JP2011212643A - Printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing method of a printed matter which does not change the external in a part stretched at molding, and can form a molding having a high-quality appearance.SOLUTION: The printing method of the printed matter, having a pattern printed thereon corresponding to decoration of the molding, is used for forming the molding with a decorated surface by embossing. The method includes: a step of extracting the contour of the cross-sectional shape of the molding in a perpendicular plane to the height direction, in two or more height positions based on a 3D data showing the three-dimensional shape of the molding; a step of detecting an overlapping of two or more contours in a visual field parallel to the height direction in the molding shown by the 3D data to calculate the height of a sidewall of the molding based on the overlapping of contours; a step of creating data for patterned printing so that the ink amount used for patterned printing increases in a part corresponding to a relatively high sidewall in the pattern; and a step of printing on a resin-made substrate of the printed matter based on the printing data.

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing method, and more specifically, a printed material on which a pattern corresponding to a decorated molded body is printed, which is used to form a molded body whose surface is decorated by embossing. It is a printing method.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a technique for forming a molded body with a surface decorated by deforming a sheet-like printed matter on which a design is printed is known. For example, it is possible to form a molded product along the shape of the mold by heating and softening a printed product on which a design is printed on a resin base and sandwiching the printed material between a pair of molds. The surface of such a molded product is decorated based on the design of the original printed product. In addition, as shown in Patent Document 1, a printed material is enclosed in a mold during injection molding, and the printed material is attached to the surface of the three-dimensional object at the same time as the three-dimensional object is formed by injection molding. Decorating technology is known.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-122976

  By the way, in the forming method of deforming a printed material on which a pattern is printed in a planar manner, the substrate of the printed material or the coating film of the ink applied to the surface of the substrate is deformed and stretched. Specifically, in a molded product formed so as to rise from the printed product in the normal direction of the printed product, the side wall of the molded product is formed by extending the printed product in the normal direction of the printed product, so that the coating film is thinned.

  In the part where the coating film is thinned in the molded product, the appearance of the coating film changes before and after stretching, and the designed color on the side wall may not be reproduced. For example, even if the side wall of the molded product is designed to have the same color as the top surface of the molded product that is continuous with the side wall, the appearance of the side wall and the top surface changes if the appearance changes as the coating film is stretched. Differ, and the desired decoration cannot be performed.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and for a printed material used to form a molded body whose surface is decorated by embossing, for example, a side wall portion of the molded body, An object of the present invention is to provide a printing method for a printed matter that can be formed into a molded body having a high-quality appearance without changing the appearance in a portion that is stretched during molding.

  In order to solve the above problems, the printing method of the present invention uses a printed material on which a pattern corresponding to the decoration of the molded body is printed to form a molded body whose surface is decorated by embossing. In the printing method, based on the three-dimensional data indicating the three-dimensional shape of the molded body, contours of the cross-sectional shape of the molded body by a plane orthogonal to the height direction at a plurality of positions in the height direction are extracted. Detecting the overlapping of the plurality of contours in the visual field parallel to the height direction in the molded body indicated by the step and the three-dimensional data, and determining the side wall of the molded body based on the overlapping of the contours A step of calculating a height, a step of creating printing data for the symbol such that a portion corresponding to a relatively high side wall in the symbol has a larger amount of ink used for printing the symbol; Characterized in that it and a step of printing on the print base body made of resin based on the print data.

  According to this method, by creating the printing data including the height information of the side wall of the target molded body, in the printed matter, a large number of portions selectively stretched by deformation when forming the molded body. An ink can be applied to thicken the coating film. Therefore, even when a molded body is formed, the appearance does not change, and a printed matter that can be a molded body having a high quality appearance can be printed.

  In the present invention, printing is performed by a droplet discharge method, and the printing data is bitmap data that determines the ink discharge position of pixels used for printing and the ink discharge amount, and creates the printing data. In the bitmap data, in the bitmap data, pixels included in a range from a pixel adjacent to the pixel corresponding to the sidewall to a pixel separated by a predetermined number of pixels are excluded from the pixel corresponding to the sidewall. The amount of ink ejected to the pixels included in the range may be set so as to be larger than the amount of ink disposed in the pixels not included and less than the amount of ink disposed in the pixels corresponding to the side walls. desirable.

  The portion that corresponds to the side wall of the molded body is stretched most due to the deformation of the printed product during the formation of the molded body, but the periphery of the portion that corresponds to the side wall also involves some stretching. Therefore, by increasing the amount of ink to be applied also at the periphery of the portion corresponding to the side wall, it is possible to suppress a change in appearance in the portion adjacent to the side wall and to obtain a molded body having a higher quality appearance. Possible prints can be printed.

In the present invention, in the step of extracting the contour, it is desirable that the intervals between the plurality of positions are equal.
According to this method, it is possible to easily create printing data for creating molded articles having various three-dimensional shapes by regular contour extraction processing.

It is a figure explaining the process of shape | molding a molded object using the printed matter by this invention. It is a flowchart which shows each process in the printing method of this invention. It is explanatory drawing explaining the process in the printing method of this invention. It is explanatory drawing explaining the process in the printing method of this invention. It is explanatory drawing explaining the process in the printing method of this invention. It is explanatory drawing explaining the process in the printing method of this invention. It is explanatory drawing explaining the process in the printing method of this invention.

  Hereinafter, a printing method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In all the drawings below, the dimensions and ratios of the constituent elements are appropriately changed in order to make the drawings easy to see.

  The printed matter to be printed by the printing method of the present invention is specifically a design in which a coating is applied to a resin substrate and a pattern is printed. Typically, the printed matter is deformed by press molding and the surface is decorated. Used to form a molded body. In the following explanation, first, in FIG. 1, after explaining the molding process for obtaining a molded body using the printed matter printed by the printing method of the present invention, the printing method of the present invention will be explained using FIGS. To do.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a process of molding a molded body. As shown in the figure, the printed matter 1 obtained by the printing method of the present invention was softened by heating (FIG. 1 (a)), and was softened by a pair of molds having a convex mold 2 and a concave mold (not shown). It is deformed by press work sandwiching the printed material 1 (FIG. 1 (b)), and unnecessary parts are removed (trimmed), thereby forming a molded body 3 to which the shape of the mold is transferred (FIG. 1 (c)). . Here, it is assumed that the molded body 3 has a shape in which a trapezoidal weight-shaped convex portion 11 and a columnar convex portion 12 are provided on the upper surface of a rectangular parallelepiped base 10.

  When performing such molding, the side walls 11x and 12x of the convex portions 11 and 12 in the molded body 3 shown in the figure are formed by stretching the original printed material 1 in the normal direction of the printed material 1. Therefore, the coating film on the surface of the printed matter 1 is also stretched and thinned. In that case, the color of the side walls 11x and 12x may not reproduce the color of the corresponding portion in the printed matter 1, and there is a possibility that desired decoration cannot be performed.

  Therefore, in the printing method of the present invention described below, even if the coating film corresponding to the side wall is thickened in the printed matter to be obtained and the coating film is thinned by deformation, the change in appearance is suppressed.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing each process in the printing method of the present invention, and FIGS. 3 to 7 are explanatory diagrams of each process in the printing method. In the following description, the printing method of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  First, three-dimensional data indicating the three-dimensional shape of the molded body 3 shown in FIG. 1 is sliced at a plurality of height positions to obtain a cross-sectional shape by a plane perpendicular to the height direction of the molded body 3 (step S1).

  As for the three-dimensional data of the molded body 3, a clay model of the molded body 3 can be created using a non-contact camera photographing type three-dimensional measuring instrument, a contact type three-dimensional measuring instrument, or the like. Alternatively, the original data when creating the convex mold 2 shown in FIG. 1 may be used as the three-dimensional data of the molded body 3.

  Based on such three-dimensional data, slice processing is performed at a plurality of height positions using 3D-CAD software or the like, and the cross-sectional shape of the molded body 3 is extracted.

  First, as shown in FIG. 3A, a predetermined direction in the horizontal plane is the X-axis direction, and a direction orthogonal to the X-axis direction in the horizontal plane is a direction orthogonal to each of the Y-axis direction, the X-axis direction, and the Y-axis direction ( That is, an xyz orthogonal coordinate system in which the vertical direction is set to the Z-axis direction is set. When the molded body D indicated by the three-dimensional data is disposed on the reference plane RP that is a plane parallel to the xy plane, the molded body D indicated by the three-dimensional data indicates the normal direction (z-axis direction) of the reference plane RP. The cross-sectional shape of the molded body D by the plane P parallel to the reference plane RP is obtained.

  The number of height positions to be sliced can be arbitrarily set. For example, slicing processing can be performed any number of times at equal intervals at the height position from the bottom surface to the top of the molded body indicated by the three-dimensional data. Alternatively, the interval of the slicing process can be determined such that, for example, the slicing process is performed at an interval of 1 mm regardless of the size of the molded body. The slice processing intervals may not be equal.

  When the molded body D indicated by the three-dimensional data is a solid model, a plurality of cross-sectional shapes are obtained as shown in FIG. In the figure, the slice processing of the molded body D is performed at six locations at regular intervals, and the cross section 10a of the base, the cross sections 11a to 11e of the convex portion 11, and the cross sections 12a to 12c of the convex portion 12 are obtained as images. . The cross section 11a and the cross section 12a have the same height and have a cross sectional shape by the same plane. Similarly, the cross section 11b and the cross section 12b, and the cross section 11c and the cross section 12c have the same height.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 4, the contour of the cross-sectional shape obtained in step S1 is obtained (step S2). The figure shows a state in which the contour 10s of the cross section of the base, the contours 11s to 11w of the cross section of the convex part 11, and the contours 12s to 12u of the cross section of the convex part 12 are obtained as images. The obtained contour indicates the side wall of the molded body that collides with each slice surface. When the molded body D indicated by the three-dimensional data is a surface model, the contour shape is obtained in the slice processing in step S1, and therefore step S1 and step S2 can be merged.

  Next, an overlap of a plurality of contours in a field of view parallel to the height direction in the three-dimensional data is detected, and the height of the side wall of the molded body D indicated by the three-dimensional data is calculated based on the overlap of the contours ( Step S3).

  That is, the overlap between the contours of successive slice surfaces is detected by image processing of the contour images (slice images) on the slice surfaces obtained in step S2. As described above, the outline indicates the side wall of the molded body that collides with each slice surface. In other words, the side wall of the molded body at the height position of the slice surface is shown. Therefore, when the outline of a continuous slice surface overlaps, it is guessed that the side wall of a molded object is continuing in parallel with the height direction.

  FIG. 5A is a schematic diagram of an image obtained by combining the slice image including the contours 11s and 12s, the slice image including the contours 11t and 12t, and the slice image including the contours 11u and 12u of FIG. 4 by AND processing. is there. Since the contours 11s to 11u do not overlap each other, they disappear by the AND processing, and the contours 12s to 12u overlap each other and remain after the AND processing.

  By detecting the overlap (number of layers) of a plurality of contours by the contours remaining by such image processing (AND processing) and the number of layers overlapped by AND processing (three layers in FIG. 5A). Can do. Since the height position for slicing is known, the height information of the side wall can be obtained from the number of stacked contours.

  When the side wall is inclined with respect to the reference plane RP as in the convex portion 12, it disappears when the contour AND process is performed, so the user inputs information that the contours are continuous. Or supplemented by calculating from three-dimensional data.

  FIG. 5B is a schematic diagram of an image obtained by combining the slice images obtained in step S2 by OR processing. From the image obtained by this OR processing, the position of the side wall of the molded body when the molded body is viewed from the height direction can be detected.

  Next, in the part corresponding to the side wall of the molded body in the pattern to be printed, the part corresponding to the side wall higher than the part corresponding to the relatively low side wall increases the amount of ink used for printing. Print data is created (step S4).

  FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing the bitmap data BD of a symbol to be printed. In creating the bitmap data, the ink application amount corresponding to the portion corresponding to the side wall in the design is increased based on the side wall height information obtained in step S3. For example, a unit increase amount of the ink with respect to the unit height of the side wall is defined, and the ink application amount can be increased based on the side wall height information in a portion corresponding to the side wall in the design.

  In the figure, the pixel in the portion where the amount of ink applied is larger than the pixel in the portion corresponding to the horizontal plane (illustrated by the symbol L), such as the portion corresponding to the top surface of the convex portion 12 or the top surface of the base 10. (Examples of symbols M and N) are shaded, and the darker the shaded area indicates that more ink is to be applied. From the height information obtained in step S3, the number of pixels corresponding to the contours 12s to 12u indicated by the symbol N is larger than the number of pixels corresponding to the contours 10s and the contours 11s to 11w indicated by the symbol M. Bitmap data is created so that the ink of the above is applied.

  Here, in the pixels adjacent to the shaded pixels indicated by the symbols M and N (illustrated by the symbol X in the figure), the setting is made so as to increase the amount of ink even in the pixels corresponding to the horizontal plane. And good. Specifically, in the bitmap data, for example, with respect to pixels included in a range from a pixel adjacent to the pixel N to a pixel separated by a predetermined number of pixels, the amount of ink disposed in a pixel not included in the range And the amount of ink ejected to the pixels included in the range is determined so as to be smaller than the amount of ink disposed in the pixel N. At this time, the ink amount is determined so that the amount of ink applied gradually from the pixel N side decreases.

  As a result, the amount of ink applied to the pixel adjacent to the pixel N does not rapidly decrease compared to the pixel N, and the amount of ink applied gradually changes. The portion that corresponds to the side wall of the molded body 3 is most stretched by the deformation of the printed matter 1 shown in FIG. 1, but the portion around the portion corresponding to the side wall also involves some stretching, so the portion corresponding to the side wall It is preferable to increase the amount of ink applied to the periphery.

  Next, a design is printed on the resin base 4 based on the created bitmap data (step S5).

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a state of printing. As shown in the figure, ink is ejected from the droplet ejection head IJ onto the substrate 4 based on the bitmap data to print a desired printed matter.
As described above, a desired printed matter can be obtained by the printing method of the present invention.

  According to the printing method having the above-described configuration, a large amount of ink is selectively applied to a portion of the printed matter 1 that is stretched due to deformation when the molded body 3 is formed to thicken the coating film. be able to. Therefore, even when the molded body 3 is formed, the printed matter 1 can be printed without changing the appearance and capable of forming the molded body 3 having a high quality appearance.

  In the present embodiment, the hollow molded body 3 is formed by pressing with a pair of molds. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and by using a resin having a convex shape instead of a convex shape, The molded body 3 can be attached to the resin surface to provide a molded body with a decorated surface.

  The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to such examples. Various shapes, combinations, and the like of the constituent members shown in the above-described examples are examples, and various modifications can be made based on design requirements and the like without departing from the gist of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Printed material, 3 ... Molded object, 4 ... Base | substrate, 10a, 11a-11e, 12a-12c ... Section, 10s, 11s-11w, 12s-12u ... Contour, BD ... Bitmap data (printing data)

Claims (3)

A method for printing a printed material on which a pattern corresponding to the decoration of the molded body is used to form a molded body whose surface is decorated by embossing,
Extracting the contour of the cross-sectional shape of the molded body by a plane orthogonal to the height direction at a plurality of positions in the height direction based on the three-dimensional data indicating the three-dimensional shape of the molded body;
In the molded body indicated by the three-dimensional data, the overlapping of the plurality of contours in a visual field parallel to the height direction is detected, and the height of the side wall of the molded body is determined based on the overlapping of the contours. A calculating step;
Creating the design printing data so that the portion corresponding to the relatively high side wall in the design increases the amount of ink used for printing the design;
Printing on the substrate of the printed material made of resin based on the printing data. Printing by the droplet discharge method,
The printing data is bitmap data that defines pixels that are ink ejection positions used for printing and the ink ejection amount.
The step of creating the printing data corresponds to the side wall for pixels included in a range from a pixel adjacent to the pixel corresponding to the side wall to a pixel separated by a predetermined number of pixels in the bitmap data. Ink ejected to pixels included in the range so as to be larger than the amount of ink disposed in pixels not included in the range excluding the pixels and smaller than the amount of ink disposed in pixels corresponding to the side walls. The printing method according to claim 1, wherein an amount is set.   3. The printing method according to claim 1, wherein in the step of extracting the contour, an interval between the plurality of positions is an equal interval.

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