JP2010234569A - Printing plate making controller, printing plate making device, and method for making printing plate - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently form a high-quality printing plate for flexographic printing. <P>SOLUTION: The method of making a printing plate includes the following procedures: first, liquid droplets of a photocurable material are discharged to a base material by repeatedly conducting the relative transfer of a liquid droplet discharging means and an imaging means equipped with a light emitting means. Next, each piece of image data, which shows the three-dimensional structure of the three-dimensionally structured printing plate for flexographic printing which is formed of a plurality of cured layers laminated through a curing process, is apportioned as image data per a plurality of regions where formation conditions by the imaging means differ. Further, the image data indicating the three-dimensional structure are apportioned as image data per a plurality of layers, and according to the formation conditions per region, a two-dimensional coordinate for each plurality of layers transfers identical image data among the layers and deletes the layer no longer requiring the discharge of liquid droplets by transfer. After these procedures, in order to form the printing plate for flexographic printing, a discharging and curing of the droplets is carried out so that the cured layer of each region can be formed on the formation conditions per region by the imaging means, which is controlled with the help of the image data of each remaining layer as image data per relative transfer. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing plate creation control device, a printing plate creation device, and a printing plate creation method, and in particular, a printing plate creation control device that generates image data used when creating a printing plate for flexographic printing, and a printing plate. The present invention relates to a creating apparatus and a printing plate creating method.

  Flexographic printing is a printing method that uses a relief printing plate that is soft and elastic, and can be printed on various printing media such as rough surfaces and curved surfaces. Ink metering is performed with an anilox roller, so the ink supply is stable. The printing method is maintained.

  In recent years, image quality can be improved due to technological progress in each process, and it is widely used in the fields of flexible packaging, cardboard, seal labels, paper containers, newspaper printing, and the like. In addition, the flexographic printing apparatus is a printing method that is attracting more and more attention from the viewpoints of environment and productivity.

  Due to the recent progress in digitalization of images and laser technology, the CTP (Direct printing plate making directly from a computer from an analog process using plate making film in the plate making field for making a printing plate for flexographic printing (hereinafter referred to as “press printing plate”). Computer To Plate) is rapidly progressing. There are several methods for CTP conversion of printing plates, and the LAM method, mask ink jet method, and laser engraving method are generally known.

  The LAM (Laser Abration Mask) method creates a mask layer equivalent to a negative film by writing an image with an IR laser on a plate material provided with a mask layer that absorbs infrared rays on an analog photosensitive resin plate. After that, the printing plate is created in the same process as the analog version.

  The mask inkjet system is an apparatus that draws an image corresponding to a mask using an inkjet apparatus on an analog photosensitive resin plate (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  The laser engraving method is a method of creating a printing plate by ablating and engraving with a high-power laser.

  However, since the above three methods remove portions other than the portion that contributes to printing with respect to the sheet-like base material, the material is wasted. Moreover, since a solvent is used for removal, an environmental load is also high.

  Therefore, as another method, in Patent Documents 2 and 3 below, a photo-curable material (such as a photopolymer ink) is directly discharged to a necessary place using an ink jet apparatus, and UV curing is performed, thereby flexographic printing. An apparatus of a printing plate making method (hereinafter referred to as an ink jet method) has been proposed.

JP 2005-17352 A US Pat. No. 5,511,477 JP 2004-188983 A

  FIG. 4 shows an example of the three-dimensional structure of the printing plate. The image line portion formed on the uppermost layer of the printing plate is a portion to which printing ink adheres, and printing is performed by transferring the printing ink adhered to the image line portion to a printing medium. A slope-shaped surface portion that continues from the contour portion of the image line portion toward the floor is referred to as a shoulder. In the ink jet system, such a three-dimensional printing plate is formed by forming a two-dimensional image layer and stacking a plurality of layers. In the techniques described in Patent Documents 2 and 3 described above, droplets of a photocurable material are ejected while the recording head is moved relative to a liquid ejection medium like a general ink jet printer, and then light is irradiated. By repeating the curing process, a printing plate composed of a plurality of layers is formed.

  In letterpress printing, in order to improve the printing quality, a characteristic corresponding to the location may be required for each location of the three-dimensional structure. For example, in order to suppress image thickening due to ink accumulation in the shoulder, it is desirable that the image line portion on the surface of the printing plate be formed without density unevenness, and the shoulder should have less unevenness and a certain degree of inclination. . Patent Document 3 discloses the idea of steep inclination as a method for solving the ink reservoir in the shoulder, and in order to realize this, a sacrificial layer for supporting the structure is added and removed later. The technique of doing is disclosed. Also disclosed is a technique in which a lipophilic layer is formed on the entire printing plate and the upper layer of the lipophilic layer is scraped to increase the ink repellency of the shoulder, thereby suppressing the image thickness and improving the printing quality.

  However, the above-described method requires post-processing after lamination, which reduces productivity. Therefore, it is desirable to perform the process of imparting desired characteristics for each region of the printing plate when forming each layer. For this purpose, it is necessary to adjust the formation conditions for each region. However, when there are a plurality of regions having different formation conditions in one layer, the recording head is made relatively to the liquid discharge medium for each region. When the droplets are ejected and cured by being moved, the number of relative movements increases and productivity is lowered.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned facts, and provides a plate making control device, a plate making device, and a plate making method that can efficiently form a high-quality flexographic printing plate. For the purpose.

  In order to achieve the above object, a printing plate making control apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention irradiates a droplet discharge means for discharging a droplet of a photocurable material and light for curing the discharged photocurable material. A plurality of hardened layers are laminated by repeating the relative movement of the image forming means that includes a light irradiation means and moves relative to the base material, and discharging and curing the droplets of the photocurable material onto the base material. A first division for dividing each piece of image data representing the three-dimensional structure of the flexographic printing plate having a three-dimensional structure formed into a plurality of areas having different formation conditions by the image forming means. And the second dividing means for dividing the image data indicating the three-dimensional structure into image data for each of the plurality of layers, and the two-dimensional coordinates of each of the plurality of layers are the same based on the formation conditions for each of the regions. Transfer image data between the multiple layers. Using the moving means to delete, the deleting means to delete the layer that does not need to discharge droplets by the movement, and the image data of each remaining layer as the image data for each relative movement, the curing of each region Control means for controlling the image forming means so that the flexographic printing plate is formed by discharging and curing the droplets so that a layer is formed under the formation conditions for each region. Is.

  According to such a configuration, each region can be formed under the formation conditions for each region, and depending on the formation conditions, a plurality of regions can be formed together with the same relative movement. A printing plate can be formed.

  In addition, as described in claim 2, the moving unit may move the image data between a plurality of predetermined layers among the plurality of layers.

  According to such a configuration, it is possible to limit the distance from the ejection of the droplet to the landing position, and it is possible to suppress the displacement of the landing position of the droplet.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the moving means forms pixels having the same two-dimensional coordinates of each of the plurality of layers at equal relative movement intervals in all relative movements or a plurality of predetermined relative movements. As described above, the image data may be moved.

  According to such a configuration, the droplets can be ejected from the droplet ejecting means at a time interval, so that the landing position deviation of the droplets can be suppressed.

  The printing plate making apparatus according to claim 4 includes a droplet discharge unit that discharges a photocurable material droplet and a light irradiation unit that irradiates light that cures the discharged photocurable material. An image forming unit that moves relative to the material, and a printing plate creation control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

  According to such a configuration, each region can be formed under the formation conditions for each region, and depending on the formation conditions, a plurality of regions can be formed together with the same relative movement. A printing plate can be formed.

  The printing plate making method according to claim 5, comprising: a droplet discharge unit that discharges a droplet of a photocurable material; and a light irradiation unit that irradiates light that cures the discharged photocurable material. A three-dimensional structure formed by laminating a plurality of cured layers by repeating relative movement of an image forming means that moves relative to the substrate and discharging and curing the droplets of the photocurable material onto the substrate. A first dividing step of dividing each of the image data indicating the three-dimensional structure of the printing plate for flexographic printing into image data for each of a plurality of regions having different formation conditions by the image forming means; and The image data having the same two-dimensional coordinates of each of the plurality of layers is converted between the plurality of layers based on the second dividing step of dividing the image data shown into the image data for each of the plurality of layers and the formation conditions for each of the regions. A moving step to move and said moving Deletion process for removing layers that do not require more droplets to be ejected, and image data of each remaining layer is used as image data for each relative movement, and a hardened layer in each region is formed for each region. And a control step of controlling the image forming means so that the flexographic printing plate is formed by discharging and curing the droplets so as to be formed under conditions.

  According to such a configuration, each region can be formed under the formation conditions for each region, and depending on the formation conditions, a plurality of regions can be formed together with the same relative movement. A printing plate can be formed.

  As described above, the present invention has an excellent effect that a high-quality flexographic printing plate can be efficiently formed.

It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the function of a printing plate production apparatus and an image processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows the structure of the XY-axis scanning stage type flexographic printing plate production apparatus. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the control system of a printing plate production apparatus. It is explanatory drawing explaining the three-dimensional structure of a printing plate. It is a flowchart which shows the main routine performed by the main control part (laminated image data generation part). It is a flowchart which shows the subroutine of step 106 of FIG. 5 performed by the main control part (laminated image data generation part). It is a figure which shows the specific example of a shape (i) function. It is explanatory drawing explaining an expansion process. It is a flowchart which shows the process routine performed by the main control part (discharge data generation part). It is a figure which shows the area | region division example of a three-dimensional structure. It is a figure which shows an example of the table in which the movement conditions were registered. It is explanatory drawing explaining an example of a block division | segmentation process and a data movement process. It is a figure which shows a comparative example. It is a figure which shows an example of the restriction | limiting in the case of restrict | limiting the range of the height to move as conditions for data movement. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of movement when data is moved so that droplets are ejected from a recording head at time intervals. (A) is a block diagram which shows the structural example of a flexographic printing apparatus, (B) is a figure which shows the state by which the printing plate was wound around the plate cylinder of a flexographic printing apparatus, (C) is X-. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an external appearance of a printing plate having a length of a × π mm produced by a Y-axis scanning stage type printing plate making apparatus. It is a figure which shows the structure of a drum scanning type flexographic printing plate production apparatus.

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

[overall structure]

  As shown in FIG. 1, the plate making apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment acquires two-dimensional image data (hereinafter referred to as two-dimensional image data) indicating a document image from the image processing apparatus 50, and Generating image data (hereinafter referred to as “laminated image data”) for each layer for forming a flexographic printing plate (hereinafter referred to as “press plate”) having a three-dimensional structure in which a plurality of layers of two-dimensional images are stacked; A printing plate is created based on the laminated image data.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of an XY axis scanning stage type plate making apparatus 10.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the plate making apparatus 10 includes a flat plate stage 14 that is supported by four legs 16 and holds the substrate 12 a by adsorbing to the surface. In the present embodiment, a member itself that is a substrate on which a layer of a two-dimensional image (hereinafter referred to as a two-dimensional image layer) is laminated is called a base material 12a, and the two-dimensional image layer is placed on the base material 12a. The one formed with one layer is called a printing plate 12. For example, PET (polyethylene terephthalate) or PP (polypropylene) can be used as the base material 12a.

  A pair of guides 20 extending along the y-axis direction are provided on the side surface of the stage 14. Further, the plate making apparatus 10 is provided with a pair of guides 18 extending along the z-axis direction corresponding to each of the pair of guides 20. Each of the guides 18 is supported by each of the corresponding guides 20 so as to be movable in the y-axis direction.

  Further, a shaft 22 is provided on the upper surface side of the stage 14 so as to be movable in the z-axis direction by a pair of guides 18. The carriage 24 is supported by the shaft 22 so as to be movable in the x-axis direction.

  With such a configuration, the carriage 24 can move relative to the base material 12 a placed on the stage 14 in each of the x-axis direction, the y-axis direction, and the z-axis direction.

  Although not shown in FIG. 2, the carriage 24 applies droplets of a photocurable material (for example, an ultraviolet light curable resin that cures when irradiated with ultraviolet light) to the substrate 12 a and the printing plate 12. A recording head 72 having a plurality of nozzles for discharging and a light source 68 for irradiating light for curing the photocurable material attached to the substrate 12a and the printing plate 12 are also provided (see also FIG. 3). . The light source 68 may be, for example, an ultraviolet lamp that irradiates ultraviolet light or an ultraviolet light emitting LED. The amount of light and the light irradiation time for curing are set in advance based on the curing characteristics of the photocurable material.

  While moving the carriage 24 relative to the stage 14 in the x-axis and y-axis directions, droplets of the photocurable material are ejected from the recording head 72 mounted on the carriage 24, and then the photocurable material is removed by the light source 68. By curing, a two-dimensional image layer is formed on the substrate 12a. Further, the final printing plate 12 is created by laminating the two-dimensional image layer in the z-axis direction.

  More specifically, first, the movement amounts in the x-axis direction and the y-axis direction are set in advance based on the final shape of the printing plate 12 to be formed. Then, the carriage 24 is moved relative to the substrate 12a from the predetermined start point in the x-axis direction to form an image band having a width corresponding to the recording width of the recording head 72 and extending in the x-axis direction. The movement of the carriage 24 in the x-axis direction is stopped, and the carriage 24 is moved relative to the base material 12a by the recording width of the recording head 72 in the y-axis direction. Then, the movement of the carriage 24 in the x-axis direction and the discharge / curing of the droplets are resumed. By repeating this operation, a two-dimensional image is formed in which bands of images extending in the x-axis direction are continuous in the y-axis direction. Thereafter, the carriage 24 is returned to the starting point, and the next image formation is started. Alternatively, each time a plurality of layers are formed and a layer having a predetermined thickness is formed, the carriage 24 may be moved by a predetermined thickness in the z-axis direction.

  In the present embodiment, the relative movement of the xy plane from when the carriage 24 starts relative movement from the start point to before returning to the next start point is defined as one scan. In the case where the formation conditions such as the photocurable material to be discharged and the curing timing are varied depending on the location of the printing plate 12, the formation of one layer may be performed by two or more scans.

  When the two-dimensional image layer to be stacked is limited to a part in the x-axis and y-axis directions, it is possible to increase the drawing speed by repeatedly scanning only that area and drawing.

  Here, as a mechanism for moving the carriage 24 relative to the base material 12a in the z-axis direction, a mechanism for moving the carriage 24 side in the z-axis direction has been described as an example. The stage 14 may be a mechanism that moves the stage 14 away from the carriage 24.

  Further, when creating a flexographic printing plate for cardboard or the like, an imposition image (an image arranged only on a necessary surface) may be directly drawn by providing a large stage. Thereby, it is also possible to omit the imposition manual work.

  Although not shown in the present embodiment, a laser displacement meter, a two-dimensional shape measurement sensor, a line camera, an area camera, or the like that measures the height of the stacked layers may be mounted on the plate making apparatus 10. Good. By measuring the thickness of the printing plate 12 and the surface shape and surface state of the printing plate 12 along with the scanning of the carriage 24 by these measurement sensors and cameras, the curing result after irradiation with ultraviolet light is read, and an unintended shape is obtained. If the height is insufficient, the stacking may be continued while correcting. In particular, since the two-dimensional shape measurement sensor can obtain height information of a certain width as the carriage 24 scans, the surface state and unevenness of the plate to be laminated are grasped in real time, and continuous ejection is performed while compensating for the insufficient height. It is a promising means that allows you to go.

[Recording head]

  Here, the recording head 72 for discharging droplets of the photocurable material will be described. The on-demand type recording head 72 mounted on the carriage 24 has a heat conversion element that converts an electric signal into heat energy, generates bubbles due to boiling in the liquid, and discharges ink from the nozzles with that pressure. There are two general types: a thermal type and a piezo type that has a piezoelectric element, compresses a minute part in which liquid is stored by a deformation pressure of the piezoelectric element from a specific direction, and extrudes a droplet from a nozzle. is there.

  As the recording head 72 mounted on the plate making apparatus 10, either a thermal type or a piezo type may be used. Further, the piezo type further includes a bending mode type using a piezoelectric bending deformation, a longitudinal mode type, a shear mode type, and the like depending on the compression direction, and any of them may be used.

  The piezo type can be suitably used for the plate making apparatus 10 that forms a two-dimensional image by curing with ultraviolet rays because it can discharge even high viscosity ink without heating the ink.

  In order to perform drawing at high speed, it is necessary to perform drawing by discharging a large number of droplets at a time. For this purpose, the recording head 72 provided with a plurality of nozzles is preferable. In order to realize high resolution, a recording head 72 in which nozzles are two-dimensionally arranged may be used.

  In general, an ink jet printer equipped with a recording head having a head module capable of ejecting ink of four colors or six colors (or more) for color printing is known. A recording head 72 using this head module is known. A plurality of types of liquid droplets with different types of photo-curable materials can be discharged. Further, the recording head 72 may be configured to be capable of discharging a plurality of types of liquid droplets having different discharge amounts using this head module. When a piezoelectric element is used as the driving element, the droplet diameter (droplet amount) can be varied depending on the driving voltage waveform applied to the piezoelectric element.

[light source]

  Next, the light source 68 will be described. The peak wavelength of the light source used in the plate making apparatus 10 depends on the absorption characteristics of the sensitizing dye in the composition of the photocurable material discharged from the recording head 72, but is, for example, 200 to 600 nm, preferably 300. It can be set to ˜450 nm, more preferably 350 to 450 nm.

The irradiation energy, for instance, 2,000MJcm ² or less, preferably 10 to 2,000 mJ / cm ^2, more preferably 20 to 1,000 mJ / cm ^2, more preferably, to irradiation energy of 50 to 800 mJ / cm ² .

The irradiation intensity, e.g., 10 to 2,000 mW / cm ^2, and preferably from irradiating with 20 to 1,000 mW / cm ^2.

In the present embodiment, the light source 68 is an ultraviolet lamp or an ultraviolet light emitting LED, but a mercury lamp or a metal halide lamp may be used. However, in consideration of energy efficiency, it is desirable to use an ultraviolet light emitting diode. In this case, the wavelength peak to be irradiated is preferably 350 to 420 nm, and the amount of irradiation light is preferably 10 to 1,000 mW / cm ² .

[Material of printing plate]

  A photopolymer printing plate that is widely used is a photosensitive material that reacts to ultraviolet light, and is flexible, elastic, and excellent in ink transfer capability. Therefore, a photopolymer printing plate may be used. Further, since the ink is ejected from the recording head 72 of the plate making apparatus 10, it is assumed that it further has ejectability.

  The hardness of the printing plate after curing is measured using a hardness meter (Shore gauge), and the numerical value obtained thereby is expressed as Shore A or Shore D depending on the hardness. Some photopolymer plates have a cured plate hardness in the range of 25-70 Shore A. When preparing the printing plate 12 for printing on a general film or paper, a printing plate for printing on an uneven medium such as corrugated cardboard using a material within the range of 45-60 Shore A. In the case of producing 12, a material having a low hardness of 25-40 Shore A may be used.

[Configuration of Control System of Plate Making Apparatus 10]

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the control system of the plate making apparatus 10. The plate making apparatus 10 includes a main controller 60, a motor driver 62, a drive motor 64, a light source driver 66, a light source 68, a head driver 70, a recording head 72, and a user interface 78. As described above, the light source 68 and the recording head 72 are mounted on the carriage 24.

  The motor driver 62 includes a drive motor 64a for moving the carriage 24 along the extending direction of the shaft 22 (x-axis direction), and the shaft 22 supporting the carriage 24 extending in the extending direction of the pair of guides 18 (z-axis direction). ) And a drive motor 64c for moving the pair of guides 18 along the extending direction (y-axis direction) of the pair of guides 20 (hereinafter referred to as drive motor 64a, drive motor). 64b and drive motor 64c are collectively referred to as drive motor 64). The main control unit 60 controls the drive motor 64 via the motor driver 62 to move the relative position of the carriage 24 with respect to the base material 12 a (press plate 12) installed on the stage 14.

  The light source driver 66 turns on or off the light source 68. The main controller 60 controls turning on and off of the light source 68 via the light source driver 66.

  The head driver 70 is a drive element (corresponding to a thermal type recording head 72, a piezo element provided for each nozzle of the recording head 72) corresponding to each of the nozzles of the recording head 72 based on the ejection data supplied from the main control unit 60. In the case of a recording head 72 of the type, a piezoelectric element is driven to eject droplets from each nozzle. The main control unit 60 supplies ejection data to the head driver 70 and controls ejection of droplets from the recording head 72.

  The user interface 78 is composed of, for example, a touch panel and buttons. By operating the user interface 78, the user inputs various information and instructions. Various information is displayed on the user interface 78 under the control of the main control unit 60.

  The main control unit 60 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a RAM (Random Access Memory), and a ROM (Read Only Memory). The CPU controls the overall operation of the plate making apparatus 10 by executing a program stored in the ROM. The ROM stores a program executed by the CPU and various information used for executing the program. The RAM is a work memory.

  In FIG. 3, the main functions (laminated image data generation unit 74 and discharge data generation unit 76) are extracted from the functions realized by the CPU of the main control unit 60 executing a program stored in the ROM. Illustrated.

  The layered image data generation unit 74 forms each layer for forming a three-dimensional structure formed by stacking a plurality of two-dimensional image layers from halftone-processed two-dimensional image data indicating a document image acquired from the image processing device 50. Each piece of image data (laminated image data) is generated.

  The ejection data generation unit 76 converts the data structure that can be used by the head driver 70 based on the layer image data generated by the layer image data generation unit 74 and rearranges the data in the recording order (transfer order). Data is supplied to the head driver 70. At this time, discharge data is created in consideration of the discharge timing and data array mapped to the nozzle array of the recording head 72. Further, the ejection data generation unit 76 also assigns and inserts various control signals as necessary.

  An image processing apparatus 50 is connected to the plate making apparatus 10 via a connection cable or a communication network. The plate making apparatus 10 also has a connector for connecting a connection cable for exchanging information with the image processing apparatus 50 or a communication interface for exchanging information with the image processing apparatus 50 via a communication network. Although not shown, the illustration is omitted here.

  The image processing apparatus 50 connected to the plate making apparatus 10 is rasterized (converted into bitmap image data) based on print information received from the outside via a communication network or the like or generated by the image processing apparatus 50. Or binarizing the multi-valued bitmap image data obtained by the rasterization process to generate binary two-dimensional image data representing a document image. Or Note that the image processing apparatus 50 performs color conversion processing, gradation conversion processing, magnification conversion, and other trapping processing and imposition processing on rasterized two-dimensional image data as necessary. .

[Layered image data generation processing]

  The printing plate 12 produced by the printing plate production apparatus 10 has a three-dimensional structure as shown in FIG.

  The image line portion formed in the uppermost layer (Nth layer) is a portion representing a document image. In flexographic printing, printing is performed by transferring printing ink attached to an image area to a printing medium (see also FIG. 9A).

  Here, the surface of the base material 12a is called a floor. By forming and stacking two-dimensional image layers of thickness d (mm) one by one from the bottom layer to the top N layer, the thickness from the floor to the image area is D A plate 12 having a three-dimensional structure (mm) is formed. A slope-shaped surface portion that continues from the contour portion of the image line portion toward the floor is referred to as a shoulder.

  Next, the generation processing of the laminated image data for creating the plate 12 having the three-dimensional structure will be described in detail.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a main routine performed by the main control unit 60 (laminated image data generation unit 74).

  In step 100, conditions are set. Specifically, the following five conditions are set.

Condition 1) Output resolution R [dot / mm]
Condition 2) Type of photocurable material to be used Condition 3) Drawing performance of the plate making apparatus 10 (including drawing speed, discharged droplet amount, etc.)
Condition 4) Plate thickness D [mm]
Condition 5) Shoulder shape

  These conditions are set by information set by the user of the plate making apparatus 10 via the user interface 78 or information stored in advance in the ROM constituting the main control unit 60 of the plate forming apparatus 10. Set based on.

  Note that the output resolution set in condition 1 is in units of dot / mm, which indicates how many dots (dots formed by curing ejected droplets) are included in the width of 1 mm. Set. In the present embodiment, since one pixel is formed by curing one droplet discharged from the recording head 72, the width of one pixel is 1 / R.

  This output resolution may be changed depending on the fineness of the output product. For example, when creating a printing plate 12 that requires high-definition output, a relatively high resolution is set, and when creating a printing plate 12 that prints on a cardboard or other material whose quality is not considered as important, a comparison is required. Low resolution can be set. Furthermore, when the user designates the use of the printing plate 12, the laminated image data generation unit 74 may automatically determine the resolution from the designated use and set the condition 1.

  In the present embodiment, the shoulder shape of condition 5 is a function (here, shape (i) function) indicating the spread shape of the two-dimensional image of the i-th layer with respect to the image area (the Nth layer of the uppermost layer). Set). Specifically, the target edge position of the contour portion of the i-th two-dimensional image is obtained by the shape (i) function with reference to the edge position indicating the contour portion of the image line portion.

  The method of setting condition 5 is, for example, a plurality of types of shape (i) functions as shown in FIG. 7A (where the vertical axis is distance [mm], the horizontal axis is i layer (normalized by N) ) Is prepared, and an identification number K is assigned to these functions in advance and stored in the ROM. Then, the condition 5 may be set by designating the identification number K.

  Further, the shape (i) function may not be a linear function, but may be a non-linear function as shown in FIGS. 7B and 7C.

  Further, instead of selecting the shape (i) function stored in advance, the user of the plate making apparatus 10 may arbitrarily set the shape (i) function via the user interface 78, or input parameters. Then, the shape (i) function may be created.

  The shape function can be set based on information such as the strength of the high-definition portion in the image line portion and the printing pressure of the flexographic printing apparatus in which the printing plate is used. Alternatively, the user may input such information by operating the user interface 78, and the layered image data generation unit 74 may automatically select a shape function corresponding to the input information.

  In step 102, the number N of two-dimensional image layers is calculated. Specifically, first, based on the set conditions 2 and 3, the layer thickness d per layer, which has been obtained in advance through experiments or the like, is obtained. The thickness of the stack is determined by the curing characteristics of the photocurable material discharged from the recording head 72 (for example, the hardness when cured and the ease of clumping), the droplet discharge amount of the recording head 72, and the drawing speed (scanning speed of the carriage 24). ), Curing conditions (the amount of ultraviolet light to be irradiated, irradiation timing, irradiation time), etc., and therefore, it is preferable to obtain them by conducting experiments under various conditions in advance. Based on the experimental results, a table corresponding to the condition contents and the stacking thickness d is created and stored in advance in a ROM or the like. The laminated image data generation unit 74 reads the conditions corresponding to the above set conditions 2 and 3 from the table and obtains the laminated thickness d.

  Then, the laminated image data generation unit 74 calculates the number N of layers (N = D / d) by dividing the plate thickness D of Condition 4 by the obtained laminated thickness d.

  In step 104, two-dimensional image data is acquired from the image processing device 50. The two-dimensional image data acquired here is image data representing an image of the image line portion.

  If the resolution of the two-dimensional image data acquired from the image processing device 50 is different from the output resolution R set in the above condition 1, the resolution is converted so as to be the output resolution R. Alternatively, the information on the output resolution R is transmitted from the laminated image data generation unit 74 to the image processing apparatus 50 to cause the image processing apparatus 50 to perform resolution conversion processing, and two-dimensional image data after the resolution conversion is acquired. You may do it.

  In step 106, a laminated image data generation processing subroutine for generating laminated image data from the acquired two-dimensional image data is executed.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a subroutine of step 106 in FIG. 5 performed by the main control unit 60 (laminated image data generation unit 74).

  In step 200, initial values are set.

  More specifically, first, the obtained number of layers N is set in a variable loop indicating the target layer.

  Further, the two-dimensional image data representing the image of the image portion acquired from the image processing device 50 in OutImg_bin (x, y, loop) indicating the image data for drawing the loop (N at this time) layer. Set InImg_bin (x, y).

  Furthermore, 0 (mm) is set to the variable Edge_position indicating the edge position indicating the contour portion of the two-dimensional image. Here, the edge position indicating the contour portion of the image line portion is set to zero.

  In step 202, 1 is subtracted from the variable loop. As a result, the layer one layer below becomes the target layer, and at this time, the value of the variable Edge_position indicating the edge position becomes a value indicating the edge position indicating the contour portion of the two-dimensional image one layer above the target layer.

  In step 204, the edge position of the target layer is confirmed. That is, the value indicated by the variable loop is set in the shape (i) function set in the above condition 5, and the target edge position of the contour portion of the two-dimensional image in the loop layer is obtained. Then, the value of the shape (i) function is compared with the value of the variable Edge_position, and it is determined whether or not the horizontal difference ΔS is 1 / R or more. R is the output resolution R set in condition 1 above. If the difference ΔS is less than 1 / R, the process proceeds to step 206.

  In step 206, the image data OutImg_bin (x, y, loop + 1) of the layer immediately above the target layer is set in the image data OutImg_bin (x, y, loop) of the target layer. That is, the same image data as the image data of the layer one layer above the target layer is generated as the image data of the target layer.

  After step 206, the process proceeds to step 212.

  In step 212, it is determined whether or not the variable loop is 1. If a negative determination is made here, the process returns to step 202 and the process is repeated with the next lower layer as the target layer. On the other hand, if an affirmative determination is made here, this subroutine ends, and the main routine also ends.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step 204 that the difference ΔS is 1 / R or more, the process proceeds to step 208.

  In step 208, image data F (OutImg_bin (x, y, loop + 1)) obtained by performing expansion processing on the image data of the layer one layer above the target layer is used as the image data OutImg_bin (x, y, loop) of the target layer. ). Here, F indicates an expansion process. By F, image data indicating a two-dimensional image obtained by expanding the two-dimensional image of the layer above by α pixels in each direction is created. Here, α represents the integer part of the quotient when ΔS is divided by the width (1 / R) of one pixel.

  The expansion process F can be an existing expansion process. For example, in a simple example, the process of thickening a binary image by one pixel can be easily realized by applying a maximum value filter using 9 pixels of 3 * 3 pixels as a window function as shown in FIG. . That is, if any one of the eight pixels around the pixel of interest (x, y) is 1 (black), the pixel of interest is set to 1.

  After step 208, in step 210, the variable Edge_position is updated by adding the expansion pixel number α of the expansion process F to the variable Edge_position.

  After step 210, the process proceeds to step 212. The processing at step 212 is as described above.

  By the above-described processing, image data (laminate image data) for each layer for forming a three-dimensional structure that defines the shape of the printing plate 12 is generated.

  Note that when the generated layered image data is stored or transferred, it can be stored and transferred in the form of Out_Img (x, y, n) for each layer. Depending on the shape function and the stacking thickness d, the same image data may be used in a plurality of layers. In this case, a run-length encoding compression method is employed, and the same image data is stored. Continuous plural layers of image data may be stored in the format of (common image data, number of consecutive layers). That is, it is also possible to save in the format of [Out_Img (x, y), M]. Here, M is the number of layers in which the same data continues.

  Further, according to the above-described method of generating the laminated image data, the image data drawn in each layer is image data that is equal to or includes the image data of the upper layer. Also, there is no overlap in increments when compared to the next higher layer in each layer. Therefore, a value obtained by adding the binary image data of each layer for each position indicated by the two-dimensional coordinate system (x, y) may be stored. That is,

It is also possible to hold image data as two-dimensional gradation data represented by When this method is adopted, image data of each layer can be taken out by performing a binarization operation at the time of drawing.

[Generate image data for each scan]

  Next, a process for generating image data for each scan, which is used when actually creating the printing plate 12 from the generated layered image data, will be described in detail.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a processing routine performed by the main control unit 60 (discharge data generation unit 76).

  In step 300, the generated layered image data is acquired.

  In step 302, the three-dimensional structure represented by the acquired laminated image data is divided into a plurality of areas (in other words, the laminated image data is divided into image data for each of the plurality of areas). For example, the printing plate 12 is divided into a surface region having a portion exposed on the surface and having a predetermined thickness and a non-surface region having no portion exposed on the surface. For example, the surface portion and the non-surface portion can be divided by extracting the contour portion (edge) of the two-dimensional image of each layer of the three-dimensional structure. The edge extraction process may use an existing image processing method.

  Furthermore, the divided surface area may be divided into three areas: a shoulder area having a shoulder, an image line area having an image line portion, and a ground area extending in a planar shape connected to the lower portion of the shoulder. The image line area may be extracted by using the document image data for the area division. Further, an area having a predetermined height (layer) or more may be divided as an image area. Further, the shoulder region and the ground region may be divided from the inclination of the three-dimensional structure. For example, an area having an inclination equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold with respect to the floor may be divided as a shoulder area, and an area having an inclination less than the threshold may be divided as a ground area.

  Here, each surface region is divided into the same thickness, but the thickness of the surface region may be changed for each region. For example, the image area may be thicker than other areas in order to improve smoothness. Conversely, the thickness of the shoulder region and the image line region may be reduced in order to suppress the slanting in the region where the shoulder and the image line part are adjacent to each other. Further, for example, the thickness may be determined based on the inclination angle and height of the three-dimensional structure, the type of document image (for example, a high-definition part or a flat part), and the like. FIG. 10 shows an example of area division.

  In step 304, the laminated image data indicating the three-dimensional structure is divided into image data for each of a plurality of layers.

  FIG. 12 (A) shows the result of division in steps 302 and 304. FIG. Here, the ground region is treated as a part of the shoulder region, and the result of dividing the ground region into three regions of the shoulder region, the non-surface region, and the image line region is shown. 1 is a shoulder region, 2 is a non-surface region, and 3 is an image region. In this example, in order to increase productivity, the non-surface region 2 is formed with large droplets, and the other regions are formed with small droplets. The size of the large droplets in the height direction is 2 It is prescribed as double. For this reason, one non-surface region is arranged with respect to two surface regions to represent a three-dimensional structure.

  In the following, it is assumed that a number (layer number) that increases in order from the lowest to the highest is assigned to each of the divided layers, and image data for each layer is handled.

  In step 306, the movement condition is read. Each region divided in step 302 is formed according to the formation conditions predetermined for each region. Depending on the formation conditions, for example, there may be a case where a plurality of regions can be formed by the same scan. In the data movement process described later, a process of moving image data is performed so that the total number of scans is reduced. In this embodiment, the condition for this movement process is referred to as a movement condition. This movement condition is stored in a predetermined storage unit (for example, ROM). In step 306, the formation conditions are read.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table in which movement conditions are registered.

  As shown in FIG. 11, two types of conditions, “same area adjacency dependency” and “whether it can be formed in the same scan”, are registered for each area as movement conditions. Further, as described above, the shoulder region is represented by 1, the non-surface region is represented by 2, and the image area is represented by 3.

  The same region adjacency dependency is a condition indicating whether or not adjacent pixels of the same type of region need to be continuously formed in the same scan, and if this condition is registered as “Yes”, For an area, it indicates that adjacent pixels need to be continuously formed in the same scan, and if registered as “none”, it is not necessary to continuously form adjacent pixels in the same scan. Show.

  The same region adjacency dependency can be determined depending on, for example, whether the region requires smoothness. This is because, in an area where smoothness is required, adjacent dots (pixels) are more smoothly formed by interfering with each other, and therefore, it is desirable that the dots be continuously formed in the same scan.

  Whether or not it can be formed in the same scan is a condition indicating whether or not different regions can be formed in the same scan. In FIG. 11, whether or not formation with other regions is registered in a matrix for each region. Regions registered with this condition “O” indicate that they can be formed by the same scan, and regions registered with this condition “X” cannot be formed by the same scan. Show. In the example shown in FIG. 11, the shoulder region can be formed by the same scan as the non-surface region and the image line region, and the non-surface region and the image line region cannot be formed by the same scan.

  Whether or not to form in the same scan is determined based on the formation conditions for each region. In each area, in order to improve printing quality, the type of photo-curing material (curing sensitivity (easiness of massing, lipophilicity, hydrophilicity, etc.), curing timing (ultraviolet light irradiation timing), ultraviolet light irradiation time, Various formation conditions such as the droplet diameter (the amount of droplets ejected from the nozzles of the recording head 72) can be determined. However, depending on these formation conditions, it may be impossible to form a plurality of regions in the same scan. Therefore, in that case, as shown in FIG. 11, a moving condition indicating that the areas cannot be formed in the same scan is registered.

  The same region adjacent dependency is one of the formation conditions, but it does not affect the formation possibility in the same scan.

  In step 308, the image data for each layer is further divided into blocks based on the same region adjacent dependency condition. FIG. 12B shows the division result.

  As shown in FIG. 11, for the shoulder region, since the condition of the same region adjacent dependency indicates “none”, each pixel constituting the shoulder region in FIG. 12B is divided as one block. To do. In addition, for each of the image line area and the non-surface area, the same area adjacency dependency condition indicates “Yes”, and therefore, a plurality of pixels in the image line area and the non-surface area in FIG. Each of the parts configured as described above is divided as one block. That is, pixels that are continuous in the horizontal direction are divided into one block. Here, data movement is performed in the following data movement process using the divided blocks as one unit.

  The result of block division is temporarily stored in a storage area such as a RAM. A block number may be assigned to each block, and the data may be stored in association with data for each pixel.

  In step 310, data movement is performed. Here, each of the divided blocks is sequentially selected as a target block, and the following procedures (1) and (2) are repeated for each target block.

(1) The highest number satisfying the following conditions (a) and (b) is searched from other layers than the target layer to which the target block belongs.
(A) The layer number is larger than the target layer number (a) There is no block that cannot be formed in the same scan as the target block (a block arranged at a two-dimensional coordinate position overlapping the two-dimensional coordinate position of the target block) And there is no block in an area that cannot be formed under the condition that it can be formed in the same scan)

  (2) The target block is moved from the target layer to the searched layer. That is, the image data of the block of interest is moved so as to become the image data of the searched layer. This data movement only moves between layers, and the two-dimensional coordinate position of the target block on the xy plane is not changed.

  In step 312, the layer in which no block exists after the moving process is deleted, and the layer numbers of the remaining layers are arranged.

  Thereby, for example, five layers of image data shown in FIG. 12C are generated from the image data of each layer shown in FIG.

  Note that the layer to be searched may be limited according to the three-dimensional height with respect to (a) of the moving procedure (1).

  The main control unit 60 (ejection data generation unit 76) uses the image data for each remaining layer as image data for each scan, ejects and cures droplets, and cures each cured layer ( Here, as described above, a hardened layer is formed in order to distinguish it from a layer for generating image data for each scan. At this time, ejection data corresponding to the formation conditions of each region formed by each scan is generated and supplied to the head driver 70 so that the hardened layer of each region is formed under the formation conditions for each region. In the example shown in FIG. 12C, the printing plate 12 is formed by five scans.

  Here, FIG. 13 shows a comparative example in which the plate 12 having the three-dimensional structure shown in FIG. 12A is formed by different scans for each region and for each height. In this case, the number of scans is 10.

  Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various design changes can be made within the scope of the invention described in the claims.

  For example, not only the movement conditions described above, but also other movement conditions may be added to perform data movement.

  For example, as a data movement condition, a restriction on the moving height is provided. When the distance from the nozzle of the recording head 72 to the landing position of the droplet becomes long, the landing position accuracy tends to deteriorate. In the case where an image is formed by moving the recording head 72 in the z-axis direction for each scan or for each of a plurality of layers, in order to create a high-quality printing plate 12, FIGS. As shown in the figure, it is desirable to move the block within a predetermined height (multiple layers). FIG. 14 shows an example in which data is divided into two parts from the floor to the uppermost layer, and data is moved in each of the upper half layer and the lower half layer. Also, the amount of height difference can be made different for each region. Thereby, productivity can be improved more. For example, since the shoulder area does not require as much landing position accuracy as the image line area, the data movement range may be increased.

  In addition, when the recording head 72 ejects droplets continuously in time, the viscosity of the droplets may change and the accuracy of the landing position may decrease. Therefore, it is desirable to discharge droplets from each nozzle as much as possible at intervals. For example, as shown in FIG. 15 from the state shown in FIG. 13C, if data in the shoulder region is moved, droplets can be discharged every other scan in the shoulder region. For example, when pixels at the same two-dimensional position are formed by a plurality of scans, while satisfying the movement condition, the scans are equal in all scans or a plurality of predetermined scans (so that the formation timing intervals are uniform). B) The data of each pixel is moved so that each pixel is formed.

  In the above embodiment, an example in which the image area is divided into the image area, the shoulder area, the ground area, and the non-surface area has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the image line area may be divided into a solid area and a high-definition area having a higher definition than the solid part according to the document image.

  Further, the shoulder region may be further divided into a plurality based on the height and the inclination. For example, the upper shoulder region and the lower shoulder region may be divided into two regions. In addition, the non-surface region may be further divided into a plurality based on the height. For example, it may be divided into two regions, a non-surface region whose height is higher than the ground region and a non-surface region whose height is lower than the ground region.

  In the above description, the example in which the movement condition is determined according to the formation condition of each region has been described. Hereinafter, various specific examples of the formation condition will be given.

  For example, it is desirable that the image area has an affinity for printing ink. For this reason, you may form using the photocurable material different from another area | region, for example. For example, you may form using the photocurable material which mixed the lipophilic substance. For this reason, the image area may be formed by a scan different from the non-surface area.

  The image area is required to be smooth, and high resolution and graininess are required in a high-definition area where characters and fine line images are formed. Therefore, the image area may be formed with high resolution using small droplets. . Also, it is desirable to delay the curing timing (timing to irradiate light from the light source 68) in order to have smoothness. Adjacent dots are smoother when they interfere with each other, so it is desirable that they be formed continuously. Moreover, you may form using a photocurable material with low curing sensitivity (it is hard to clump). On the other hand, in order to give intensity | strength, you may lengthen irradiation time.

  Further, it is desirable that the image area is hard because it is a place that is easily worn during printing. Among the image line regions, in particular, in a high-definition region where characters and fine line images are formed, it is better to give the tip a hardness in order to suppress image bleeding. You may make it form a high-definition area | region using the photocurable material with high hardness after hardening. In addition, it is desirable that the solid region where the photograph or image is flat has elasticity and smoothness in order to suppress density unevenness. As described above, since the characteristics that can be obtained in accordance with the image are different even in the image line region, it is desirable to change the formation conditions by dividing the region.

  The unevenness in the shoulder region may cause ink accumulation and image thickening. Therefore, in order to suppress this, it is desirable that the portion close to the image area (upper shoulder region) is inclined and formed smoothly. .

  On the other hand, it is not always necessary to make the slope steep in a portion close to the ground region (under shoulder region). In order to maintain the strength of the plate, it is desirable that the inclination is gentle.

  In order to realize these, the shoulder region may be formed in a small droplet or mixed dot size. By forming the droplets, the resolution in the vertical direction can be increased and the smoothness can be improved.

  Further, as described above, the shoulder region may be divided into two regions (for example, the shoulder upper region, the lower region, etc.) according to the inclination or height, and the respective formation conditions may be made different.

  For example, it may be formed using a photo-curing material with low curing sensitivity (difficult to clump) in a region with a gentle slope, or the curing timing may be delayed. Further, since adjacent dots have smoothness when they interfere with each other, they may be formed continuously.

  On the other hand, in a region with a steep slope, a photo-curing material having high curing sensitivity (easy to clump) may be used. In addition, a hydrophilic photocurable material may be used to prevent the printing ink from accumulating.

  The ground region may be formed under basically the same formation conditions as those where the shoulder region has a low slope in order to prevent printing ink accumulation.

  In the non-surface region, it is desirable to form with a large droplet size in order to increase productivity. Moreover, it is desirable that the non-surface area lower layer has elasticity in view of printability. Since the higher the curing sensitivity, the higher the degree of freedom in the structure, the non-surface region upper layer may be formed using a photocurable resin having a high curing sensitivity.

  In this way, if the movement condition of the data is obtained from the formation conditions for each region, and the printing plate 12 is formed by generating image data for each scan, the high-quality printing plate 12 can be efficiently created. Can do.

  Further, when the printing plate 12 is wound around the flexographic printing plate cylinder, the three-dimensional structure is distorted by the plate thickness of the printing plate 12. However, in order to prevent the printing result from being distorted by this distortion, the two-dimensional image data indicating the original image is previously displayed. It is preferable to perform a scaling process and generate layered image data based on this. Hereinafter, the scaling process will be described.

  First, the configuration of the flexographic printing apparatus will be described, and the distortion that occurs when the printing plate 12 is wound around the plate cylinder will be described.

  FIG. 16A is a configuration diagram illustrating a configuration example of the flexographic printing apparatus 48.

  The flexographic printing device 48 includes a cylindrical plate cylinder 40 around which the printing plate 12 is wound, an anilox roll 44 and a doctor roll 46. The anilox roll 44 is a roll having irregularities called cells formed on the surface thereof, and is disposed so as to come into contact with the surface of the printing plate 12 wound around the plate cylinder 40. The printing ink held in the cells of the anilox roll 44 adheres to the printing plate 12 wound around the plate cylinder 40. The doctor roll 46 removes excess ink adhering to the anilox roll 44.

  Further, the flexographic printing device 48 is provided with a rotatable impression cylinder 42 so as to form a nip portion with the plate cylinder 40. Printing is performed by transferring the ink adhering to the printing plate 12 wound around the plate cylinder 40 to the printing medium P at the nip portion.

  As shown in FIG. 16B, the diameter of the plate cylinder 40 of the flexographic printing apparatus 48 to be used is amm, and the plate thickness of the printing plate 12 is Dmm (here, the thickness of the base material 12a is included). As shown in FIG. 16C, when an XY axis scanning stage type plate making apparatus 10 creates a plate 12 having a length of a × π mm and winds it around the plate cylinder 40, an outer portion is obtained. The length in the circumferential direction of the image line portion (see also FIG. 4) is (a + 2D) × π mm with respect to the circumference (a × π) mm of the plate cylinder 40. It will grow.

  Therefore, the printing plate 12 is created by performing a / (a + 2D) magnification conversion on the image data of the image line portion in the circumferential direction of the plate cylinder 40. Specifically, a magnification conversion process is performed on the two-dimensional image data so that the dimension in the circumferential direction of the two-dimensional image represented by the two-dimensional image data generated by the image processing device 50 is a / (a + 2D) times. Then, based on the two-dimensional image data after the magnification conversion process, the laminated image data described in the above embodiment is generated. By this magnification conversion, an appropriate unity precision is achieved at the time of flexographic printing.

  Actually, since the elongation of the printing plate 12 wound around the plate cylinder 40 is also affected by the material and the tailoring of the flexographic printing device 48 (printing pressure at the nip portion), fine adjustment is necessary. . More accurate equal magnification accuracy by carrying out variable magnification of a / (a + 2βD), where β is the adjustment coefficient determined by the type of flexographic printing device 48 and the photocurable material used to form the printing plate 12 Can be realized.

  The scaling process may be performed by the image processing apparatus 50 or the main control unit 60 of the plate making apparatus 10.

  In the above-described embodiment, the case where the plate making apparatus is the XY axis scanning stage type plate making apparatus 10 has been described, but a drum scanning type plate making apparatus may be used.

  FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a configuration of a drum scanning type plate making apparatus 80.

  As shown in FIG. 17, the plate making apparatus 80 includes a cylindrical rotating drum 30. The shaft 32 that supports the rotary drum 30 is rotatably supported by the frame 38. A shaft 36 that supports the carriage 24 so as to be movable in the x-axis direction is supported by the frame 38 so as to be movable in the z-axis direction.

  In the plate making apparatus 80, the base material 12a is wound around the rotary drum 30, and the carriage 24 on which the recording head 72 and the light source 68 are mounted is scanned by the shaft 36 in the x-axis direction. Further, the rotating drum 30 rotates in the y-axis direction. Thereby, a two-dimensional image on the xy plane is formed. Further, the final printing plate 12 is formed by laminating a plurality of two-dimensional images while moving the shaft 36 in the z-axis direction.

  Here, it demonstrates in detail. A base material 12a serving as a base for producing a flexographic printing plate is wound around and fixed to a rotary drum 30 having a diameter of 300 mm and a length of 1200 mm, for example. The fixed base 12a continues to rotate, for example, at 900 rpm (round per minute) by the rotation of the rotary drum 30, and the photocurable material by the recording head 72 mounted on the carriage 24 continues to be discharged onto the base 12a.

  As a specific drawing method, for example, after forming the first two-dimensional image layer while moving the carriage 24 relative to the substrate 12a in the x-axis direction and the y-axis direction, the carriage 24 is moved again to the x-axis direction. There is a method in which the process of returning to the starting point in the axial direction and the y-axis direction and forming the second two-dimensional image layer by discharging is repeated up to the uppermost layer.

  Or the drawing method which divides | segments a three-dimensional structure into a some area | region in the x-axis direction and draws in steps for every area | region with respect to the base material 12a may be used. That is, a two-dimensional image layer for N layers is formed in a region at one end in the x-axis direction (for example, the left end in FIG. 17), and a two-dimensional image for N layers is formed in a region next to the region (right side in FIG. 17). The image layer is stacked, and the carriage 24 is moved stepwise, and the formation area is gradually moved to the other end in the x-axis direction (for example, the right end direction in FIG. 17). Drawing can be performed at a higher speed because the movement of the carriage 24 is less than in the above drawing method.

  Note that the printing plate 12 may be formed by employing both of the two drawing methods. For example, the height may be adjusted by drawing with the latter drawing method and finally drawing with the former drawing method.

  In addition to the recording head 72 that discharges droplets of a photocurable material such as an ultraviolet light curable resin, the carriage 24 has a radiation, for example, as in the XY axis scanning stage type plate making apparatus 10. A light source 68 for curing the discharged resin, such as an ultraviolet lamp for irradiating ultraviolet light and an ultraviolet light emitting LED, is also mounted. Since both of them move in the x-axis direction, the time until curing can be adjusted depending on how far the recording head 72 is spaced from the discharge surface from which the liquid is discharged.

  As with the XY axis scanning stage type plate making apparatus 10, a carriage 24 is equipped with a laser displacement meter, a two-dimensional shape measurement sensor, a line camera, and the like that measure the height of the stacked layers. It may be. With such a configuration, the rotation of the rotary drum 30 and the height (thickness) of the printing plate 12, the surface shape of the printing plate 12, and the surface state are measured, and the curing result after irradiation with ultraviolet light is read. If the shape and height are insufficient, the stacking may be continued while correcting.

  The drum scanning type plate making apparatus 80 can be laminated from the beginning with the same radius of curvature as the radius of curvature wound around the plate cylinder 40 during printing as a flexographic printing plate. In the XY axis scanning type plate making apparatus 10, a thick plate 12 is formed by laminating a two-dimensional image on a plane. As described above, the plate 12 produced on the plate cylinder 40 is formed. , The three-dimensional structure is inevitably distorted by the plate thickness. On the other hand, the drum scanning type plate making apparatus 80 discharges and stacks while measuring the stacked shape in a wound state, so if the shape and height are insufficient, Assuming that it is used for printing, it is possible to create a plate in which two-dimensional images are laminated while correcting. When the discharge stacking is completed, it is cured with a curvature. Accordingly, the printing plate 12 formed by the drum scanning type plate making apparatus 80 can be set and fixed on the plate cylinder 40 for flexographic printing without requiring any labor.

  In the above-described embodiment, an example in which two-dimensional image data is acquired from the image processing apparatus 50 and the laminated image data is generated by the main control unit 60 (laminated image data generating unit 74) of the plate making apparatus 10 is described. As described above, the function of the laminated image data generation unit 74 may be provided in the image processing apparatus 50, and the laminated image data may be generated on the image processing apparatus 50 side.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Plate making apparatus 12a Base material 12 Printing plate 48 Flexo printing apparatus 50 Image processing apparatus 60 Main control part 68 Light source 72 Recording head 74 Laminated image data generation part 76 Discharge data generation part 80 Plate making apparatus

Claims (5)

Relative movement of an image forming unit that includes a droplet discharge unit that discharges a droplet of a photocurable material and a light irradiation unit that irradiates light that cures the discharged photocurable material. The three-dimensional structure of a flexographic printing plate having a three-dimensional structure formed by laminating a plurality of cured layers by discharging droplets of the photocurable material onto the base material and curing the same. First dividing means for dividing each of the image data shown into image data for each of a plurality of regions having different formation conditions by the image forming means;
Second dividing means for dividing the image data indicating the three-dimensional structure into image data for each of a plurality of layers;
Based on the formation conditions for each region, moving means for moving image data having the same two-dimensional coordinates of each of the plurality of layers between the plurality of layers;
Deleting means for deleting a layer that eliminates the need for discharging droplets by the movement;
Using the remaining image data of each layer as image data for each relative movement, the droplets are ejected and cured so that the cured layer of each region is formed under the formation conditions for each region. A control means for controlling the image forming means so that the flexographic printing plate is formed by:
A plate making control device. The printing plate making control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the moving unit moves the image data between a plurality of predetermined layers among the plurality of layers. The moving means moves the image data so that pixels having the same two-dimensional coordinates of each of a plurality of layers are formed at equal relative movement intervals in total relative movement or a plurality of predetermined relative movements. The printing plate making control apparatus according to claim 1. An image forming unit that includes a droplet discharge unit that discharges a droplet of a photocurable material and a light irradiation unit that irradiates light that cures the discharged photocurable material;
The printing plate making control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
A plate making apparatus. Relative movement of an image forming unit that includes a droplet discharge unit that discharges a droplet of a photocurable material and a light irradiation unit that irradiates light that cures the discharged photocurable material. The three-dimensional structure of a flexographic printing plate having a three-dimensional structure formed by laminating a plurality of cured layers by discharging droplets of the photocurable material onto the base material and curing the same. A first dividing step of dividing each of the image data shown into image data for each of a plurality of regions having different formation conditions by the image forming unit;
A second dividing step of dividing the image data indicating the three-dimensional structure into image data for each of a plurality of layers;
Based on the formation conditions for each region, a moving step of moving image data having the same two-dimensional coordinates of each of the plurality of layers between the plurality of layers;
A deletion step of deleting a layer that eliminates the need for discharging droplets by the movement;
Using the remaining image data of each layer as image data for each relative movement, the droplets are ejected and cured so that the cured layer of each region is formed under the formation conditions for each region. A control step of controlling the image forming means so that the flexographic printing plate is formed by:
A plate making method comprising:

Images