JP2009285597A - Film retainer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a film retainer designed for stably applying a thin coat of ink without using a vacuum adsorbing table and forming a film in a uniform planar shape, when the ink is applied to a conveyed web film surface. <P>SOLUTION: This film retainer is a device accompanied by a web conveying device and by a die coater for applying ink to a web film surface. The film retainer comprises a web film immobilizing mechanism, a tension mechanism for giving tension to the web film, a mechanism for forming the web film into a uniform planar shape, and a planar stage for uniformly applying ink to the upper surface of the web film. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing coating technique, and more particularly to an apparatus for uniformly coating an intermittent pattern on a web film by a die head.

  Conventionally, coating of ink or the like on a web film has been performed by many known coating methods or printing methods including a die coating method in which a coating agent is discharged onto a web film from a die head having a slit nozzle.

  In the case of continuous coating on web film, a die coating method that has a simple mechanism and does not require a plate has been awarded, but in the case of intermittent pattern coating where the coating pattern is not continuous, continuous conveyance is performed. However, the method of forming an intermittent pattern by intermittent discharge of a coating agent on a web film has the following problems.

  The film thickness uniformity of the coating agent on the coating surface is determined by the discharge amount of the coating agent from the slit nozzle and the web film conveyance speed, and the distribution of the coating agent discharge amount is the variation of the discharge amount itself and the width direction. It changes with the gap between the nozzle tip and the web film along with the discharge amount distribution.

  In the case of continuous web film transport, the gap is determined by the length of the web tension or backup roll radius relative to the slit nozzle and the combined length of the web film. It was often difficult to control accurately.

  For these reasons, when importance is attached to the uniformity of the coating film thickness, a method of coating the web film on the vacuum suction table while being temporarily stopped by intermittent conveyance of the web film is used. It has been.

  In the case of fixing a film, it is common to use a vacuum suction table using a porous material, but in order to increase the coating accuracy, a high plane accuracy is required for the vacuum suction table. However, with the current technology, the maximum size that can satisfy the required accuracy of within 10 μm in plane accuracy is the suction table size of 300 mm square. Therefore, when a vacuum suction table having a larger size is used, a method of arranging several vacuum suction tables side by side is used.

  In the case of such a method, the following adverse effects occur.

  It is difficult to match the height when arranging several vacuum suction tables with an accuracy equivalent to the individual plane accuracy. There is also a method of arranging the porous materials directly, but since it is necessary to bond the connecting portions of the porous materials with a resin or the like, only the porous portions are sealed and not adsorbed. As described above, when there are non-adsorbed portions in the surface of the vacuum suction table, uneven coating occurs between the portions and the portions that are not.

  As another method, a large number of small-diameter holes can be formed in a metal plate or the like to produce a suction plate that is close to full-surface suction. However, in this method, suction marks are generated and coating unevenness is also caused.

In addition, there is an actual adsorption method using static electricity, but this increases the possibility of attracting suspended dust, so it is necessary to devise ways to reduce dust in the air as much as possible, resulting in costs related to maintenance and maintenance of the clean room environment There was a problem such as.

As an application field that needs to solve such a problem, there is a case where the web films of Patent Documents 1 and 2 are used as a printing blanket in a transfer printing process.
JP 2007-069412 A JP 2006-150849 A

  An object of the present invention is to provide a film fixing device for forming a uniform flat film when coating ink on the surface of a web film to be conveyed, and stably coating a thin film of ink without using a vacuum suction table. To do.

  The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is an apparatus associated with a web transport apparatus and a die coating apparatus for coating ink on a web film surface, the web film fixing mechanism, and a tension applied to the web film. A film fixing device comprising: a tension mechanism for giving, a mechanism for forming a web film in a uniform plane, and a plane stage for uniformly coating ink on the upper surface of the web film.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a web clamping mechanism having a holding force sufficient to prevent slippage when the web film is fixed and tension is applied, and the web film is parallel to the upper surface of the planar stage. The film fixing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

  The invention according to claim 3 of the present invention comprises a mechanism for stopping after the flat stage rises from the direction of the lower surface of the web film and comes into contact with the lower surface of the web film. Device.

  The invention of claim 1 is an apparatus for applying a coating agent such as ink on a web film surface conveyed by roll-to-roll, and forms a film surface to be coated in a uniform plane. For this purpose, web clampers that are fixed in such a manner as to sandwich the entire width direction of the film are arranged at opposite positions upstream and downstream of the web film, and each web clamper is moved in the direction in which the distance increases to reduce the web film surface. The film surface can be made uniform. Further, since the film 15 can be applied without being fixed by suction by bringing the flat stage into contact, problems such as coating unevenness due to the vacuum suction plate can be avoided.

  According to the invention of claim 2, the web clamper has a holding force that does not cause slip when tension is applied to the web film in which the web clamper is sandwiched, and the position in the height direction of the film sandwiched from the vertical direction by the web clamper is: It has a structure that can be made parallel to the upper surface of a coating plane stage that can be said to be an underlay that defines the plane of the web film during die coating.

  Furthermore, the web clamper has a holding force sufficient to prevent slippage when tension is applied to the web film sandwiched between the web clampers, and a web clamper in a position opposite to the web film flow direction. A uniform plate-like film surface can be formed by a copying plate provided for removing the film.

  According to the invention of claim 3, the coating plane stage rises from the web film lower surface direction formed on the flat surface and comes into contact with the lower surface of the web film to make the coating surface a more uniform plane, thereby improving the coating accuracy. is there.

  As described above, the present invention provides, for example, ink in a field where the film thickness uniformity of an ink coating film such as reverse printing using a roll-to-roll web film or a sheet-shaped film as a blanket is highly required. This is a film fixing device that has an effect of forming a uniform flat film shape and realizing a stable ink film thickness during intermittent coating.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an example of the film fixing device of the present invention as viewed from the top. FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an example of the film fixing device of the present invention as viewed from the side before film fixing. FIG. 3 is a schematic view of an example of the film fixing device of the present invention as viewed from the side when the film is fixed. FIG. 4 is a schematic view of an example of the film fixing device of the present invention as viewed from the side after the flat stage is in close contact.

  The coating method using the film fixing device of the present invention will be described.

  The film 15 may be either a web film format or a single wafer format, but is supplied by a roll-to-roll web conveyance device different from the film fixing device of the present invention. In this description, the web film format will be described.

  The film 15 is transported by the web transport device and stops transporting at a desired coating position. At this time, the coating plane stage 4 is lowered by the lifting device 14 and is not in contact with the film 15.

  By moving the centering cylinder 16 forward in the direction in which the copying plate 2 is sandwiched, the rotation center position of the copying plate 2 is forcibly moved to the center, and at the same time, the copying Y moving table 5 mounted on the Y rail 10 is also determined in advance. As a result, the copying plate 2 connected by the copying rotating shaft 6 also moves to the Y center position. Further, the position where the tension actuator 7 is moved backward to advance the clamp cylinder 8 is set as the machine origin position.

  The web clamper 1 slidably held by the clamper guide 9 holds the film 15 in between by fixing the clamp cylinder 8 downward.

  Next, by moving the centering cylinder 16 backward, the copying plate 2 held only by the copying rotating shaft 6 becomes free while the film 15 is fixed by the web clamper 1, and the copying plates on both sides opposed by the tension actuator 7 are moved to the film 15. Advance in the direction of tension.

  In this way, the film 15 can automatically form a uniform planar shape with a balanced tension distribution in the width direction even if the parallelness of the film fixing positions of the two opposing scanning plates is poor. I can do it.

  In the film 15, the clamp cylinder 8 is moved up and down to fix the web clamper 1 against the clamper guide 9, but the clamper guide 9 may be moved up and down in reverse to this method. Further, the fixing surface may not be sandwiched using the entire surface of the web clamper 1, but the contact area may be reduced to increase the fixing force per unit area.

  Furthermore, it is conceivable to further increase the fixing force by using a material that increases frictional resistance on the lower surface of the web clamper 1 and the surface facing the film 15.

  The optimum setting of the tension applied to the film 15 varies depending on the film material, the film span, etc., but can be easily achieved by using a pneumatic cylinder, a hydraulic cylinder, a torque variable motor or the like as a driving source of the tension actuator 7.

  The upper surface of the coating plane stage 4 prepared on the lower surface of the uniformly planar film 15 formed in this way is formed of glass, metal or resin, and the surface accuracy is 0.8S or less. The plane accuracy is processed within 0.01 / m.

  The elevating device 14 is configured with a Z guide 13 for maintaining elevating accuracy. For example, the following mechanical accuracy is required. From the relationship of using a die head as the coating head, it is desirable that the repeated stopping accuracy of the raising and lowering position is within ± 3 μm, and the table top surface tilt of the coating plane stage 4 is within ± 5 μm. Since these specifications vary depending on the die head to be combined and the required coating surface accuracy, detailed description will be omitted here.

  After the film 15 is formed into a uniform flat shape by the above method, the coating plane stage 4 is raised from the lower surface of the film 15 to a predetermined position by the elevating device 14, and contacts the entire lower surface of the film 15 with no gap. Will be.

  Next, the ink is applied to the upper surface of the film 15 by a general coating method using the die head 12.

  When the coating is completed, the coating plane stage 4 is lowered by the lifting device 14, and the web clamper 1 also lifts the clamp cylinder 8 to release the film 15 from being fixed.

  Thereafter, the film 15 is transported to an arbitrary position by the web transport device, and is repeatedly applied.

  As described above, by using the film fixing device of the present invention, when applying ink on the surface of the web film to be conveyed, the film is uniformly formed on a flat surface, and the ink can be stably used without using a vacuum suction table. Can be applied in a thin film.

Schematic seen from the upper surface of an example of the film fixing device of the present invention Schematic view from the side of an example of the film fixing device of the present invention (before fixing) Schematic view from the side of an example of the film fixing device of the present invention (when fixed) Schematic view from the side of an example of the film fixing apparatus of the present invention (after flat stage contact)

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Web clamper 2 ... Copying plate 3 ... Tension bar 4 ... Coating plane stage 5 ... Copying Y movement table 6 ... Copying rotating shaft 7 ... Tension actuator 8 ... Clamp cylinder 9 ... Clamper guide 10 ... Y rail 11 ... X rail 12 ... Die head 13 ... Z guide 14 ... Lifting device 15 ... Film 16 ... Centering cylinder

Claims (3)

  An apparatus associated with a web conveying device and a die coating device for applying ink on a web film surface, comprising: a web film fixing mechanism; a tension mechanism for applying tension to the web film; A film fixing apparatus comprising: a mechanism for forming a uniform flat surface; and a flat stage for uniformly coating ink on the upper surface of the web film.   2. A web clamping mechanism having a holding force sufficient to prevent slippage when the web film is fixed and applied with tension, and the web film is parallel to the upper surface of the planar stage. A film fixing device according to claim 1.   The film fixing device according to claim 1, further comprising a mechanism that stops after the flat stage rises from the web film lower surface direction and comes into contact with the web film lower surface.

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