JPH04173284A - Intaglio printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To dispense with a special part for the supply of ink and to carry out stable and continuous printing by using a laminate consisting of a porous substrate and a dense surface material having a pattern formed thereto as an intaglio and supplying ink from the rear of the porous substrate to continuously fill the groove parts of the intaglio with the ink. CONSTITUTION:An intaglio wherein an SiO2 layer 12 is formed to a porous ceramic substrate 11 composed of silicon carbide and a pattern part 13 is formed on the SiO2 layer is bonded to the upper part of a housing 15. Ink 14 is injected in a tank and the air from a compressor 17 is adjusted by an air pressure adjusting valve 16 to allow the ink 14' to exude to the window parts having no SiO2 layer of the pattern part. A blanket is rotated on the intaglio to transfer the ink to the blanket and rotated on a glass body to be printed to carry out pattern printing. Since the ink is directly supplied from the rear of the intaglio, the ink supply or squeezee process can be omitted and an external part becomes unnecessary and, since the low b.p. component in the ink is hard to volatilize, no change is generated in the ink composition and a printing condition is stabilized.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an intaglio printing process which allows continuous printing without the need for external parts for ink supplies or squeegees.

Conventional technology In recent years, rotary intaglio printing (commonly known as gravure) has become a printing method.
The four main methods are lithographic printing (commonly known as offset printing), letterpress printing (commonly known as letterpress), and screen printing.

The present invention is a printing method in which an ink supply method similar to screen printing is introduced into intaglio printing capable of thick film printing and fine pattern printing.

Generally, in intaglio printing, a chrome-plated metal cylindrical plate (plate cylinder) is used. After printing ink is supplied onto this cylindrical plate, the ink on the print is scraped off with a lid blade, and finally the four parts are printed. This method is used for printing on films, paper, etc., by directly transferring the ink onto the printing material. A method is also used in which a flat intaglio plate is used as the plate and printing is performed on the printing material through a plunket (for example, Masa Umemoto, Toshihiko Yasui, "Electronic Materials" Vol. 28, No. O, P.
P143-154 (1989)).

Intaglio printing has the advantage of being able to print thick films and fine patterns compared to planography and letterpress.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, not only intaglio printing but also planographic printing, letterpress printing, and screen printing require a roll, etc. to supply ink to the plate, and a squeegee (ink scraping) process is also required. There are many things.

This makes the printing device large and complicated.

Furthermore, supplying ink from a roll or the like causes evaporation of volatile components in the ink, causing a change in the viscosity of the ink and causing problems in the stability of printing conditions.

In view of the problem described in item 1, the present invention has developed an intaglio printing method that does not require special parts for ink supply and that allows for stable, continuous (intermittent) printing with little change in ink composition. This is what we provide.

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention uses a laminate consisting of a porous base and a patterned dense surface material as an intaglio plate, and ink is supplied from the back side of the porous base to continuously fill the grooves of the intaglio plate. This is an intaglio printing method that fills the

Note that the porous base is made of open-cell ceramic or metal, which is superior in terms of durability. Suitable surface materials include dense ceramics such as SiC2 and SiN formed by sputtering or electron beam evaporation, polymeric materials such as photocurable resins, or metals such as nickel. The intaglio pattern formation method involves applying a photoresist onto the surface material, forming a pattern using photolithography, and then etching or removing the surface material by chemical or physical methods to expose the porous base, or The material is a photocurable resin film, and after this film is adhered to a porous base, light is irradiated from above the photomask and developed to form a pattern, exposing the porous base in the non-irradiated areas. . In such an intaglio plate, an ink tank is formed on the back surface of a porous substrate, and printing conditions are controlled by applying back pressure to the ink and adjusting the amount of ink that seeps into the pattern through the porous substrate. The intaglio can be not only planar but also cylindrical.

Effect of the present invention In the configuration described in 1., the ink permeates through the porous base made of open cells by back pressure and dyes the patterned windowed portion of the surface material. , lJ
, :f 1. ,,This is an intaglio printing method that continuously supplies ink to the intaglio plate 1. The porous substrate has open cells, so the ink can penetrate easily, and the material is ceramic or metal, so it has high mechanical strength, and the ink is No deterioration.

Screen printing is a printing method that supplies ink from the back side of the plate, but in screen printing, the plate has a structure in which the unnecessary parts of a mesh made of organic fibers or metal wires are covered with resin, and the ink is applied onto the mesh. The base made of such a mesh has no mechanical strength, so when back pressure is applied to the mesh, the mesh may swell or the printing material may be damaged. This has the disadvantage that alignment accuracy deteriorates because it deforms when a blanket is pressed against it. Also,
Since the mesh has large voids and is usually made of one layer, only inks with high viscosity can be used, which also has the disadvantage of not being able to print fine patterns.

In the printing method of the present invention, the mechanical strength of the porous base made of open cells is sufficiently high, and there is no deformation due to back pressure during printing or deformation when the printing material or blanket is pressed against it.
Good positioning accuracy. Furthermore, since the voids between air bubbles are reduced to about several micrometers, fine pattern printing is also possible.

In addition, since the ink is not left in the atmosphere as in conventional printing methods, low-boiling components in the ink are less likely to volatilize, so there is no change in the ink composition (and the printing conditions are also stable).

EXAMPLE A first example of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a sectional view of an intaglio plate according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 11 is a porous ceramic substrate, 12 is a 5i02 layer, 13 is a pattern part, 1
4.14' is ink, 15 is a national body, 16 is an air pressure adjustment valve, and 17 is a compressor.

The structure of the intaglio plate and printing method are shown below. As an intaglio, open cells made of silicon carbide (SiC) (cell diameter 10 μm to 10
0μm) on the porous ceramic substrate 11 (thickness 2m)
), a 5i02 layer 12 was formed as a surface material with a Sigh of about 10 μm by electron beam evaporation. Next, a photoresist pattern is created on the Sigh layer by photolithography, and this is immersed in hydrofluoric acid to etch (chemically) 5i02 in the areas without resist until it reaches the porous ceramic substrate, and then the photoresist is removed. After removal, a pattern portion 13 was formed. An intaglio plate made of this ceramic porous base and a two-layer Si layer laminate was adhered onto the national polka dot 15, which also served as an ink tank. After injecting the organic dye-based color filter ink 14 into the tank, air from the compressor 17 is passed through the air pressure adjustment valve 1.
6, the ink 14' was allowed to seep into the window portion of the pattern area where there was no Si02 layer.

A blanket was rolled over this intaglio plate to once transfer the ink onto the blanket, and then the blanket with the ink transferred was rolled onto a glass printing material to print a pattern.

As ceramics, open-celled porous bodies of oxides such as alumina and nitrides such as silicon nitride were effective, in addition to carbides as in this example. Moreover, the bubble diameter could be about 1 μm to several hundred μm. On the other hand, as a surface material, metal films such as nickel made by vapor deposition methods also showed excellent properties. However, in this case, applying a thicker metal film and slightly polishing it improved the surface flatness and improved the printing characteristics.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. Second
The figure shows a cross-sectional view of an intaglio in a second embodiment. In FIG. 2, 21 is a porous metal plate cylinder, 22 is an ultraviolet curing resin layer, 23 is a pattern portion, 24° and 24' are ink, 25.
25' is a side plate.

A porous metal plate cylinder 21 (pore diameter 10μ
m ~ 1100 At, thickness 5 mm) was formed. Next, a UV-curable resin film is pasted onto this cylindrical surface,
By transferring the mask pattern using photolithography and developing it, the resin layer remains only in the areas exposed to ultraviolet rays.
An ultraviolet curable resin layer 22 and a pattern portion 23 were formed. Next, install the side plates 25 and 25' and install the ink 2 inside the plate cylinder.
4 was injected and the amount of ink 24' that seeped into the pattern area was adjusted by air pressure, and printing was performed by pressing paper against the plate cylinder.

When printing at high speed by increasing the number of rotations of the plate cylinder, the optimum printing conditions could be easily changed by setting the air pressure slightly higher.

When applying liquid resin as a method for forming the surface material, the resin was absorbed into the porous substrate, so it was not possible to form a film successfully. A polymer film with an adhesive on the back side is adhered to a porous substrate, a pattern is formed with photoresist, and then the polymer film and adhesive layer on the window are etched using an ion milling method (physical etching) to form an intaglio. method was also possible. Moreover, the thickness of the surface material was approximately several μm to several tens of μm, which was excellent in terms of printability.

Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention supplies ink directly from the back side of the intaglio plate, so the conventional ink supply using rolls and the squeezing process can be omitted. The present invention provides an intaglio printing method in which the apparatus is simplified, and furthermore, since the ink hardly comes into direct contact with the outside air, there is no volatilization of low boiling point components, and the quality of the ink does not change. It also has the advantage of not causing environmental problems because it does not emit volatile components into the outside air.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an intaglio plate according to a first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an intaglio plate in a second embodiment. 11...Porous ceramic base, 12...
...5i02 layer, 13...pattern part, 14
．． 14'... Ink, 15... National polity,
16...Air pressure adjustment valve, ]7...
Compressor, 2] Porous metal plate cylinder, 2
2... Ultraviolet curing resin layer, 23... Pattern portion, 24.24'... Ink, 25.2
5'・・・Side plate. Name of agent: Patent attorney Haruaki Ogata and 2 others = 11-

Claims (7)

[Claims] (1) An intaglio printing method in which a laminate consisting of a porous base and a patterned dense surface material is used as an intaglio, and ink is supplied from the back side of the porous base to continuously fill the grooves of the intaglio. (2) The intaglio printing method according to claim 1, wherein the porous substrate is made of open-cell ceramic or metal. (3) The intaglio printing method according to claim 1, wherein the surface material is a dense ceramic, a polymeric material, or a metal. (4) After applying a photoresist on the surface material, a pattern is formed by photolithography, and then etched and removed by a chemical or physical method to expose the porous base. Intaglio printing method. (5) The polymer material is a photocurable resin film, and after this film is adhered to a porous substrate, light is irradiated from above the photomask and developed to form a pattern, exposing the porous substrate in the unirradiated areas. Claim 3 characterized in that
Intaglio printing method described. (6) The intaglio printing method according to claim 1, characterized in that an ink tank is formed on the back surface of the porous substrate and printing conditions are controlled by applying back pressure to the ink. (7) Claim 1, wherein the porous base and the patterned intaglio are cylindrical and store ink inside.
Intaglio printing method described.