JP2020055707A - Method for manufacturing glass product subjected to etching - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a method for manufacturing efficiently and stably a glass product having a fine and highly designable pattern formed by subjecting a glass product having a curved surface to etching.SOLUTION: The glass product having a curved surface to which a design by etching is applied is provided by a masking step of printing by impacting an anticorrosive ink on a surface of a glass base material by an inkjet head while rotating the glass base material at a predetermined speed, a curing step of curing the printed anticorrosive ink, an etching step of chemically etching a region not covered with the printed anticorrosive ink and a removing step of removing the printed anticorrosive ink.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to a glass product in which a glass substrate having a curved surface is etched with high definition and high designability by using printing by an inkjet method, and a method for manufacturing the same.

A technique of forming a frost-like selective pattern having a low transmittance and scattering light on the surface of a glass product to enhance the design property is generally used. There are techniques such as sand blast processing for frosting the glass product surface, and etching processing which is a scientific technique using ammonium hydrogen fluoride or the like.

Of these, in the etching process, a masking material having corrosion resistance to an etching solution such as ammonium hydrogen fluoride is selectively applied to the surface of the glass product, and then the etching solution is applied to the surface of the glass product, and finally the masking is performed. Generally, a method of performing a step of peeling off is used. Such a technique is also disclosed in Patent Document 1.

In the masking process of the etching process, a method of applying a masking material by ink jet printing has already been partially used in electronic applications for steel plates and in etching of name plates of metal plates. . In this regard, Patent Literature 2 discloses an etching method using ink-jet printing for glass products.

JP 2012-166994A JP 2015-527284A

In the prior art, the frost portion was formed by sand blasting or chemical treatment as described above, but in particular, it has a cylindrical or elliptical cross section, and is stably formed on a glass substrate surface having a complicated shape other than a plane. In order to add design by etching, cut and paste only the parts of the mask sheet that you do not want to be etched, or apply ink that will be a masking material by hand on the parts that you do not want to be etched. And it is necessary to take an excessive amount of man-hour.

In this regard, Patent Document 1 discloses an etching step including a masking step by screen printing on a glass product, and discloses, as an example therein, etching on a cylindrical glass bottle. However, according to the screen printing method disclosed in Patent Document 1, there are problems such as the necessity of creating a plate for each masking pattern and the inability to apply a fine design.

Patent Document 2 discloses a method of etching a glass sheet including a step of applying a masking material to a flat glass sheet (sheet glass) by an inkjet method. However, Patent Document 2 does not disclose a process of applying a masking material to a glass product having a shape other than a sheet glass such as a cylindrical shape and an elliptical shape, and also discloses specific conditions for suspending (printing) the masking material. Not disclosed.

The present invention solves the above problems, a method for producing a glass product having a curved surface on which a fine design pattern is applied by etching using inkjet printing, and a glass product obtained by this method. The purpose is to provide.

To solve the above problems, the following method is proposed.

That is, the present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a glass product in which a frost portion in which light is scattered by a low transmittance by etching a predetermined portion of a glass substrate having a curved surface is formed,
A masking step of landing and printing a corrosion-resistant ink by an inkjet head while rotating the glass base at a predetermined speed with respect to the glass base surface, a curing step of curing the printed corrosion-resistant ink, and the printing An etching step of chemically etching an area not covered with the corrosion-resistant ink, and a removing step of removing the printed corrosion-resistant ink.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that the corrosion resistant ink is an actinic ray curable ink, and the curing step is an irradiation step of irradiating the printed corrosion resistant ink with actinic rays.

Further, in the present invention, it is preferable that the irradiating step starts irradiating actinic light within 0.1 seconds or more and 4.0 seconds or less after the corrosion-resistant ink lands on the glass substrate in the masking step. It is characterized by including.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that in the masking step, droplets of the corrosion-resistant ink discharged from the inkjet head are 3 pl or more and 80 pl or less.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that the printed corrosion-resistant ink has a printing resolution of 100 dpi or more and 2880 dpi or less, and the average height of the printed corrosion-resistant ink is 2 μm or more and 30 μm or less.

Further, the present invention provides the above-mentioned corrosion-resistant ink, which has a viscosity of 5 Pa. s and 30 mPa.s. s or less and a surface tension at 25 ° C. of 20 mN / m or more and 40 mN / m or less.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that the masking step includes a step of inverting the image to be printed by the inkjet head in a negative-positive manner.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that the glass substrate having the curved surface has a cylindrical shape.

According to the present invention, it was possible to provide a glass product in which a glass substrate having a curved surface was subjected to high-definition etching using inkjet printing.

It is a figure explaining the process of masking and etching. FIG. 9 is a top view showing the results of masking and etching. It is a figure which shows the Example which performed the etching using the inkjet printing to the cylinder.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail while showing embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 1 schematically shows a state in which a masking material, which is an ink having corrosion resistance to an etching solution, is printed on a glass substrate, and a state in which the masking material is removed after etching.

First, the masking step will be described. Glass substrate 101. Is a shape having a curved surface. Although a cylindrical shape like a general glass bottle is assumed as an example, the cross section may be elliptical, and the shape is not limited as long as the glass substrate has a curved surface. Also, the color is not limited to colorless and transparent, and it is not limited to colored or so-called frosted glass treated to diffuse light by physically damaging the surface as long as it is a glass substrate. Glass substrate 101. Is supported by the inkjet printing apparatus so as to rotate at a predetermined speed in a predetermined direction. Then, the glass substrate 101. Is rotated at a predetermined speed to discharge the corrosion-resistant ink from the inkjet head, and the glass substrate 101. Corrosion resistant ink on the surface 103. To form a selective pattern. At this time, the corrosion-resistant ink 103. An image intended to be formed by etching, which is used when forming a pattern according to the present invention, is printed by inverting the negative / positive in advance and outputting the image to an inkjet head. Is an inverted pattern, the image finally formed on the glass substrate surface by etching can be an intended image.

The corrosion-resistant ink having corrosion resistance to the etchant used at this time must have an appropriate performance in view of the adhesion to glass, the releasability, the ease of deformation due to bleeding after printing, and the like. . s and 30 mPa.s. s or less, and it is desirable to use a corrosion-resistant ink having a surface tension at 25 ° C. of 20 mN / m or more and 40 mN / m or less. In addition, since the corrosion-resistant ink needs to be cured immediately after landing and printing on a glass base material and after appropriate leveling is performed, the ink is cured by irradiation with actinic rays such as UV. It is desirable that the ink be used.

In addition, in order to form a predetermined pattern with high precision by etching, under the masked portion on the surface of the glass substrate, while appropriately concealing to prevent an etchant described below from reaching, In order to ensure the fineness of the pattern, it is necessary to print the corrosion-resistant ink on the glass substrate surface, but if the amount of the corrosion-resistant ink to be printed is too small, the concealing property cannot be secured, and if it is too large, the ink is printed after printing. Since the fineness of the pattern cannot be ensured because the ink is deformed due to bleeding or the like, it is necessary to appropriately control the amount of the corrosion-resistant ink to be printed. Therefore, in order to appropriately control the amount of the corrosion resistant ink to be printed, the volume of the droplet of the corrosion resistant ink ejected from the inkjet head is set to 3 pl to 80 pl, the printing resolution is set to 100 dpi to 2880 dpi, and the printed corrosion resistance is set. It is desirable to set the average height of the ink to be 2 μm or more and 30 μm or less. These settings are appropriately adjusted according to conditions such as production tact and required pattern definition. These conditions are adjusted by changing the conditions of the ink jet head and the settings of the image to be printed.

Next, a curing step of curing the corrosion-resistant ink will be described. In the curing step, it is necessary to cure the corrosion-resistant ink printed by a predetermined method according to the characteristics of the ink.

It is desirable that the corrosion-resistant ink used is mainly an actinic ray-curable ink as described above.In this case, from the viewpoint of compatibility between the production tact and the appropriate wetting spread of the corrosion-resistant ink and the fineness of the pattern, It is necessary to cure by irradiating actinic rays such as UV at an appropriate timing after printing. Preferably, irradiation is performed within 0.1 seconds to 4.0 seconds after the corrosion resistant ink lands on the glass substrate. It is desirable to do. By setting this time, the above factors can be appropriately compatible. Further, it is assumed that UV to be irradiated has a wavelength of 365 nm or more and 395 nm or more.

When the corrosion-resistant ink is of a thermosetting type, it is cured by heating with infrared rays, warm air, a heat plate or the like.

Next, the etching step will be described. After completion of the curing step, a typical etching solution of ammonium hydrogen fluoride capable of etching glass is applied to the masked glass substrate surface, and chemical etching is performed. After waiting for a sufficient time for etching, a treatment for recovering the etching solution from the surface of the glass substrate is performed. Thus, an etching surface 105 is formed.

Finally, the step of removing the printed corrosion-resistant ink will be described. After the completion of the etching step, the corrosion-resistant ink is peeled off and removed by a method such as applying and dipping a substance having a function of peeling the corrosion-resistant ink such as sodium hydroxide, as shown in the peeling state 109 in FIG.

Through the above steps, it is possible to provide a glass product in which a glass substrate having a curved surface is subjected to high-definition etching using inkjet printing. FIG. 2 is an overall view showing the results of the masking and the etching. After the above steps, the glass substrate 101. A fine pattern can be formed thereon.

FIG. 3 shows one embodiment of the present invention. A pattern was formed on a glass bottle, which was a cylindrical glass substrate, by etching using the above process. This is merely an example, and does not limit the present invention.

101. Glass substrate 103. Corrosion resistant ink 105. Etching surface 109. Peeling situation

Claims (8)

In a method for manufacturing a glass product in which a frost portion in which light is scattered due to low transmittance by etching a predetermined portion of a glass substrate having a curved surface is formed,
A masking step of landing and printing a corrosion-resistant ink by an inkjet head while rotating the glass base at a predetermined speed with respect to the glass base surface, a curing step of curing the printed corrosion-resistant ink, and the printing A method of manufacturing a selectively etched glass product, comprising: an etching step of chemically etching a region not covered with the applied corrosion-resistant ink; and a removing step of removing the printed corrosion-resistant ink. 2. The method for producing a glass product according to claim 1, wherein the corrosion-resistant ink is an actinic ray-curable ink, and the curing step is an irradiation step of irradiating the printed corrosion-resistant ink with actinic light. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the irradiating step includes starting irradiation of actinic light within 0.1 seconds or more and 4.0 seconds or less after the corrosion-resistant ink lands on the glass substrate in the masking step. A method for producing the glass product described in the above. 4. The method of manufacturing a glass product according to claim 1, wherein, in the masking step, a volume of the droplet of the corrosion-resistant ink discharged from the inkjet head is 3 pl or more and 80 pl or less. 5. The printing resolution of the printed corrosion-resistant ink is 100 dpi or more and 2880 dpi or less, and the average height of the printed corrosion-resistant ink is 2 μm or more and 30 μm or less, according to any one of claims 1 to 4. A method for producing the glass product described in the above. The corrosion-resistant ink has a viscosity of 5 Pa. s and 30 mPa.s. The method for producing a glass product according to any one of claims 1 to 5, which has a surface tension of not more than 20 mN / m and not more than 40 mN / m at 25 ° C. The method of manufacturing a glass product according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the masking step includes a step of reversing a negative-positive image to be printed by the inkjet head. The method for producing a glass product according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the glass substrate having the curved surface has a cylindrical shape.