containing mist is discharged through the waste liquid tank 13.

  These features make it possible to minimize the cleaning effort by simplifying the exhaust pipe path. It is also a system that can be expected to have an explosion-proof effect by using an ejector. The removed sanitary tube to which the waste liquid is attached can be immersed in an organic solvent, dissolved using ultrasonic waves, dried, and recovered again as an EL material.

  The exhaust system of the cleaning apparatus according to the present invention is not limited to normal commercial offset printing, CF printing, direct printing such as EL printing, intaglio printing, etc. Improvements and modifications within the scope of the present invention that can be applied to the transfer method) do not depart from the present invention.

..Configuration diagram of cleaning apparatus of the present invention

Explanation of symbols

1 Gas Flow Feeding Nozzle 2 Suction Nozzle 3 Cleaning Nozzle 4 Plate Cylinder 5 Plate 6 Cleaning Cover 7 Atmosphere Exhaust Piping 8 Transparent Substrate 9 Substrate Surface Plate 10 Suction Nozzle Piping 11 Ejector 12 Ejector Pressure Air 13 Cyclone Waste Liquid Tank 14 Ferrule 15 Sanitary tube

Claims (6)

at least,
A letterpress with a printed pattern wound on a drum;
A dispenser device for supplying ink to the relief plate;
A substrate surface plate for holding a non-printed material for transferring the ink on the relief plate;
A cleaning nozzle for supplying a cleaning liquid to the relief plate;
A suction nozzle for sucking the cleaning liquid supplied to the relief plate;
A waste liquid tank for storing the cleaning liquid;
A printing apparatus comprising a pipe connected to the suction nozzle and the waste liquid tank,
A printing apparatus, wherein an ejector is inserted into the pipe.   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pipe includes a sanitary pipe.   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the ejector is connected to the pipe via a ferrule.   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a gas flow nozzle that introduces gas into the relief printing plate. at least,
A letterpress with a printed pattern wound on a drum;
A dispenser device for supplying ink to the relief plate;
A substrate surface plate for holding a non-printed material for transferring the ink on the relief plate;
A cleaning nozzle for supplying a cleaning liquid to the relief plate;
A suction nozzle for sucking the cleaning liquid supplied to the relief plate, and a cleaning method for a printing apparatus,
Supplying a cleaning liquid from the cleaning nozzle to the relief plate;
A step of sucking the cleaning liquid supplied to the relief printing plate from a suction nozzle;
Storing the cleaning liquid in a waste liquid tank via a pipe connected to the suction nozzle and the waste liquid tank;
And a step of periodically removing and cleaning the ejector.   6. The method for cleaning a printing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the ink includes at least an organic light emitting material, and the step of periodically removing and cleaning the ejector includes a step of collecting the organic light emitting material.