JP2014069315A - Printing method and printing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing apparatus and a printing method specifically capable of high-definition thin-film printing on a surface of a base material by using an ink having low viscosity at an initial stage, enabling stable printing in continuous printing.SOLUTION: A printing method includes: a step of supplying a fixed amount of ink from an ink feed source to an anilox unit; a step of transferring the ink from the anilox unit to a plate; a step of desiccating the ink on the plate to adjust the ink viscosity; and a step of transferring the ink from the plate to an objective substrate. The initial ink viscosity in supplying the fixed amount of ink from the ink supply source to the anilox unit is 10 mPa s or lower, surface tension is 20-40 mN/m, and the ink viscosity after desiccation on the plate is 10-100 mPa s.

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for printing ink on the surface of a substrate. In particular, high-definition thin film printing is possible on the surface of a substrate using an ink having a low initial viscosity, and printing can be stably performed in continuous printing. The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method that can be performed.

  Conventionally, printing apparatuses that print ink on a substrate surface have been put into practical use.

  For example, the object is high-precision printing of a thin film having a pattern size on the order of several tens of μm and a film thickness of 10 μm or less in the electronics field.

  There are several major requirements for micron-order precision printing devices and methods for electronic components and the like. The most important thing is to quantitatively transfer the ink for high-precision printing and to print continuously and stably.

  As a necessary condition for quantitative transfer of the ink, the viscosity of the ink needs to be constant. As shown in Patent Documents 1 and 2, there is a method using an apparatus for adjusting the viscosity of ink as means for this purpose. However, with this method, many materials cannot keep up with the viscosity change due to drying, and printing cannot be performed stably. Particularly in high-definition printing, printing defects occur due to subtle differences in viscosity. For this reason, printing based on printing conditions capable of stable printing has been desired.

  Therefore, a printing apparatus and a printing method capable of performing high-definition thin film printing on the surface of a substrate and performing stable printing in continuous printing have been particularly demanded in the electronics field.

JP 57-63260 A JP 10-44577 A

  The present invention has been made to satisfy the above-mentioned demands. In particular, high-definition thin film printing is possible on the surface of a substrate using an ink having a low initial viscosity, and stable in continuous printing. An object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus and a printing method capable of printing.

  As a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 1 is a printing method in which ink is continuously printed in a high-definition and stable manner on a base material, and a step of quantitatively supplying ink from an ink supply source to anilox; A method of transferring ink from the anilox to the plate, a step of drying the ink on the plate to adjust the ink viscosity, and a step of transferring the ink from the plate to the target substrate. The initial ink viscosity is 10 mPa · s or less, the surface tension is 20 to 40 mN / m, and the ink viscosity after drying on the plate is 10 to 100 mPa · s. It is a printing method.

  The invention according to claim 2 is the printing method according to claim 1, wherein patterning is performed with a pattern size of 100 μm or less.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the step of supplying a quantity of ink from an ink supply source to the anilox, the step of transferring the ink from the anilox to the plate, the ink is dried on the plate, and the ink viscosity is adjusted. And a step of transferring the ink from the plate to the target substrate, wherein the initial ink viscosity for supplying the ink quantitatively from the ink supply source to the anilox is 10 mPa · s or less, and the surface tension is 20 to 40 mN / M, and the ink viscosity after drying on the plate is 10 to 100 mPa · s.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a printing apparatus and a printing method capable of continuously and stably performing high-definition printing under appropriate printing conditions.

It is a conceptual diagram of the printing process and apparatus in this invention. It is a conceptual diagram of the ink transfer evaluation system used for grasping | ascertaining the correlation of the ink transfer amount and the viscosity as described in the Example in this invention. It is a correlation measurement result of the transfer amount and the viscosity by the transfer evaluation system described in the examples.

  The present invention will be described based on examples. Here, flexographic printing will be described as an example, but the printing method is not limited to this.

<Example 1>
The printing process and apparatus shown in FIG. 1 will be described. The flexographic printing process has the following four stages.
(Step 1) The ink 6 is supplied from the ink supply source 2 to the anilox 1 and the liquid is quantified by the blade 3.
(Step 2) The ink 7 is transferred from the anilox 1 to the plate 4.
(Step 3) The ink 7 is dried on the plate 4 and adjusted so that the viscosity becomes 10 to 100 mPa · s.
(Step 4) Ink 7 is transferred from the plate 4 to the target substrate 5.

  In Step 1, since it is necessary to perform constant inking with a constant thickness, the ink has a viscosity of 10 mPa · s or less and a surface tension of 20 to 40 mN / m. The plate pattern size was adjusted to 50 μm, and the film thickness in step 4 was adjusted to 10 μm.

  In order to grasp the relationship between the viscosity and the transfer in Step 4 of FIG. 1, the amount of transferred ink with respect to the ink viscosity was examined using the ink transfer evaluation system shown in FIG.

The ink transfer evaluation system shown in FIG. 2 will be described.
A quantity of ink 14 is inked into the anilox 10 on the stage 13. The plate 9 attached to the lower surface of the stage 8 is moved up and down to transfer ink from the ink 14 on the anilox 10 to the lower surface of the plate 9. This transfer liquid amount is evaluated by high-speed camera photography.

  The result of the transfer amount is shown in FIG. The horizontal axis is the viscosity, and the vertical axis is the relative value of the amount transferred to the substrate. It has been found that the process is stable if the amount of transition is 0.97 or less. However, if the viscosity is 10 mPa · s or less, the process becomes unstable. Therefore, the stable viscosity range excluding 10 mPa · s or less when the relative transition amount is 0.97 or less is 10 to 100 mPa · s.

  The present invention relates to a technique for printing ink on the surface of a substrate, and has a process of appropriately adjusting the viscosity of ink when printing from a plate to a substrate, so that a high-definition pattern can be accurately formed. And can be applied to continuous and stable printing.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Anilox roll 2 ... Ink supply source 3 ... Blade 4 ... Plate 5 ... (Print object) Board | substrate 6 ... Ink 7 ... Ink

Claims (3)

In a printing method for continuously printing high-definition and stable ink on a substrate,
A step of supplying a quantity of ink from an ink supply source to Anilox;
Transferring ink from the anilox to the plate;
Drying the ink on the plate and adjusting the ink viscosity;
A printing method comprising a step of transferring ink from the plate to a target substrate,
The initial ink viscosity is 10 mPa · s or less, the surface tension is 20 to 40 mN / m, and the ink viscosity after drying on the plate is 10 to 100 mPa · s. How to print.   The printing method according to claim 1, wherein patterning is performed with a pattern size of 100 μm or less. A step of supplying a quantity of ink from an ink supply source to Anilox;
Transferring ink from the anilox to the plate;
Drying the ink on the plate and adjusting the ink viscosity;
A printing apparatus having a step of transferring ink from the plate to a target substrate,
The initial ink viscosity is 10 mPa · s or less, the surface tension is 20 to 40 mN / m, and the ink viscosity after drying on the plate is 10 to 100 mPa · s. Printing device to do.

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