JP2012220953A - Method and device for forming light guide plate - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily form a light guide plate having a desired color temperature.SOLUTION: An ink jet printer is provided with a white ink supply section in which white ink for determining a color temperature of a light guide plate is accommodated in ink tanks, and the ink tanks are connected to recording heads so that the recording heads discharge the white ink. The distribution state of particle sizes of titanium oxide contained in the white ink is adjusted according to the desired color temperature of the light guide plate. The ink jet printer forms reflex printing on the light guide plate by using the ink in which the distribution state of particle sizes of the titanium oxide is adjusted, and forms the light guide plate having the color temperature which corresponds to the white ink.

Description

  The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for producing a light guide plate for a backlight or the like that diffuses light entered from a side surface and emits uniform light on the surface.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a method of manufacturing a light guide plate by forming a reflection printing surface with a large number of printing dots with only one color of white ink using an inkjet printer on the front surface with an illumination light irradiation surface (see, for example, Patent Document 1). .

JP-A-9-68614

When the same white ink is used to create a light guide plate by printing only one color of white ink with an ink jet printer, the color temperature of the light emitted from the surface of the light guide plate is the same, but the light guide plates have different color temperatures. If you want it, you will need to change the ink. In such a case, an ink jet printer that performs printing with only one white ink cannot be used, and the ink needs to be replaced. Further, even when screen printing is used, there is a problem that changing the ink is very troublesome and changing the printing pattern is troublesome. Here, the color temperature is a numerical value representing the relative intensity of blue-violet light and red light included in a light source emitting a certain color.
The present invention aims to solve the above problems.

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, print data of a light reflection pattern stored in a computer is transferred to an ink jet printer, and emitted from the light source to the inside of the light guide plate on the printing surface of the light guide plate by the ink jet printer. A method for producing a light guide plate by performing reflection printing for scattering light, wherein the ink jet printer is provided with a white ink supply unit storing white ink in an ink tank, and the recording head recording head of the ink jet printer has the An ink tank is connected so that the recording head can eject white ink, and the white ink adjusts the distribution state of the particle diameter of the titanium oxide contained therein according to the desired color temperature of the light guide plate. Then, the ink jet printer reflects the light guide plate using the ink whose particle diameter distribution is adjusted. Forming a printing, it is characterized in that so as to create a light guide plate having a color temperature corresponding to the white ink.

The present invention can easily produce a light guide plate having a desired color temperature.

It is block explanatory drawing of this apparatus. It is explanatory drawing of a data table. It is explanatory drawing of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of a light-guide plate. It is explanatory drawing of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of a printer. It is explanatory drawing of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of this invention. It is block explanatory drawing which shows other embodiment of this apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of other embodiment of this invention.

Hereinafter, the configuration of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
1 and 3 are schematic views of a light guide plate printing apparatus including an inkjet printer 2 and a computer 4 such as a personal computer connected to the controller of the printer 2 via an input / output interface. As shown in FIG. 8, the light guide plate 6 is held by the media driving mechanism 58 while being held in the fitting recess 50 of the board-shaped conveyance auxiliary member 8 with the printed surface 6b on the back side facing the light emitting surface 6a. As shown in FIG. 10, it is conveyed on the platen 10 from the conveyance table 48 side. A printing unit 50 equipped with an inkjet recording head moves in a main scanning direction perpendicular to the conveying direction with respect to the light guide plate 6 on the platen 10 while ejecting ink from the nozzles. The print data transferred to the controller is printed on the printing surface 6b of the light guide plate 6 under the control of software stored in the controller. After the printing, the light guide plate 6 is transported onto a transport table 46 disposed on the guide 11.

A horizontal rail 52 is installed on the platen 10, and the carriage 12 is movably connected to the horizontal rail 52. As shown in FIG. 5, the carriage 12 holds a plurality of ink jet recording heads 14, 16, 18, and 20. Each recording head 14, 16, 18, 20 includes a large number of nozzles 22 that eject ink. As shown in FIG. 5A, each of the heads 14, 16, 18, and 20 includes a white ink supply unit 56 that includes ink tanks 26, 28, 30, and 32 disposed in the machine body 24 of the printer 2, respectively. Each ink tank communicates with ink supply means such as a tube.

The plurality of recording heads 14, 16, 18, and 20 are arranged in parallel so that their print areas overlap in the main scanning direction M along the horizontal rail 52 as shown in FIG. The storage device of the computer 4 stores software (print program) for creating print data of the light reflection pattern, and is provided with a data table 34 shown in FIG. This data table 34 is a combination of color temperature and ink so that a plurality of types of white ink can be printed on the light guide plate individually or in combination to create light guide plates of various color temperatures. Are set in advance, and by using the data table 34, light guide plates having various color temperatures can be easily created. The software for printing control stored in the computer can create and modify the data table 34.
As shown in FIG. 8, the created light guide plate 6 is obtained by printing reflective dots or reflective gradients (fine dots such as frosted glass) on the plane portion of the printing surface 6 b of the transparent acrylic plate. By disposing a light source 54 made of a light emitter such as a cold cathode tube or an LED in the thickness portion of the light guide plate 6, the entire light emitting surface 6a appears to emit light.

The data table 34 shows an example when three types of white inks 1, 2, and 3 having different color temperatures are prepared. When using ink using titanium oxide, prepare white ink with different color temperature depending on the particle size distribution of titanium oxide in the ink, and changing the particle size distribution variation will cause a difference in reflected light. There is a difference in color temperature.

[About white ink and color temperature]
White ink uses titanium oxide as an ink pigment. Titanium oxide particles have the property of reflecting light with a wavelength twice as large as the particle diameter. The ideal white ink has a uniform titanium oxide particle size distribution of 200 nm to 400 nm as shown in FIG. Is to exist. In that case, it becomes white which uniformly reflects light 400 nm-800 nm (visible light) having a wavelength twice as large as the particle diameter 200 nm-400 nm. However, in the actual white ink, the particle size distribution rarely exists uniformly at 200 nm-400 nm,
(1) When there are many particles having a particle diameter of 200 nm (see FIG. 12), white ink that strongly reflects 400 nm light (short wavelength), and white ink that has a high color temperature and bluish.
(2) When there are many particles having a particle diameter of 400 nm (see FIG. 13), white ink that strongly reflects light (long wavelength) at 800 nm, white ink with a low color temperature, red, yellow, or green is obtained.
In adjusting the color temperature, a light guide plate having a desired color temperature = desired titanium oxide distribution = desired wavelength range of light is created by combining the white inks having different color temperatures (different titanium oxide distributions). To do. However, when it is difficult to adjust the color temperature only with the particle diameter of titanium oxide, a desired light wavelength region may be obtained by adding other particles, copper phthalocyanine, or the like.

11 to 13 are distribution image diagrams of the particle diameter of titanium oxide in the ink, the horizontal axis indicates the particle diameter, and the vertical axis indicates the degree of distribution. FIG. 11 shows an ideal distribution of titanium oxide particles in white ink, and FIGS. 12 to 13 show an actual distribution of titanium oxide particles in white ink. In FIG. 2, when the light source is the same, and the color temperature of the light guide plate is 4500K when printing is performed under the printing conditions A shown in FIG. When combined, a color temperature between 4500K and 5000K can be obtained under the condition D, and between 5000K and 5500K under the condition E.
FIG. 4 shows the light reflection pattern of the light guide plate. In order to uniformly reflect the light reflection pattern, the area of the light reflection pattern increases with increasing distance from the light source. In addition to increasing the area, the pattern may be printed by increasing the density of the same area, or may be combined as necessary.

6 and 7 are explanatory diagrams of the printing operation of the ink jet recording head. The recording head 14 communicates with the ink tank 26 containing the white ink 1 described in the data table 34, and the recording head 16 has the white ink. The recording head 18 communicates with an ink tank 30 containing white ink 3. The white inks 1, 2 and 3 have different particle size distributions of titanium oxide in the ink, thereby making the ink color temperatures different.
6A and 6B show the printing operation for condition B shown in the data table 34 of FIG. In FIG. 6A, a normal amount of white ink 2 ink dots 36 are ejected from the nozzles of the recording head 16, and one 100% white ink 2 ink dot 36 is formed on the light guide plate 6. Shows the state. That is, the entire surface is printed using only the white ink 2.

7A, 7B, and 7C show the printing operation under the printing condition E shown in the data table 34 of FIG. In FIG. 7, the ink dots 38 of the normal amount of the white ink 2 are ejected from the nozzles of the recording head 16 and printed on the light guide plate 6. Next, half of the normal amount of white ink 3 ink dots 38 are ejected from the recording head 18 onto the ink dots 38 of the white ink 2 that has been printed first, and the two ink dots 38, 38 overlap. One dot is printed. In the print 40 for one dot printed in an overlapping manner, the white ink 2 is 50% and the white ink 3 is 50%. That is, the entire surface is printed by combining the white ink 2 and the white ink 3. This ink ejection control is performed by preparing a plurality of printing waveforms and driving voltages for driving the head, and selecting and using the necessary driving waveforms and driving voltages.

Next, with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 14, the process of performing reflective printing on the printing surface of the light guide plate will be described.
First, in step 1, the operator creates reflective surface print data 42 on the computer 4 using software for creating a reflection pattern of the light guide plate. The print data 42 is displayed on the display 44 of the computer 4. Further, the display 44 displays a data input display 48 indicating the use conditions A, B, C, D, E, and F of white ink. The use conditions A, B, C, D, E, and F of the display 48 correspond to the data table 34.

Next, the operator refers to the display 48 on the display 44 of the computer 4 in step 2 to select a use condition, and clicks the condition selection button display 46 using an input means such as a mouse, and sends the use condition to the computer 4. That is, the printing conditions are input. The computer refers to the data table 34 according to the selected condition, and determines the ink 1, 2, 3 to be used in step 3. The computer 4 selects a mode in which one white ink is used in step 4 or a mode in which a plurality of white inks are used in step 5. When the print button 50 is executed from the screen of the computer 4 in step 6, the print data is transferred from the computer 4 to the printer 2 (step 7), and after the data is processed in the printer 2 (step 8), the recording head Is driven in the main scanning direction, and printing is performed with the white ink under the printing conditions selected on the light guide plate 6 (step 9).

In the embodiment, the technique has been described in which white ink having a different color temperature is printed at the same position at 50%. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and 100% + 50% printing may be performed. If one is prepared (white 1, white 1, white 2, white 3) and printing is performed in the same place as necessary, 100% + 100% = 200% can be printed. It can also be changed. If a plurality of white inks having the same color temperature are not prepared, print control may be performed in which the same location is printed twice.
Inkjet printers can print with different inks at different locations, so when using multiple light sources, print at different color temperatures depending on the location, even if the brightness varies. You can easily correct it.

The data table 34 may be provided in a memory mounted on the controller of the printer 2. In this case, the printing conditions are first set on the printer 2 side, and only the print data is transferred from the computer 4. Just do it.
FIG. 13 shows a configuration in which the data table 34 is provided in a memory mounted on the controller of the printer 2.
The operation in this case will be described below with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, in step 1, the operator creates reflective surface print data 42 on the computer 4 using software for creating a reflection pattern of the light guide plate. The print data 42 is displayed on the display 44 of the computer 4. On the other hand, a display for data input indicating the use conditions A, B, C, D, E, and F of the white ink is displayed on the display of the controller of the printer 2. The display usage conditions A, B, C, D, E, and F correspond to the data table 34.

In step 4, the operator refers to the display on the controller display, selects a use condition, and sets the use condition, that is, the print condition, in the controller of the printer 2 using an input unit such as a keyboard. The controller refers to the data table 34 according to the selected condition, and determines the inks 1, 2, and 3 to be used in step 5. The controller selects a mode in which one white ink is used in step 6 or a mode in which a plurality of white inks are used in step 7.

On the other hand, when the operator executes a print button from the screen of the computer 4 in step 2, the print data is transferred from the computer 4 to the printer 2 (step 3), and after the data is processed in the printer 2 (step 8). Then, the recording head is driven and printing is performed on the light guide plate 6 with the white ink under the selected printing conditions (step 9).
In the above-described embodiment, the structure is described in which the recording heads are arranged in parallel in the serial printer in which the recording heads move in the main scanning direction. A line head longer than the width of the optical plate may be used to arrange the light guide plate in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction. The printer may use a structure in which the light guide plate is fixed on the platen and the recording head moves.

2 Inkjet printer 4 Computer 6 Light guide plate 8 Transport auxiliary member 10 Platen 12 Carriage 14 Recording head 16 Recording head 18 Recording head 20 Recording head 22 Nozzle 24 Machine body 26 Ink tank 28 Ink tank 30 Ink tank 32 Ink tank 34 Data table 36 Ink dots 38 Ink dots 40 Ink dots 42 Print data 44 Display 46 Transport table 48 Transport table 50 Print section 52 Horizontal rail 54 Light source 56 White ink supply section 58 Media drive mechanism

Claims (2)

The print data of the light reflection pattern stored in the computer is transferred to the ink jet printer, and the ink jet printer performs reflection printing on the printing surface of the light guide plate to scatter the light emitted from the light source into the light guide plate. A method of producing an optical plate, wherein the ink jet printer is provided with a white ink supply unit that contains white ink in an ink tank, the ink tank is connected to a recording head recording head of the ink jet printer, and the recording head is white. The white ink is configured such that the distribution of the particle size of the titanium oxide contained in the white ink is adjusted according to the desired color temperature of the light guide plate, and the distribution of the particle size of the titanium oxide The ink jet printer forms a reflective print on the light guide plate using the adjusted ink, and corresponds to the white ink. The light guide plate creation method is characterized in that so as to create a light guide plate having a color temperature. An ink jet printer and a computer for transferring the print data of the light reflection pattern to the printer. The print data of the light reflection pattern stored in the computer is transferred to the ink jet printer, and the print surface of the light guide plate is transferred by the ink jet printer. An apparatus for creating a light guide plate by performing reflection printing for scattering light emitted from a light source to the inside of the light guide plate, wherein the ink jet printer is provided with a white ink supply unit storing white ink in an ink tank The ink tank is connected to the recording head of the ink jet printer so that the recording head can discharge white ink, and the white ink has a desired particle size distribution state of titanium oxide contained therein. Adjusted according to the color temperature of the light guide plate, the particle diameter distribution state of the titanium oxide was adjusted. Using click, the inkjet printer forming a reflective printed on the light guide plate, a light guide plate making apparatus being characterized in that the so as to create a light guide plate having a color temperature corresponding to the white ink.

Images