JP5192126B2 - Printing apparatus and printing method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method.

  A printing method has been proposed as a method for forming a flat panel display pattern such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasma display (PDP), or an EL (Electro Luminescence) display on a flat glass substrate or ceramic substrate.

Patent Document 1 discloses an offset printing method for a color filter used in a liquid crystal display.
The document includes a plate carriage for transferring a plurality of plates arranged in the transfer direction, a blanket cylinder provided with a plurality of blankets corresponding to each plate in the circumferential direction, and a glass surface plate carriage for transferring a glass substrate. , A printing device is shown. In this printing apparatus, the plate carriage is moved below the blanket cylinder, and the pattern of each plate is sequentially transferred to each blanket arranged in the circumferential direction of the blanket cylinder.
When a pattern is transferred from the blanket cylinder to the glass substrate, the glass surface plate carriage moves below the blanket cylinder and receives the pattern from one blanket while being translated according to the rotation of the blanket cylinder. Thereafter, the glass surface plate carriage returns to the transfer start position again, and receives a pattern from the next blanket while being translated in the same manner. In this way, the glass surface plate carriage reciprocates by the number of plates in order to receive a pattern from each blanket.

JP-A-5-169626 (FIG. 1)

However, in the printing apparatus shown in the same document, when transferring the pattern to the blanket cylinder, it is necessary to move the plate carriage so that all the plates pass under the blanket cylinder. It gets bigger.
Further, the glass surface plate carriage needs to reciprocate by the number of blankets in order to receive a pattern from each blanket.
From the above, the printing apparatus described in the document has a problem that the printing time (tact time) becomes long.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and provides a printing apparatus and a printing method capable of performing printing in a short time even in a printing apparatus using a plurality of plates. Objective.

In order to solve the above problems, the printing apparatus and printing method of the present invention employ the following means.
That is, a printing apparatus according to the present invention supports a platen platen on which a plate is placed in a state where a plurality of platen plates are arranged in the transfer direction, and transfers the platen platen so that the platen plate can reciprocate; And a work surface plate carriage for reciprocally moving the work surface plate placed thereon in the transfer direction, and a plurality of work surface plates installed in parallel in the transfer direction and corresponding to the plates. A plate transfer end position at which the plate transfer ends from a plate transfer start position before the plate surface carriage is transferred between the plate and the blanket cylinder. Transfer between each plate and each corresponding blanket cylinder while moving to the workpiece, and the workpiece transfer before the work platen carriage transfers the design from each blanket cylinder to the substrate. From the start position, the work where the image transfer ends. While moving to the transfer end position, characterized in that the transfer to the printing material from each said blanket cylinder is sequentially performed.

While the platen carriage is moved from the plate transfer start position to the plate transfer end position, plate transfer is simultaneously performed between each plate and each blanket cylinder. Therefore, the movement distance of the platen surface cart is only a distance corresponding to one plate. Therefore, the plate transfer time between the plate and the blanket can be shortened.
The transfer to the printing material is sequentially performed between each blanket cylinder and the printing material while the work surface carriage moves from the work transfer start position to the work transfer end position. Thus, since the work surface plate carriage does not reciprocate like the printing apparatus shown in Patent Document 1, the transfer time from the blanket cylinder to the substrate can be shortened.

Furthermore, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention, the position detection of the platen surface carriage of the present invention and the position detection of the work surface plate carriage are performed using an incremental linear encoder that reads a linear scale, Position detection at the plate transfer start position of the plate surface plate carriage and position detection at the work transfer start position of the work surface plate carriage use a common origin, and the plate surface plate carriage from the common origin and The traveling position of the work surface plate carriage is grasped using the incremental linear encoder .

Since the common origin is used for the position detection in the transfer direction at the plate transfer start position of the platen surface carriage and the position detection in the transfer direction at the work transfer start position of the work platen carriage, the platen plate carriage and The position accuracy of the work surface plate can be made uniform. Therefore, the positional accuracy of the transferred pattern is improved.
Since an incremental linear scale is used as means for detecting the position of each carriage in the phase direction, it is difficult to expect absolute position accuracy. Therefore , detection of the absolute position using such a common origin is particularly effective. In particular, when a long tape type is used as the linear scale, it is effective because the accumulated pitch from the origin cannot be expected to match the absolute position accuracy due to the expansion and contraction.

Further, the printing method of the present invention supports a platen platen on which plates are placed in a state where a plurality of platen plates are arranged in the transfer direction, and a platen platen carriage for reciprocally moving these platen platens and a substrate to be printed. A work surface plate carriage that removably moves the work surface plate placed in the transfer direction, and a plurality of blankets that are installed in parallel in the transfer direction and are provided corresponding to the plates. comprising a cylinder, a, between the plate surface plate truck, to move from the plate transfer start position prior to the transfer between the plate and the blanket cylinder, to the plate transfer end position the plate transfer is completed, the Transfer is performed between the plate and each corresponding blanket cylinder at the same time, and the work surface plate is transferred from the workpiece transfer start position before transferring the pattern from each blanket cylinder to the substrate. While moving to the workpiece transfer end position , From said each of said blanket cylinder and a printing method in which the transfer to the substrate are sequentially performed, the position detection of the plate surface plate carriage, and the position detection of the workpiece surface plate carriage, incremental linear reading the linear scale The position detection at the plate transfer start position of the platen surface carriage and the position detection at the work transfer start position of the workpiece surface plate carriage is performed using an encoder, and the common origin is used. The traveling position of the plate surface plate carriage and the work surface plate carriage is grasped by using the increment type linear encoder .

While the platen carriage is moved from the plate transfer start position to the plate transfer end position, plate transfer is simultaneously performed between each plate and each blanket cylinder. Therefore, the movement distance of the platen surface cart is only a distance corresponding to one plate. Therefore, the plate transfer time from the plate to the blanket can be shortened.
The transfer to the printing material is sequentially performed between each blanket cylinder and the printing material while the work surface carriage moves from the work transfer start position to the work transfer end position. Thus, since the work surface plate carriage does not reciprocate like the printing apparatus shown in Patent Document 1, the transfer time from the blanket cylinder to the substrate can be shortened.

Since the plate surface plate carriage performs transfer between each plate and each blanket cylinder at the same time, and the work surface plate carriage sequentially transfers between each blanket cylinder and the substrate, the printing time (tact time) In addition, since the origin position detection of the platen base plate carriage and the work surface base carriage is made common, the position of each carriage can be accurately aligned and the transfer accuracy of the picture can be improved. it can.

Embodiments according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1A shows a side view of a printing apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. The printing apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is a flatbed printing apparatus that prints color filters of a liquid crystal display.
The printing apparatus 1 includes a platen table carriage 5 that transfers a plurality of platen plates 9 and a glass platen carriage (work platen carriage) 7 that transfers a glass substrate. These carriages 5 and 7 reciprocate in the printing direction (left-right direction in the figure) within the gantry 3.

On the platen surface cart 5, four platen surface plates 9a, b, c, and d (hereinafter, the reference numeral 9 may be simply used when referring to the platen surface plate) are installed. Each platen 9a, b, c, d corresponds to each color of BK (black), R (red), G (green) and B (blue). The platen plates 9a, 9b, 9c, 9d are flat plates, and a relief plate serving as a printing plate is placed on the platen platen. The relief plate is positioned according to the marker formed on the plate surface plate 9. On the surface of the letterpress, an inverted pattern is formed by inverting the desired pattern finally obtained. As will be described later, the ink is removed from the blanket of the blanket cylinder 13 on which ink has been applied to the entire surface by the convex portions formed in accordance with the reverse pattern.
Here, the “inverted pattern” means a pattern obtained by inverting the positive / negative with respect to the pattern printed on the glass substrate, and the left / right or top / bottom (printing direction) of the pattern printed on the glass substrate. It does not mean a picture with the direction reversed.

The platen carriage 5 reciprocates between a plate cleaning position A, a plate transfer start position B, and a plate transfer end position C from the left in FIG. In addition, each code | symbol A, B, C is shown on the basis of the lower left position in the figure of the platen surface cart 5.
An origin detection sensor 20 for detecting an origin 19 fixed on the gantry 3 side at the plate transfer start position B is provided on the side of the platen surface carriage 5. The origin detection sensor 20 and the origin 19 are of a limit switch type, for example.

A glass surface plate (work surface plate) 11 is installed on the glass surface plate carriage 7, and a glass substrate (substrate) is placed on the glass surface plate 11. The glass substrate is positioned according to a marker previously formed on the glass surface plate 11.
From the right side of the drawing, the glass surface plate carriage 7 is located between the glass substrate installation exchange position A ′, the glass transfer end position (work transfer end position) C ′, and the glass transfer start position (work transfer start position) B ′. Reciprocates. In addition, each code | symbol A ', B', C 'is shown on the basis of the lower left position in the figure of the glass surface plate carriage 7. FIG.
An origin detection sensor 22 for detecting an origin 19 fixed on the gantry 3 side is provided at the side of the glass surface plate carriage 7 at the glass transfer start position B ′. The origin detection sensor 22 and the origin 19 are, for example, limit switch type.

In the approximate center of the printing apparatus 1, four blanket cylinders 13a, b, c, and d (hereinafter, sometimes referred to simply as reference numeral 13 when referring to the blanket cylinder) are arranged in the printing direction (transfer direction). It is provided in the state. The platen platen 9 and the glass platen 11 pass below the blanket cylinder 13.
Each blanket cylinder 13a, b, c, d corresponds to the platen platen 9a, b, c, d, respectively. That is, the first blanket cylinder 13a is the first platen 9a, the second blanket cylinder 13b is the second platen 9b, the third blanket cylinder 13c is the third platen 9c, and the fourth blanket cylinder 13d is It corresponds to the fourth edition surface plate 9d.

  On the sides of each blanket cylinder 13a, b, c, d, coating devices 15a, b, c, d are provided, respectively. The coating devices 15a, b, c, and d are devices that supply BK (black), R (red), G (green), and B (blue) inks, respectively. The ink supplied from the coating device 15 is applied to the entire blanket wound around the blanket cylinder 13.

  On the left side of the printing apparatus 1, a plate cleaning device 17 for cleaning the plate surface plate 9 is provided. By this plate cleaning device 17, the ink on the relief plate corresponding to the reverse pattern received from the blanket cylinder 13 is removed.

2 to 4 show a method of driving the glass surface plate carriage 7. The platen surface cart 5 is also driven in the same manner. Therefore, description of the driving method of the platen surface cart 5 is omitted.
As shown in FIG. 2, the frame 3 is provided with two rails 30 along the longitudinal direction (printing direction) of the frame 3.
A recess 32 is formed in the central portion of the gantry 3 located between the rails 30 in the printing direction (see, for example, FIG. 3), and a plurality of magnets 34 are installed in the recess 32. The magnets 34 are, for example, permanent magnets, and are arranged so as to alternately have opposite magnetic fields in the printing direction.

A linear scale 36 is provided on the outer side of the rail 30 along the printing direction (see, for example, FIG. 4). The linear scale 36 is fixed to the gantry 3, and a scale having a large number of line segments orthogonal to the printing direction is formed on the upper surface thereof.
The linear scale 36 is a long tape and is provided by affixing this tape on the gantry 3.
The linear scale 36 is also used as a scale for the platen carriage 5 and is a common scale. This prevents errors due to scale.

Below the glass surface plate carriage 7, sliders 40 that slide on the rails 30 are provided at the four corners. A linear motor 42 is provided in the center of the lower surface of the glass surface plate carriage 7. The linear motor 42 is configured so that an alternating magnetic field is formed by a control unit (not shown), and a driving force in the printing direction using an attractive force and a repulsive force formed with the magnet 34 fixed to the gantry 3 side. Is what you get.
A linear sensor 44 that reads a line segment formed on the linear scale 36 is provided on the side wall of the glass surface plate carriage 7 (see, for example, FIG. 3).

The glass surface plate carriage 7 having the above-described configuration operates as follows.
The magnetic field of the linear motor 42 is switched by a control unit (not shown). As a result, an attractive force and a repulsive force are generated between the magnet 34 installed on the gantry 3 side and a driving force is generated in the longitudinal direction of the gantry 3. With this driving force, the glass surface plate carriage 7 travels on the rail 30 via the slider 40. The glass platen carriage 7 can reciprocate by the alternating magnetic field switching pattern applied to the linear motor 42 by the control unit.

  The traveling position of the glass surface plate carriage 7 is grasped by the linear scale 36 and the linear sensor 44. The linear scale 36 and the linear sensor 44 are incremental linear encoders. Therefore, the relative position can be detected accurately, but especially in the case of a long linear scale, it is easy to expand and contract, so the cumulative pitch from the origin cannot be expected to match the absolute accuracy. It is difficult to accurately detect. Therefore, the glass surface plate carriage 7 is provided with an origin detection sensor 22 in order to reduce an error between colors, and this origin detection sensor 22 detects the origin 19 fixed to the gantry 3, Even if there is an error due to the distortion of the linear scale 36, there is no positional deviation between the relative positions of the surface plates and the cylinders, so that a reference for the absolute position can be obtained.

  The platen surface carriage 5 is also driven by a linear motor in the same manner as the glass surface plate carriage 7, and the traveling position is detected by reading a common linear scale 36. Moreover, the point which detects the origin 19 by the origin detection sensor 20 (refer Fig.1 (a)) is the same as that of the glass surface plate carriage 7. FIG.

Next, the printing process by the printing apparatus 1 will be described with reference to FIG. The position in the horizontal direction in FIG. 1B matches the position in the horizontal direction in FIG.
When printing is started, first, ink of each color is applied to the blanket of each blanket cylinder 13 by the coating device 15.
The platen carriage 5 located at the plate cleaning position A moves to the plate transfer start position B. At this time, the relief plate on each plate surface plate 9 is washed by the plate washing device 17 and the ink is removed. While the platen surface cart 5 is running, the linear sensor (not shown) provided on the platen surface cart 5 reads the scale of the linear scale 36 as described with reference to FIGS. The travel position of the surface plate carriage 5 is grasped.

  When the platen surface carriage 5 reaches the plate transfer start position B, the leading edge of the relief plate on each platen surface plate 9 is positioned immediately below the corresponding blanket cylinder 13 (that is, immediately before the nip position). FIG. 1 (a) shows this state. At the plate transfer start position B, the origin 19 is detected by the origin detection sensor 20, and the absolute position of the plate surface carriage 5 in the printing direction is determined.

After the origin position is detected, the platen carriage 5 moves to the plate transfer end position C. At this time, the inverted pattern is transferred from the blanket wound around the blanket cylinder 13 to the relief plate on the platen plate 9 (plate transfer). In this way, the reverse pattern is removed from the blanket of each blanket cylinder 13 only by moving the platen surface cart 5 by the length of the printing direction (vertical direction) corresponding to one relief plate.
The platen carriage 5 advances in the reverse direction (leftward in FIG. 1) and returns to the plate cleaning position A. At this plate washing position A, the ink corresponding to the reverse pattern transferred to the relief plate on each plate surface plate 9 is removed.

  On the other hand, the glass surface plate carriage 7 waits at the glass substrate installation replacement position A ′ while the plate surface plate carriage 5 moves from the plate cleaning position A to the plate transfer start position B and the plate transfer end position C. doing. During this period, the printed glass substrate is removed, and the glass substrate to be printed next is placed on the glass surface plate 11.

  At the same time that the platen surface carriage 5 returns from the plate transfer end position C to the plate cleaning position A, the glass surface plate carriage 7 moves from the glass substrate installation replacement position A ′ to the glass transfer start position B ′. While the glass surface plate carriage 7 is traveling, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the linear sensor 44 reads the scale of the linear scale 36 so that the traveling position of the glass surface plate carriage 7 is grasped. ing.

  When the glass platen carriage 7 reaches the glass transfer start position B ′, the tip of the glass substrate on each glass platen 11 is directly below the blanket cylinder 13a for BK ink located at the leftmost position in the drawing (that is, the nip position). Just before). At the glass transfer start position B ′, the origin 19 is detected by the origin detection sensor 22, and the absolute position of the glass platen carriage 7 in the printing direction is determined. The origin 19 used here is the same as that of the platen surface cart 5.

  After the origin position is detected, the glass surface plate carriage 7 moves to the glass transfer end position C ′. At this time, the pattern left on the blanket wound around each blanket cylinder 13 is transferred to the glass substrate on the glass surface plate 11 (glass substrate transfer). In this way, during the series of operations in which the glass surface plate carriage 7 continuously moves in one direction from the glass transfer start position B ′ to the glass transfer end position C ′, the four blanket cylinders 13a, b, c, d. The images are sequentially superimposed and transferred onto the glass substrate.

Then, the glass surface plate carriage 7 returns to the glass substrate installation replacement position A ′. At this glass substrate installation / replacement position A ′, the glass substrate after printing is removed from the glass surface plate 11, and the next new glass substrate is installed on the glass surface plate 11.
Through the above steps, printing on one glass substrate is completed.

As described above, according to the printing apparatus 1 and the printing method according to the present embodiment, the following operational effects can be obtained.
While the platen carriage 5 moves from the plate transfer start position B to the plate transfer end position C, plate transfer is simultaneously performed between the convex plate on each plate surface plate 9 and each blanket cylinder 13. Therefore, the movement distance of the platen surface cart is only a distance corresponding to one relief plate. Therefore, it is possible to shorten the plate transfer time between the relief plate and the blanket.

  The transfer to the glass substrate is sequentially performed between each blanket cylinder 13 and the glass substrate while the glass surface plate carriage 7 moves from the glass transfer start position B ′ to the glass transfer end position C ′. As described above, since the pattern transfer is performed by the glass surface plate carriage 7 performing a series of operations in one direction, as compared with the case where the workpiece surface plate carriage reciprocates as in the printing apparatus shown in Patent Document 1. The transfer time from the blanket cylinder 13 to the glass substrate can be shortened.

  The common origin 19 is used for the origin position detection at the plate transfer start position B of the plate surface carriage 5 and the origin position detection at the glass transfer start position B ′ of the glass surface plate carriage 7. The positional accuracy of the cart 5 and the glass surface plate cart 7 can be made uniform. Therefore, it is possible to improve the position accuracy of the transferred pattern. In particular, an incremental linear scale 36 is used as a means for detecting the traveling position of each of the carriages 5 and 7, and when a long tape is used, the accumulated pitch from the origin is determined by the expansion and contraction of the absolute position accuracy. Therefore, the absolute position detection using the common origin is particularly effective.

In the present embodiment, the color fill printing of the liquid crystal display is shown as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this.
In the present embodiment, the patterns are sequentially applied from the four blanket cylinders 13a, b, c, d corresponding to BK (black), R (red), G (green) and B (blue) to the glass substrate. Although it was supposed to be transferred and printed on top of each other, the glass substrates were sequentially formed using three blanket cylinders corresponding to R (red), G (green), and B (blue) on a glass substrate on which BK was previously formed. You may make it transcribe | transfer upward.
Further, as a method for detecting the origin 19, a common origin may be used, and the origin 19 is limited to being positioned immediately below the transfer start positions B and B 'as shown in FIG. is not. That is, it is only necessary that the origin is set at a position where the origin detection sensor 20 of the platen surface cart 5 and the origin detection sensor 22 of the glass surface plate carriage 7 can read.
Moreover, although reverse printing was demonstrated, this invention is not limited to this. For example, it can be applied to gravure offset printing.

1A and 1B show a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1A is a side view, and FIG. It is the perspective view which showed the drive method of the glass surface plate carriage. It is the cross-sectional view which showed the III-III cross section of FIG. It is the perspective view which showed the state in which the linear scale was provided in the side of the rail.

Explanation of symbols

1 Printing device 5 Plate surface plate carriage 7 Glass surface plate carriage (work surface plate carriage)
9a, b, c, d Plate surface plate 13a, b, c, d Blanket cylinder B Plate transfer start position C Plate transfer end position B 'Glass transfer start position (work transfer start position)
C 'Glass transfer end position (work transfer end position)

Claims (2)

A platen table carriage that supports a plurality of platen plates on which plates are placed in the transfer direction, and transfers these platen plates so that they can reciprocate;
A work surface plate carriage for reversibly moving the work surface plate on which the substrate is placed in the transfer direction;
A plurality of blanket cylinders installed in parallel in the transfer direction and provided corresponding to each of the plates;
While the platen carriage moves from the plate transfer start position before transfer between the plate and the blanket cylinder to the plate transfer end position where plate transfer ends, each plate corresponds to the plate Transfer between each blanket cylinder at the same time,
While the workpiece surface plate carriage moves from the workpiece transfer start position before transferring the pattern from each blanket cylinder to the substrate to be transferred to the workpiece transfer end position where the pattern transfer ends, the blanket cylinder moves from the blanket cylinder. A printing apparatus in which transfer to a substrate is sequentially performed,
The position detection of the platen surface carriage and the position detection of the work surface plate carriage are performed using an incremental linear encoder that reads a linear scale,
The position detection at the plate transfer start position of the plate surface carriage and the position detection at the work transfer start position of the work surface plate carriage use a common origin ,
The printing apparatus characterized in that the incremental linear encoder is used to grasp the travel positions of the platen surface cart and the workpiece surface plate from the common origin . A platen table carriage that supports a plurality of platen plates on which plates are placed in the transfer direction, and transfers these platen plates so that they can reciprocate;
A work surface plate carriage for reversibly moving the work surface plate on which the substrate is placed in the transfer direction;
A plurality of blanket cylinders installed in parallel in the transfer direction and provided corresponding to each of the plates;
While the platen carriage moves from the plate transfer start position before transfer between the plate and the blanket cylinder to the plate transfer end position where plate transfer ends, each plate corresponds to the plate Transfer between each blanket cylinder at the same time,
While the workpiece surface plate carriage moves from the workpiece transfer start position before transferring the pattern from each blanket cylinder to the substrate to be transferred to the workpiece transfer end position where the pattern transfer ends, the blanket cylinder moves from the blanket cylinder. A printing method in which transfer to a substrate is sequentially performed,
The position detection of the platen surface carriage and the position detection of the work surface plate carriage are performed using an incremental linear encoder that reads a linear scale,
The position detection at the plate transfer start position of the plate surface carriage and the position detection at the work transfer start position of the work surface plate carriage use a common origin ,
A printing method , wherein the traveling positions of the platen surface cart and the workpiece surface plater from the common origin are grasped using the incremental linear encoder .

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