JPH03147883A - Electronic copying on aluminum using anodic oxidation membrane - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To permit an easy reproduction of various natural colors on aluminum and contrive the expansion of a field of application by a method wherein a transparent anodic oxidation membrane is preformed over the entire surface of aluminum or aluminum alloy plate or foil and printing is performed in combination with an electronic copying machine of a single or multiple color ink jet type or sublime thermal transfer type. CONSTITUTION:The pattern of original color is prepared by reproducing an original picture or text and stored in a memory device. A preconditioned alumite plate is set into a multicolor electronic copying machine. This copying machine is capable of producing an image of the various colors printed within an expressible tonal range of the machine by performing successive scannings for the coloring purposes, while spraying against or sublimely printing on a membranous surface of the alumite a color dot using the inks of four different colors, i.e. black, yellow, magenta and cyan as in the case of normal electronic copying machine. The colored aluminum plate is removed from the copying machine, tiny pores in an anodic oxidation membrane are sealed and dye in the ink is fixed in the membrane, thus bringing a printing process to an end.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] This Bimei is capable of printing multicolored characters, graphic patterns, etc. on the anodized surface of an aluminum alloy plate without the need for complicated processes such as plate making or printing. This is a method for dyeing and drawing directly and instantly using a copying machine. Products copied using this method have the dye fixed inside the anodic oxide film (hereinafter referred to as the alumite film), similar to the conventional alumite dyeing method, so instead of copying onto paper using a conventional color electronic copying machine, it is possible to dye the product using metal. It is now possible to make color copies on boards or foils, etc., making it easy to produce products with a luxurious feel and excellent durability when used as reproductions of photographs, paintings, etc. for viewing purposes or as interior decoration items, and also for industrial use. As a practical application, multi-colored alumite nameplates can be manufactured inside the cylinder, so it can easily be used for display boards, dials, nameplates, etc. for various devices, prototype production, and semi-production.

[Prior Art] When using conventional color electronic copying machines, the materials to be copied are mostly limited to paper and specially treated transparent pufstik, and in addition to these, cloth is rarely used. This is because the surface of materials such as metal or plastic cannot absorb and fix ink, and even if a subbing coating is applied to the surface in advance to compensate for this, the strength of the ink film printed by a copying machine is insufficient. However, it could not be put to practical use as a color print product, except for printing on specially treated film for O-openings, which does not require much durability.

On the other hand, conventional alumite coatings dyed in multiple colors have been widely used for decoration in household goods and industrial applications such as name plates, etc. When dyeing them, two methods have been used. One of them is the coating method, typified by the photo printing method, and the other is the direct printing method. The former involves coating a photoresist film on an unsealed alumite film, overlaying a negative film of the color-separated image on it, exposing it to light, developing it, and washing off the unexposed areas.
The exposed part of the alumite film is dyed in a predetermined color and this process is repeated as many times as the number of colors.

Next, in the latter direct printing method, the image is color-separated, screen-printed for each color, ink containing dye of the desired color is screen-printed directly onto the alumite surface, and only the dye is adsorbed to the alumite film for dyeing. This method is repeated for the number of colors.

Although the resolution of this method is somewhat lower than that of the photo printing method, the process is relatively simple, and it is suitable for mass production and is applied to the production of name plates, etc.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] As described above, direct printing on a metal surface using an electronic color electronic copying machine is rarely practiced because durability cannot be expected. On the other hand, the multicolor dyeing method for alumite coatings and the products thereof, which have been conventionally carried out industrially, also have several drawbacks as described below.

1) Plate making is required for masking the alumite film on the non-colored parts of the screen or for direct printing with a screen printing machine, and this plate is required for the number of separated colors, and even if the plate making work itself can be automated, the steps before and after it are difficult. Since most of the processes involve manual work that is difficult to automate, a considerable amount of time and cost is required for plate making, and if the number of identical screens produced is small, the ratio of plate making costs to the cost of the product increases significantly.

2) The number of times that multicolor dyeing can be repeated on an alumite film by photo printing is about 3 times.

Beyond this point, the natural sealing of the film progresses and it becomes difficult to adsorb dyes, so there is a limit to perfect color reproduction.

Therefore, reproduction of a multicolored original painting has difficulty in reproducibility and tends to result in a flat expression, and in particular, it has been difficult to stably express a variety of intermediate colors through color mixing.

3) In the conventional alumite dyeing method, the dyeing process for a certain color involves dipping in water-based dyes, using a roller or spraying oil-based dyes, etc.
Printing and brush painting are the methods, and therefore each designated color is usually expressed with the same tone and density. It is possible to add gradations to the tones of these colors or change the density for each part of the image, but this requires a considerable amount of work for plate making and dyeing, and it also takes a lot of time to set the dyeing conditions. It is necessary to adjust many elements in order to produce images, and there is a natural limit to the reproduction range, and it is difficult to obtain uniformity of dyeing when producing in large quantities.The present invention improves the durability of images and the transparency of colors. By combining the well-established dyeing method for alumite film with electronic copying machines, the above-mentioned drawbacks have been solved, and this has opened up new fields of use for electronic copying machines. For Alumite Staining Techniques I, r! This makes it possible to significantly reduce the cost of A-products. In particular, it has become possible to easily reproduce a wide variety of natural colors on aluminum, which was previously difficult to do, and it has become possible to greatly expand the field of use by supporting both industrial and craft applications. Become.

C Means for Solving the Problem 1 To achieve the above purpose, methods such as an inkjet printer and a sublimation thermal transfer printer are used as operating principles that can be applied to printing directly on the alumite film on the back of a color electronic copying machine. The main mechanical parts of these FJL devices were repurposed as they were, and the metal plate of the T411 body was attached directly to the I device, which was attached to a main body with a structure that allowed for operation and control.This and the original image were electronically transferred. We have developed a method for direct printing onto an alumite film formed on the surface of an aluminum metal plate or foil, using a color scanner attached to the copying machine that separates the colors and sends them as input signals to the dyeing section. In this printing process, in order to obtain an alumite film dyed result with the same durability as the conventional alumite dyeing method, it is necessary to use ink or ink ribbon containing dye t1 exclusively for alumite, but the specifications thereof are as follows. This will be explained later.

[Operation 1] First, the electronic copying method for an alumite film according to the present application will be explained in terms of the process flow with reference to FIG.

The aluminum material has a low content of silicon, etc., and therefore has good alumite properties, and the alumite film is colorless and transparent, such as a board made of pongee aluminum material such as JIS-1050, 1070, or 1080, or sake.

After cutting the material to a predetermined size, it is pretreated to remove scratches and smooth by mechanical methods or chemical polishing depending on the surface condition, and then an alumite film is applied for 10 to 30 minutes using a conventionally known method such as a sulfuric acid method. It is formed to a thickness of 30 um and washed with water and dried with the pores left unsealed.

As a separate process, we prepare original drawings such as illustrations and color photographs that express shapes and patterns on paper in primary colors, or primary color originals that are reproduced from the originals, load them into the attached color scanner, and separate the colors into the dyeing mechanism. It is converted into data for control and then stored in a memory device such as an IC memory or a magnetic disk or tape. In this case, in order to use the copier as a printer, it is possible to input external signals.
In addition to data from original drawings damaged by paper, electrical signals such as digital images and computer graphics images can be stored and used as input data via a converter. Next, the previously prepared alumite plate is attached to the electronic copying machine to begin the electronic copying process.As a multicolor electronic copying machine, the main functional parts of an inkjet printer or a dye-sublimation thermal transfer printer are used as is, and aluminum is used for this. Equipped with a mechanical part that has been modified so that plates can be attached.

For coloring, it uses a subtractive color system that uses the same four colors as regular electronic copying machines: black, yellow, magenta, and cyan. 6 dots of color tod using these 4 colors of ink
/11111 By sequentially scanning the surface of the aluminium 1-layer coating while performing spraying or sublimation printing, etc., the copying machine produces seven colors colored according to the gradation level that can be expressed. Images can be expressed in a wide variety of colors, up to 2,000 colors or more. In the alumite film that has been colored, the dye is adsorbed in the electron microscopic microscopic bores that make up the alumite film, so the aluminum plate is removed from the copying machine, and the microscopic bores in the anodized film are punctured.
The printing process is completed by fixing the dye in the ink within the film.

[Example J] Hereinafter, examples of combinations of color copying mechanisms in Komei's method and specifications of the special ink used will be described.

First, as an example of when an inkjet mechanism copying machine is used in a process, Figure 2 is a conceptual diagram of the structure and operation when a 000 (drop-on-demand) bubble jet printer head with multiple nozzles is used. . 1 in the figure is an inkjet head that integrates a total of 128 nozzles for four colors, and a head carrier 2 is equipped with this. Reference numeral 4 is a pulse motor and encoder for main scanning, which moves and positions the head carrier V- in the left-right direction.

The vacuum suction parts carrier 5 to which the aluminum material plate or foil is attached is equipped with a sub-scanning pulse motor and encoder 6.
It is driven and positioned in the vertical direction. The aluminum cable material 7 on which the alumite film has been formed is attached to a predetermined position on the parts carrier 5, and the material blocks the air flow sucked from the countless vacuum suction air hole rows 8 formed in the parts carrier. The vacuum generated by the process attracts and holds the material. The head carrier 2 can reciprocate from side to side for scanning positioning in both directions, but if both reciprocations are used for inkjet jetting, the order of overlapping colors is constantly reversed, which tends to cause color unevenness. is used to inject the jet and do not inject in the opposite direction. In principle, the 000 type head cannot deflect the ink droplets after ejection, but the head shown in the figure has multiple nozzles, so it is possible to deflect 32 dots (
At 8 dots/am, it is possible to print a width of approximately 4 ml (1 liter) in one scan. Machines with one color and one nozzle, such as those often seen in simple color copying machines, often use a method in which the copying material is wound around a drum and rotated at several hundred rpm for high-speed main scanning. It cannot be used in this process, which requires a rigid aluminum material to be installed within the device body, and therefore it takes an unusually long time to print a single alumite image, making it impractical. Therefore, it is necessary to select a multi-nozzle DOD system, or to adopt a continuous jet system, which is another type of inkjet printing mechanism, and to control the deflection of the inkjet after ejection using electromagnetic force. However, if the material is extremely thin, such as aluminum foil, it can be wrapped around a drum like paper. This means that even a small modification of the copying machine can be put to practical use.

Next, the principle of operation when using a sublimation thermal transfer type color copying machine will be explained. In FIG. 3(a), a heating resistor element 1 is mounted on an alumina substrate 10 constituting a thermal head 9.
2 are arranged in a straight line with 4 to 6 pieces per 1111 m. The power and time of energization of these resistors are independently controlled according to the color and density of the image to be dyed. The thermal head is equipped with an aluminum heat sink 11 to prevent the overall temperature from rising gradually due to repeated energization, and the temperature of this portion is detected to adjust the head heating temperature. The color ink ribbon 13 is made by coating a base film 15 made of synthetic resin with a thickness of several μm and covered with a heat-resistant layer 14 on the outer surface with a sublimable ink 17 containing a dye specifically for dyeing alumite through a binder 16. It is. A colorless and transparent alumite film 18 is formed on the surface of the aluminum material plate 19 which is wound around a drum 20 and pressed by a thermal head 9 via an ink ribbon 13 as shown in Fig. 1. has been done. The ink sublimated by the heat generated by the current flowing through the thermal head is absorbed into the fine bores of the alumite film that it comes into contact with, and is dyed. The ink ribbon and the aluminum material are moved one step relative to the thermal head while in contact with each other, and the same operation is repeated, resulting in a recorded image portion 21 having gradation. Once the entire image has been scanned for one color, the color of the ink ribbon is changed and the same operation is repeated for four colors to complete the color image. The thermal head needs to effectively transfer the heat from the heating resistor to the ink ribbon and sublimate it.
Because of the concentration of heat, it is necessary to make point contact at the heating resistor element and to apply pressure above a certain level.The easiest and most reliable way to do this is to wrap the material around a drum and keep it in contact with the head row. Therefore, when using an aluminum material such as a thin plate or bamboo, the structure shown in FIG. The roller 22 is structured as shown in figure (b).
The essence of this is to use a special machine equipped with a mechanism (not shown) that drives and positions the material and ink ribbon together in the horizontal direction.

Next, the specifications and selection of dyeing ink will be explained. The dyes used to dye the alumite film include oil-soluble dye fH1 and water-soluble dyes.Usually, water-soluble dyes are used when dip-dying the entire film, and oil-soluble dyes are used to dye the masked pattern. . This is because gelatin, which is the main material of the photosensitive emulsion, and commercially available synthetic resins for resists are hydrophilic, allowing water-based dyes to penetrate through them and preventing color separation. Since the process of the present invention does not use a resist for coloring, either water-based or oil-based dyes may be used, and the dyes may be selected from those satisfying the following conditions. First of all, regarding liquid ink for inkjet printing, 1) the dye contained in the ink itself has a high color value and clear tone, and the ejection nozzle is narrow, and the returning ink is sucked in by a pump and circulated throughout the cycle. Since the material is often used, it is important that it does not contain fine particles that could clog the nozzle, and that there is no risk of natural oxidation or chemical deterioration during use, creating particles. be.

2) The dye content in the ink is preferably 1θ% or more by weight, and when an ink with this appropriate concentration is prepared, it has the optimum physical properties for jet spraying, namely, a viscosity of 3 to 1 ocp, and a surface tension of 3.
It must be able to obtain physical property values of 0 to 65 dyne/cm.

3) It has strong light resistance to ultraviolet rays, does not easily discolor or fade in sunlight, and has sufficient machinability against acids and alkalis.

4) There is little change in physical properties in the range of room temperature 0°C to +60°C,
Able to perform stable printing work.

5) The dye must be soluble in non-volatile solvents such as glycols used to prevent nozzle clogging.

It is a cage. Among the dyes that meet the above conditions, water-soluble dyes can be roughly divided into inorganic dyes and organic dyes, but the former have strong weather resistance but are not suitable for multicolor dyeing because their color range is limited. Organic dyes will be mainly used, and dyes with structures such as anthraquinone, monoazo, dihydroxypyrazole, and triphenylmethane have good adsorption to the film and are weather resistant. However, it goes without saying that the dyes used are not limited to those with these structures.An example of blending with a solvent when preparing ink is to add water to these dyes, and to adjust and prevent clogging. Glycols and glycol ethers for prevention.

A nitrogen-containing solvent such as an amide or a pyrobylline is used, and if necessary, a surfactant or the like is further added thereto.

Next, oil-soluble dyes can be roughly divided into dyes that dissolve in fats and oils and dyes that dissolve in solvents such as alcohol.When using the former, use the space between the adsorption drying ports 4 after the ink spout, and when using the latter. It is necessary to especially pay attention to changes in the physical properties of the ink due to solvent evaporation when blending. There are many examples of dye structures that can be used for this purpose, including quinaldine structures, anthraquinone structures, and the like. Solvents include oil extracts, alcohols, 5 oils,
There are nitropenzole, cyclohexanone, etc., and ink is prepared by adding a viscosity modifier and a surfactant to these.

In the case of a sublimation thermal transfer film, it can be produced by spraying 1i or screen printing an ink containing a sublimable dye on a base film via a binder. Sublimable dyes include triphenylmethane, phenoxazine,
There are basic dyes such as leucoauramine and spiropyran dyes.

[Effects of the invention 1 The method of the present invention has the following effects.

1. Since the image pattern can be automatically and immediately printed directly with a color electronic copying machine without masking the image pattern on the alumite film and therefore without the need for plate making, multicolor color images with semi-permanent durability and #4 stain resistance can be dyed with alumite. can be completed extremely cheaply and in a short time. Therefore, it is possible to make reproductions of paintings (including scaling) and illustrations for indoor wall decoration on aluminum plates, and for outdoor use, such as color explanation boards with maps for guidance, etc. It can be used for new purposes such as the production of equipment that requires durability against light, and as an improvement over the conventional alumite dyeing method, it can also be used to easily produce all kinds of industrial products such as name plates, dials, and decorative panels.

2. The range of colors and gradations that can be dyed is extremely wide, so it is possible to reproduce the natural colors of the original painting, which was difficult with conventional techniques, and it is also possible to mass produce stable and uniform changes in chromaticity and saturation by electronic control. Therefore, in addition to the above-mentioned uses, it is possible to produce color photographs and reproductions of famous paintings as durable products for viewing, and to develop new products such as aluminum picture postcards and business cards that take advantage of this v1 ability.

3. Since signal conversion processing of electrical outputs such as computer graphics images and high-definition television images can be used as input data, colored original images are not necessarily required, and it can also be applied to recording and preserving these images.

4. Suitable for use in long-term storage of FT materials, or in applications that need to withstand frequent and harsh handling, such as information boards for equipment.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 shows the process of copying a multicolor image onto an alumite film using a color electronic copying machine according to the manufacturing method of the present invention. Figure 2 shows an example of the application of an inkjet copying mechanism using a multi-nozzle bubble die 1 to 00 head.
FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of the 4'4 construction operation of the dyeing mechanism section of the 0 type copying machine. Figure 3 shows the operating principle when using a sublimation thermal transfer type color copying mechanism; (a) shows the operating principle of a copying machine using aluminum thin plate or foil as the printing material; (b)
shows the operating principle of a copying machine when a rigid planar material such as a thick plate is used as the print material. The following is shown in Figures 2 and 3 (a) and (b).
List the names of the 31 main parts. 1... Inkjet head, 2... Head carrier, 3... Ink tank, 4... Main scanning (left/right direction) pulse motor/encoder, 5... Vacuum @ Packaging A7'X7- ．． 6... Pulse motor/encoder for sub-scanning (vertical direction), 7... Aluminum material, 8... Air hole row for vacuum suction, 9... Thermal head, 10... Alumina base plate, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11... Aluminum heat sink, 12... Heat mediating low antibody element, 13... Color ink ribbon, 14... Heat resistant layer, 15... Base film, 16... Binder 17... Ink layer, 18・
...Alumite film, 19...Aluminum material plate,
20...Materials are attached to the drum, 21...Recorded image part, 22...Roller diagram.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A transparent anodic oxide film is formed on the entire surface of an aluminum or aluminum alloy plate or foil, etc., and dyes can be adsorbed without sealing the film for monochrome or multicolor inkjet or sublimation thermal transfer. Aluminum using an anodic oxide film that is created by dyeing and drawing single-color or multi-color figures, letters, etc. in combination with an electronic copying machine such as a formula, etc., using ink or ink ribbon containing a dye specifically for anodic oxide film. Electronic copying method on top.