JPH0640003A - Heat transfer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable continuous heat transfer by a heating roller by previously forming a stable coating layer onto the surface of an article to be transfered even in the article to be transferred having surface activity such as soap. CONSTITUTION:A coating device 2 composed of a spray gun spraying a coating consisting of a plurality of pairs of thermosetting resins and an air spray nozzle drying a coating layer, a heater 9 made up of a far infrared heater thermosetting the coating layer and a cooler 10 with a plurality of cold air outlets are juxtaposed successively on the upper side of a conveyor 12 supplying the lower side of a heating roller for a heat transfer machine 4 with an article to be transferred toward the heating roller. The coating layer is formed onto the surface of the article to be transferred, and moved to the lower side of the rotating heating roller. The heating roller pushes a transfer film against the coating layer of the article to be transferred, and thermally transfers a drawing pattern evaporated on the rear of the transfer film.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thermal transfer device for thermally transferring a picture pattern previously printed or vapor-deposited on the surface of a transfer film onto an object to be transferred such as soap.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art This type of thermal transfer apparatus is different from general paper in that it prints on the surface of an object to be transferred having a predetermined shape. Therefore, the material of the object to be transferred and the heating roller for thermal transfer are used. The pressing force, heating temperature, heating time, etc. have a great influence on the finish of the product, and how to reduce the occurrence of defective products becomes a problem. In addition, since a material to be transferred such as soap has surface activity, it is very difficult to directly perform thermal transfer.

Generally, as a thermal transfer device for efficiently performing thermal transfer, a device for pressing a transfer film against an object to be transferred by a heating roller has been proposed. However, when the transfer speed is increased, the surface temperature of the heating roller is increased. If unevenness occurs and the surface temperature of the heating roller becomes too high, the transfer film will be fused to the transferred material.

[0004]

Therefore, in view of the above-mentioned problems, the object of the present invention is to provide a stable coating layer on the surface of the transferred material even on the transferred material having surface activity such as soap. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a thermal transfer device capable of continuously achieving thermal transfer by a heating roller.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the structure of the present invention is such that a heating roller for thermal transfer which is rotationally driven is brought into contact with the back surface of a transfer film on which a predetermined picture pattern is printed or vapor-deposited. In a thermal transfer device that thermally transfers a pattern to a transfer target, a spray gun and a coating layer that spray a plurality of sets of thermosetting resin onto the upper side of the conveyor that supplies the transfer target to the lower side of the heating roller are dried. A coating device consisting of an air blowing nozzle, a heater consisting of a far-infrared heater that heat-cures the coating layer, and a cooler equipped with a plurality of cool air outlets are arranged side by side toward the heating roller. is there.

[0006]

According to the present invention, the coating layer is provided several times by the spray gun for spraying a plurality of sets of the coating agent arranged on the upper side of the conveyor for conveying the transferred material and the air blowing nozzle for drying. After continuously forming, the coating layer is heat-cured by a heater, and further cooled by the cool air from the cool air outlet to below room temperature to stabilize the coating layer, and then sent to the underside of the heating roller of the thermal transfer machine. .

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As shown in FIG. 1, a thermal transfer apparatus according to the present invention is outlined in such a manner that soaps s as transferred objects arranged in a supply apparatus 1 are sent to a conveyor 12 one by one, and a coating apparatus 2 is used to transfer the surface. A coating layer 16 (see FIG. 2) made of a thermoplastic synthetic resin or the like is formed on the substrate, dried by a dryer 8, and then cured by a coating curing device 3 including a heater 9, and then cooled by a cooler 10. After cooling, the picture pattern previously printed on the transfer film in the thermal transfer machine 4 is thermally transferred to the coating layer 16 of soap s.

After that, the position detecting device 5 detects the transfer position of the picture pattern on the soap s, and further the packaging device 6
Are packaged according to the above, are packaged in the boxing device 7, and are discharged from the outlet 13. Here, the pattern detected by the position detection device 5 is compared with a reference pattern, and the position of the soap s on the press-contact table 11 of the thermal transfer machine 4 is corrected according to the positional deviation.

As shown in FIG. 2, the transfer film 73 has a predetermined picture pattern 15 printed on the surface (lower surface) of the transfer film 73 such as vinyl chloride via the release layer 14, and the adhesive 15a is further applied to the surface thereof. It is coated. There is a predetermined interval before and after such a pattern and the boundary line 17
Is printed, and the transfer film 73 is intermittently sent for each frame of the picture pattern 15 as described later.

As shown in FIG. 3, the coating device 2 includes a pair of upper and lower water absorbing rollers 29, 30 driven by an electric motor 20 in a moving path of the conveyor 12, a plurality of spray guns 27, and a compressed air nozzle 25. Also, a coating detection sensor 31 is provided. The water absorbing roller 30 comes into contact with the soap s to wipe off the moisture on the surface of the soap s, and is dried by the air blowing nozzle 28.

Air having a predetermined pressure adjusted by a pressure adjusting valve 34 from an air compressor 37 is heated to a predetermined temperature by a heater 26 in each of the air blowing nozzles 28, 25, and the valves 22, 23, It is designed to be sprayed onto soap s via 24. The spray gun 27 is supplied with a coating agent from a coating liquid tank 36 pressurized by an air compressor 37 through a pressure control valve 34a and sprayed onto the surface of the soap s. Since this coating agent also adheres to the conveyor 12, a belt washer 32 and a belt dryer 33 are provided on the return side of the conveyor 12. The amount of coating agent sprayed from the spray gun 27 is controlled by the controller 21. In the illustrated embodiment, the coating layer is formed on the surface of the soap s three times. In addition, 35 is a pressure gauge.

As shown in FIG. 4, the coating layer curing device 3 has a room temperature air outlet 18 from a blower 38, a heater 9 equipped with a ceramic far infrared heater, and a room temperature air outlet 42 from a blower 39 along a conveyor 12. A cold air outlet 41 from the temperature adjusting heater 40 is provided. The amount of air blown out from the air outlet 42 and the cool air outlet 41 is adjusted by an adjusting valve.

The temperature adjusting heater 40 has a duct 43 and is connected to a heat exchanger 44. The air sucked from the air intake port 46 by the blower 45 is cooled by the heat exchanger 44 and sent to the duct 43. For this reason, the refrigerant that cools the air in the heat exchanger 44 is compressed by the refrigerant compressor 48 and sent to the condenser 47, and the refrigerant that has been liquefied by cooling here is circulated to the evaporator 50 via the expansion valve 49. It is becoming like this.

As shown in FIG. 5, an air volume adjusting valve 63 is provided at the cold air outlet 41, and this air volume adjusting valve 63 is driven by an electromagnetic actuator 65 to adjust the passage area of the cold air outlet 41. I'm running. The stroke of the electromagnetic actuator 65 is controlled by the control device 61.

As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the heater 9 is actually constructed by disposing three ceramic far infrared heaters 52 inside the hood 56, and these ceramic far infrared heaters 52 are respectively provided. The control device 51 is controlled based on the signal from the temperature sensor 53. Evaporative gas generated by drying the soap s is hood 5
The air is discharged to the outside from 6 by the air blower 54 arranged in the duct 55. The far infrared rays reflected by the ceramic far infrared heater 52 or by hitting the reflecting plate 57 directly heats the soap s to cure the coating layer 16.

As shown in FIG. 8, the thermal transfer machine 4 is provided with a press-contact table 11 in the middle of the conveyor 12, and a heating roller 97 is arranged opposite to the press-contact table 11. Furthermore, a plurality of rollers 7
The transfer film 73 is transferred to the conveyor 12 via 4, 82, 83.
The left end of the transfer film 73 is intermittently wound by a winder (not shown).

The tension roller 82 is supported by a vibrator 86, and the vibrator 86 is supported by a base frame (not shown) of the apparatus via a spring 87. A sensor 75 is arranged in the path of the transfer film 73, whereby the boundary line 17 shown in FIG. 2 is detected, and the feeding of the transfer film 73 is stopped at a predetermined position. The vibrator 86 controls the electric current of the electromagnetic actuator 85 to adjust the tension applied to the transfer film 73 by the tension roller 82, and to give a slight vibration to the transfer film 73 by the AC exciting coil 84. There is.

The pressure contact table 11 is provided with a base 78 supported by a lifting device 80 such as a fluid pressure actuator, and a spring 77.
A support base 81 is supported via the support base 81, and the support base 81 is vibrated by an electromagnetic exciter 79. The electromagnetic exciter 79 and the above-described exciter 86 are controlled by the control device 89 to have an amplitude of about 0.3 mm as shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 8, in order to detect the surface temperature of the heating roller 97, three temperature sensors 93, 93a, 93b are arranged close to the heating roller 97 to adjust the output of the auxiliary heater 92. Is configured as follows. In this auxiliary heater (ceramic far infrared heater) 92, a ceramic far infrared heater 91 is arranged behind the heating roller 97 from the soap s. In order to preheat the soap s sent to the thermal transfer machine 4, a preheat heater 71 is arranged on the upstream side of the conveyor 12, and its heat output is controlled based on the signal of the temperature sensor 72.

As shown in FIG. 10, the heating roller 97 is formed by connecting a soft roller such as rubber to the main shaft 96, and the ceramic far-infrared heater 98 is embedded therein together with the reflecting plate 102. An internal temperature sensor 93c is provided on the reflecting plate 102, and this signal is transmitted to the slip ring 9
It is sent to the control device 90 via the heating roller 97.
The electric current applied from the controller 90 to the ceramic far infrared heater 98 and the external ceramic far infrared heater 91 is controlled so as to obtain a predetermined surface temperature based on the signal from the temperature sensor 93 that detects the surface temperature of the. The external ceramic far-infrared heater 91 is divided into a central portion and both end sides of the heating roller 97, and the current of the ceramic far-infrared heater 91 on both end portions, which is easily affected by ambient temperature, is changed to the central ceramic far-infrared heater. It is controlled separately from the infrared heater 91a.

As shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, the support base 81 is provided with a positioning device 111 for stopping the soap s at a predetermined position related to the heating roller 97. That is, a stop plate 117 that can move up and down in the vertical direction to stop the soap s on the front side of the conveyor 12 in the feeding direction is supported by a bracket 119 so as to be movable and adjustable in the feeding direction of the conveyor 12. The electric motor 118 is supported by the bracket 119,
A screw shaft 120 connected to the main shaft is screwed into a nut 130 fixed to the stop plate 117, and a servomotor 118 is attached.
The position of the stop plate 117 is adjusted by the forward and reverse rotations of.
The stop plate 117 and the servo motor 118 are provided on the support column 12.
6, a lifting device 127 such as a fluid pressure actuator or an electromagnetic actuator projects above the surface of the support base 81 or is retracted below the surface of the support base 81.

A pair of left and right guide plates 115 for adjusting the lateral position of the soap s are supported on the support 81 so as to be movable laterally. That is, the pin 11 is attached to the guide plate 115.
4, a pair of nuts 113 in the front and rear are coupled, and a screw shaft screwed into the nut 113 is rotated forward and backward by the servomotor 110 via the reduction gear mechanism 112. These servomotors 118 and 110 can be adjusted by a setting dial plate 121 having a manual dial, but are automatically adjusted by a pattern comparison device 122. That is, the pattern comparison device 1
The reference pattern set in advance in relation to the picture pattern of the transfer film 73 and the soap So is stored and set in 22. On the other hand, in the position detecting device 5 shown in FIG. 1, the soap s and the picture transferred to this are detected. A pattern including the pattern is detected by the pattern detector 124, and the detected pattern and the reference pattern are compared in the pattern comparison device 122,
The servomotors 118 and 110 are driven according to the displacement.

Next, the operation of the device of the present invention will be described. In the coating device 2, moisture adhering to the surface of the soap s in advance is removed by the water absorbing roller 30. Then, the surface is dried by blowing heated compressed air, the primary coating agent is blown, and then heated air is blown to dry. Thereafter, the second and third coating agents are sprayed in the same manner to form a coating layer (adhesive layer) 16 having a predetermined thickness. By blowing the heated air, solvent bubbles and the like accompanying the coating are erased.

In the case of soap s, the coating agent has an adhesive layer on the surface having its surface activity, and forms a coating film in which the picture pattern remains to the end without being dissolved or peeled by water. A thermoplastic synthetic resin, such as an acrylic paint, which is dried and cured in a short time in response to far infrared light is selected. Then, the coating layer 16 is heated and hardened in the coating layer hardening device 3 by the heater 9 composed of a ceramic far infrared heater. When the coating material is an acrylic paint, the wavelength of this far infrared ray is preferably 50 to 100 μm. Far-infrared rays have different absorptivities depending on the substance to be irradiated, and utilize the property of heating only the surface and not the inside.

By irradiation with the ceramic far-infrared heater, the solvent of the coating agent and the solvent are evaporated, and the coating layer 16 is gradually hardened to form a coating film. It only takes a very short time, and if you irradiate for too long, soaps
Since the soap s may be deformed when it is softened and transferred, the temperature is kept at 20 ° C (25 to 25 ° C) by the cooler 10.
To the first and then cooled by the cool air from the cool air outlet 41.
Approximately 10 ° C in secondary cooling, approximately 4 ° C in secondary cooling,
In the third cooling, it is cooled to about 0 ° C.

Next, the soap s is sent to the thermal transfer machine 4, and the coating layer 16 is heated in advance by the preheating ceramic far-infrared heater 71 in order to reduce the heat load on the heating roller 97. Ceramic far-infrared heater is a soap
Since only the surface of, ie, the coating layer 16 can be heated, the softening of the soap s can be prevented. Then, when the soap s is sent to below the transfer film 73 in which the picture pattern is previously positioned by the position sensor 75, the soap s stops by hitting the stop plate 117 shown in FIG. Here, the base 78, which has been pulled down until now, is pushed up by an elevating device 80 such as a fluid pressure actuator and is pushed against the heating roller 97 together with the transfer film 73. At this time, the stop plate 117 is lowered by the lifting device 118. Therefore, the picture pattern of the transfer film 73 heated by the preheater 76 is the coating layer 1 of soap s.
It is pressed against 6, and transferred by the heat of the heating roller 97, and is sent out to the left in FIG. 8 as the heating roller 97 rotates. When the boundary line 17 of the next transfer film 73 is detected by the temperature sensor 75, the transfer film 73 is stopped from being fed, and at this time, the soap s is sent from the support base 81 to the left by the conveyor 12. .

During the transfer, vertical vibration (having a small amplitude) is applied to the support base 81 by the electromagnetic vibration generator 79 to prevent the transfer film 73 and the coating layer 16 from being welded. At the same time, vibration is applied to the tension roller 82 which gives an appropriate tension to the transfer film 73 by the vibrator 86, and as soon as the transfer film 73 is separated from the heating roller 97, it is immediately separated from the soap s. The surface temperature of the heating roller 97 at the portion contacting the soap s via the transfer film 73 at the time of thermal transfer decreases, but as soon as the heating roller 97 moves away from the soap s, it is heated by the auxiliary heater 92 until it contacts the soap s again. Then, the surface temperature is restored to a predetermined level. The heat output of the auxiliary heater 92 is precisely controlled so as to compensate for the heat loss transferred from the surface of the heating roller 97 to the soap s, so that the surface temperature distribution of the heating roller 97 is made uniform. That is, the temperature before the thermal transfer process is detected by the temperature sensor 93a, the temperature after the thermal transfer process is detected by the temperature sensor 93b, these detection signals are applied to the temperature control device 90, and based on the signal obtained by the temperature control device 90. By controlling the heating temperature of the auxiliary heater 92, the amount of heat taken during the thermal transfer process is replenished by this.

Here, the electromagnetic actuator 85 is for adjusting the average tension of the transfer film 73, and the exciting coil 84 of the exciter 86 is within a predetermined range.
To give a change in tension. The temperature of the thermal transfer roller is set to 150 to 250 ° C. Further, the vibration frequency of the vibration exciter 86 is preferably 30 to 200 Hz. In addition, a soft material such as thin urethane rubber is interposed between the lower surface of the support base 81 and the electromagnetic vibrator 79.

According to the present invention, the heater 98 is provided inside the heating roller 97, and the heaters 92, 9 are provided on the outer peripheral side.
1 is provided, it is possible to rapidly and intensively heat only the surface of the heating roller 97, and the auxiliary heater 92 is provided for the temperature-reduced portion where the heat is taken by the soap s after the thermal transfer. As a result, it is possible to heat rapidly, so that thermal transfer can always be performed at a uniform heating temperature without unevenness in the surface temperature.

Further, by attaching a vibration exciter 86 to the tension roller 82 for applying a tension to the transfer film 73, it is possible to apply a vibration in the pulling direction to the transfer film 73. It is possible to prevent thermal welding with the heat roller s, reduce the occurrence rate of product defects in combination with the improvement of the temperature control performance of the heating roller 97, and significantly increase the thermal transfer speed.

Further, the heater 9 is provided inside the heating roller 97.
Since 8 is embedded, the temperature change of the heating roller 97 can be suppressed and the start-up time of the thermal transfer device can be shortened. The capacity of the internal heater 98 may be small, and even if the operation of the thermal transfer device is suddenly stopped, the temperature of the heating roller 97 is abnormally increased, and it is possible to prevent an accident such as burning.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, since a plurality of sets of spray guns and air blowing nozzles are arranged above the conveyor for transferring the transferred material, the required thickness can be continuously applied to the surface of the transferred material. It is possible to form a coating layer having a stable thickness.

Since the heater and the plurality of cool air outlets were sequentially arranged on the upper side of the conveyor and downstream of the coating device, the coating layer was heated and cured, and then gradually cooled from room temperature to about 0 ° C. Therefore, a coating layer as a heat transfer surface which is smooth and stable against heat without wrinkles or cracks can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an outline of a thermal transfer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a relationship between a transfer film and an object to be transferred.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a schematic configuration of a coating device.

FIG. 4 is a side view of a coating layer curing device.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing an enlarged main part of the apparatus.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of a heating unit of the apparatus.

FIG. 7 is a front view of the same.

FIG. 8 is a side view of the thermal transfer machine.

FIG. 9 is a side view showing the main part.

FIG. 10 is a plan sectional view of a heating roller.

FIG. 11 is a front view showing a positioning device for an object to be transferred, which is provided on the press-contacting table.

FIG. 12 is a plan view of the same.

[Explanation of symbols]

2: Coating device 3: Coating ink layer curing device
4: Thermal transfer machine 5: Position detection device 8: Dryer 9: Heater 10: Cooler 11: Pressing stand 12: Conveyor
15: Picture pattern 52, 91, 98: Ceramic far-infrared heater 78: Base 79, 86: Vibrator 80: Lifting device 81: Support 82: Tension roller 83:
Guide roller 92: Auxiliary heater 93: Temperature sensor 9
7: Heating roller 115: Guide plate 117: Stop plate

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ───

[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] December 24, 1991

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Full text

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[Document name] Statement

Title: Thermal transfer device

Claim: What is claimed is: 1. A thermal transfer device for contacting a heating roller for thermal transfer, which is rotationally driven, with a back surface of a transfer film on which a predetermined pattern is printed or vapor-deposited to transfer the pattern to an object to be transferred. On the upper side of the conveyor that supplies the transferred material to the lower side,
A coating device consisting of a spray gun for spraying a coating agent consisting of multiple sets of thermosetting resin and an air spray nozzle for drying the coating layer, a heater consisting of a far infrared heater for thermosetting the coating layer, and a plurality of cold air blowers. A thermal transfer device characterized in that a cooler having an outlet is sequentially provided in parallel with a heating roller.

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thermal transfer device for thermally transferring a picture pattern previously printed or vapor-deposited on the surface of a transfer film onto an object to be transferred such as soap.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art This type of thermal transfer apparatus, unlike ordinary paper, prints on the surface of an object to be transferred having a predetermined shape. Therefore, the material of the object to be transferred and the heating roller for thermal transfer are used. The pressing force, heating temperature, heating time, etc. have a great influence on the finish of the product, and how to reduce the occurrence of defective products becomes a problem. In addition, since a material to be transferred such as soap has surface activity, it is very difficult to directly perform thermal transfer.

Generally, as a thermal transfer device for efficiently performing thermal transfer, there has been proposed one in which a transfer film is pressed against an object to be transferred by a heating roller, but when the transfer speed is increased, the surface temperature of the heating roller becomes uneven. Especially, if the surface temperature of the heating roller becomes too high, the transfer film will be fused to the transferred material.

[0004]

Therefore, in view of the above problems, the object of the present invention is to provide a stable coating layer on the surface of the transferred material even in the case of the transferred material having surface activity such as soap. It is an object of the present invention to provide a thermal transfer device capable of continuously achieving thermal transfer by a heating roller.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the structure of the present invention is such that a heating roller for thermal transfer which is rotationally driven is brought into contact with the back surface of a transfer film on which a predetermined picture pattern is printed or vapor-deposited. In a thermal transfer device that thermally transfers a pattern to a transfer target, a spray gun and a coating layer that spray a plurality of sets of thermosetting resin onto the upper side of the conveyor that supplies the transfer target to the lower side of the heating roller are dried. A coating device composed of an air blowing nozzle, a heating device composed of a far-infrared heater that heat-cures the coating layer, and a cooler equipped with a plurality of cool air outlets are arranged side by side toward the heating roller. is there.

[0006]

According to the present invention, the coating layer is formed several times by the spray gun for spraying a plurality of sets of the coating agent arranged on the upper side of the conveyer for conveying the transferred material and the air blowing nozzle for drying. After the continuous formation, the coating layer is heat-cured by a heating device, further cooled to normal temperature or lower by the cool air from the cool air outlet to stabilize the coating layer, and then sent to the lower side of the heating roller of the thermal transfer machine.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As shown in FIG. 1, a thermal transfer apparatus according to the present invention sends soaps s as transfer targets stacked one by one to a conveyor 12 and a coating apparatus 2 transfers them to the surface of the soap s. A coating layer 16 (see FIG. 2) of a thermoplastic synthetic resin or the like is formed, dried by a drier 8, cured by a coating curing device 3 including a heating device 9, cooled by a cooler 10, and then by a thermal transfer device 4. The pattern of the transfer film is thermally transferred to the coating layer 16 of soap s.

For the soap s, the transfer position of the picture pattern is detected by the position detecting device 5, the positional deviation is fed back to the control unit of the pressure welding table 11, the packaging device 6 is used for packaging, and the packaging device 7 is packaged for exit. It is discharged to 13. The pattern detected by the position detection device 5 is compared with the reference pattern, and the positional displacement of the picture pattern is corrected by the pressure contact table 11 of the thermal transfer machine 4.

As shown in FIG. 2, the transfer film 73 is formed on the surface (lower surface) of the transfer film 73 such as vinyl chloride.
A predetermined picture pattern 15 is printed through the release layer 14, and the surface of the picture pattern 15 is coated with an adhesive 15a. The transfer film 73 is printed with the boundary line 17 at a predetermined interval before and after the picture pattern 15 and is intermittently sent for each frame of the picture pattern 15 as described later.

As shown in FIG. 3, the coating device 2 includes a pair of upper and lower water-absorbing rollers 29, 30 driven by an electric motor 20 disposed in the movement path of the conveyor 12, a plurality of spray guns 27, and a plurality of spray guns 27. It is composed of an air blowing nozzle 25 and a plurality of coating sensors 31. Moisture on the surface of the soap s is wiped off by the water absorbing roller 30.
0 is dried by the air from the air spray nozzle 28.

The air from the air compressor 37 is adjusted to a predetermined pressure by the pressure adjusting valve 34, heated to a predetermined temperature by the heater 26, passes through the valves 22, 24 and 23 and the air spray nozzles 25 and 28, respectively. Soap s, water absorbing roller 29,
Sprayed to 30. Pressurized air from the air compressor 37 is sent to the coating liquid tank 36 (monitored by the pressure gauge 35) via the pressure control valve 34a, and sprays the coating agent from the spray gun 27 onto the surface of the soap s. The coating agent adhering to the conveyor 12 is removed by a belt washer 32 provided on the return side of the conveyor 12 and dried by a belt dryer 33. The amount of the coating agent sprayed from the spray gun 27 is controlled by the controller 21.
In the example shown, the soap s is coated three times.

As shown in FIG. 4, the coating layer curing device 3 has a room temperature air outlet 18 from the blower 38, a heating device 9, a room temperature air outlet 42 from the blower 39, and a plurality of cool air blowers along the conveyor 12. An outlet 41 is provided.
The blowout amounts of the room temperature air outlet 42 and the cool air outlet 41 are adjusted by an airflow adjusting valve. The cold air outlet 41 is an air volume adjusting valve,
It is connected via a heater 40 and a duct 43 to a heat exchanger 44 as a cooler. The air sucked from the air intake port 46 to the blower 45 is cooled by the heat exchanger 44, passes through the duct 43, and is heated / dehumidified to an appropriate temperature by the heater. Therefore, the refrigerant that cools the air in the heat exchanger 44 is circulated to the refrigerant compressor 48, the condenser 47, the expansion valve 49, and the evaporator 50.

As shown in FIG. 5, the air flow rate adjusting valve 63 disposed at the cold air outlet 41 is driven by an electromagnetic actuator 65 to adjust the passage area of the cold air outlet 41. The stroke of the electromagnetic actuator 65 is controlled by the control device 61.

As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the heating device 9 is actually constructed by disposing three far infrared heaters 52 inside the hood 56, and each far infrared heater 52 is a temperature sensor. It is controlled by the output of the control device 51 based on the signal of 53. Evaporative gas generated by drying the soap s is hood 5
6 is discharged to the outside through the duct 55 by the air blower 54. The far infrared rays directly emitted from the far infrared heater 52 or reflected by the reflection plate 57 heats the surface of the soap s and cures the coating layer 16.

As shown in FIG. 8, the thermal transfer machine 4 is provided with a press contact table 11 and a heating roller 97 facing the press contact table 11 in the middle of the conveyor 12. The transfer film 73 is stretched over a plurality of guide rollers 74, tension rollers 82, and guide rollers 83 arranged along the conveyor 12, and the left end of the transfer film 73 is intermittently wound by a winder (not shown). To be

The tension roller 82 is supported by an electromagnetic exciter 86, and the electromagnetic exciter 86 is supported by a spring 87 on a base frame (not shown).
Suspended by. The position sensor 75 arranged in the path of the transfer film 73 detects the boundary line 17 of the transfer film 73 shown in FIG. 2 and stops the feeding of the transfer film 73 at a predetermined position. The electromagnetic exciter 86 controls the current of the electromagnetic actuator 85, and the tension roller 82 causes the transfer film 7 to move.
The tension applied to No. 3 is adjusted, and at the same time, the AC excitation coil 84 gives a slight vibration to the transfer film 73.

The pressure contact table 11 is provided with a base 78 supported by a lifting device 80 such as a fluid pressure actuator, and a spring 77.
The support base 81 is supported through the support base 81, and the support base 81 is vertically vibrated by the electromagnetic exciter 79. Electromagnetic exciter 79
The amplitude of the electromagnetic exciter 86 described above is controlled to about 0.3 mm by the control device 89 shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 8, in order to detect the surface temperature of the heating roller 97, three temperature sensors 93, 93 are provided.
a and 93b are arranged close to the heating roller 97 and spaced apart in the circumferential direction, and are configured to adjust the heat output of the auxiliary far infrared heater 92. The auxiliary far-infrared heater 92 is arranged in a portion where the heating roller 97 is separated from the soap s, and the far-infrared heater 91 is arranged behind the auxiliary far-infrared heater 92 (downstream of the rotation path of the heating roller 97). In order to preheat the soaps sent to the thermal transfer machine 4, the conveyor 1
A far-infrared preheater 71 is disposed on the upstream side of 2, and the heat output of the far-infrared preheater 71 is controlled based on the signal of the temperature sensor 72.

As shown in FIG. 10, the heating roller 97 is formed by connecting a soft roller such as rubber to the main shaft 96, and the cylindrical reflecting plate 102 and the heater 98 are embedded inside. The signal of the temperature sensor 93c arranged on the reflection plate 102 is sent to the control device 90 via the slip ring 99. The heater 98 is energized by the controller 90 via the slip ring 95. The currents of the heater 98 and the far infrared heater 91 are controlled by the output of the controller 90 based on the signals of the temperature sensor 93 that detects the surface temperature of the heating roller 97 and the above-mentioned temperature sensor 93c.

The far-infrared heater 91 is divided into a central portion of the heating roller 97 and the both ends thereof, and the current of the far-infrared heater 91 at both ends which is easily influenced by the ambient temperature is the far-infrared ray at the center. It is controlled separately from the current of the heater 91a.

As shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, the positioning device 111 stops the soap s on the support base 81 at a predetermined position related to the heating roller 97. That is, the conveyor 1
On the front side in the feeding direction of 2, the stop plate 117 that can move the soap s up and down is supported by the bracket 119 so as to be movable in the feeding direction of the conveyor 12. The servo motor 118 supported by the bracket 119 has a screw shaft 120 coupled to the main shaft screwed into a nut 130 fixed to a stop plate 117, and the front and rear positions of the stop plate 117 are adjusted by the forward and reverse rotations of the servo motor 118. It Stop plate 1
Bracket 119 supporting 17 and servomotor 118
Is fixed to a column 126, and the column 126 can be projected upward from the surface of the support base 81 and can be retracted downward from the surface of the support base 81 by an elevating device 127 such as a fluid pressure actuator or an electromagnetic actuator.

A pair of left and right guide plates 115 for adjusting the horizontal position of the soap s are supported by a support base 81 so as to be movable laterally. That is, each guide plate 115 is connected to a pair of front and rear nuts 113 by a pin 114, and a screw shaft screwed into the nut 113 is rotatably supported by the side wall 116 of the support base 81 and via the reduction gear mechanism 112. The servomotor 110 rotates forward and backward. Servo motor 118, 1
10 can be adjusted by a setting dial plate 121 equipped with a manual dial, but is automatically adjusted by an output signal of the pattern comparison device 122.

The pattern comparing device 122 is a transfer film 7.
The reference pattern set in relation to the picture pattern 3 and the soap so is stored and set. On the other hand, in the position detection device 5 shown in FIG. 1, the pattern detector 124 detects a pattern including the soap s and the picture pattern transferred to the soap s. The pattern comparison device 122 determines the servo motors 118 and 110 according to the positional deviation between the detection pattern and the reference pattern.
To control.

Next, the operation of the device of the present invention will be described. The coating device 2 uses the water-absorbing roller 30 to remove the soap s.
Removes the moisture from the surface and blows heated air onto the soap s
Dry the surface of. The primary coating agent is sprayed by the spray gun 27, and heated air is sprayed from the spray nozzle 25 to dry, and at the same time, bubbles of the solvent and the like accompanying the coating are erased. Similarly, the second and third coating agents are sprayed to form the coating layer 16 having a predetermined thickness.

In the case of the soap s, the coating agent has an adhesive layer on the surface of the soap s and forms a coating film in which a picture pattern remains to the end without being dissolved or peeled by water. Is selected from thermoplastic synthetic resins that react with far infrared rays and dry and harden in a short time, such as acrylic paint. The coating layer 16 is heated and hardened by the heating device 9 in the coating layer hardening device 3. When the coating agent is acrylic paint, the wavelength of far infrared rays of the far infrared heater 52 of the heating device 9 is preferably 50 to 100 μm. Far infrared rays have different absorptivity depending on the irradiated material,
In addition, it has the property of heating only the surface and not the inside.

Coating layer 16 by irradiation with far infrared rays
And the coating layer 16 gradually hardens to form a coating film. The coating layer 16 takes a very short time to harden, and if the far infrared rays are irradiated for a long time, the soap s may be softened and the soap s may be deformed at the time of thermal transfer. Is cooled to room temperature (20 to 25 ° C.) by cold air from the cold air outlet 41 to about 10 ° C. in the primary cooling, about 4 ° C. in the secondary cooling, and about 0 ° C. in the third cooling. .

Next, the soap s is sent to the thermal transfer machine 4. In order to reduce the heat load on the heating roller 97, the far infrared preheater 7
1 to heat the coating layer 16. The far infrared preheater 71 heats only the coating layer 16 of the soap s in a short time and does not soften the soap s. When the soap s is sent to the support base 81 below the transfer film 73 on which the picture pattern is positioned by the position sensor 75, the soap s hits the stop plate 117 shown in FIG. 11 and stops. The base 78 is pushed up by a lifting device 80 such as a fluid pressure actuator, and the soap s is pushed together with the transfer film 73 against the heating roller 97. At this time, the stop plate 117 is lowered by the lifting device 127.

Therefore, the soap s is coated with the coating layer 16
Transfer film 7 heated by far infrared preheater 76
The soap s on the support base 81 is sent to the left by the conveyor while being transferred by the rotating heating roller 97 with the picture pattern No. 3 pressed. When the boundary line 17 of the next transfer film 73 is detected by the position sensor 75, the feeding of the transfer film 73 is stopped.

At the time of thermal transfer, the support base 81 is vertically vibrated (having a small amplitude) by the electromagnetic vibrator 79 to prevent fusion between the transfer film 73 and the coating layer 16. A soft material such as thin urethane rubber is interposed between the lower surface of the support base 81 and the electromagnetic exciter 79. At the same time, the electromagnetic exciter 8
The electromagnetic actuator 85 of No. 6 adjusts the average tension of the transfer film 73 via the tension roller 82, and the electromagnetic exciter 8
The vibrating coil 84 of 6 applies vibration in the tensile direction to the transfer film 73 in a predetermined range, and immediately after the transfer film 73 is separated from the heating roller 97, the transfer film 73 is peeled from the soap s. The frequency of the electromagnetic exciter 86 is 30 to 200 Hz.
Is appropriate.

At the time of thermal transfer, the surface temperature of the portion where the heating roller 97 contacts the soap s via the transfer film 73 is lowered, but when the heating roller 97 is separated from the soap s, it is heated by the auxiliary far infrared heater 92 and is again heated. The surface temperature is restored to a predetermined level before contact with the soap s. The heat output of the auxiliary far infrared heater 92 is precisely controlled so as to compensate for the heat loss transferred from the heating roller 97 to the soap s, so that the surface temperature of the heating roller 97 becomes uniform. That is, the temperature of the heating roller 97 before the thermal transfer process is the temperature sensor 93a.
The temperature after the thermal transfer process is detected by the temperature sensor 93.
b, and the heat output of the auxiliary far infrared heater 92 is controlled by the output of the control device 90 based on the signals of the temperature sensors 93a and 93b, and the heating roller 97 is replenished with the amount of heat deprived during the thermal transfer process. . The temperature of the heating roller 97 is set to 150 to 250 ° C.

Since the heating roller 97 has the heater 98 embedded therein, the temperature change of the heating roller 97 can be suppressed and the starting time of the thermal transfer device can be shortened. Since the capacity of the heater 98 may be small, even if the operation of the thermal transfer device is suddenly stopped, the temperature of the heating roller 97 will not rise abnormally and the heating roller 97 will not be burned.

In the above embodiment, it is preferable to use a ceramic far infrared heater as the far infrared heater. Also,
Although the description has been given of the case of the soap s as the transferred material, it can also be applied to wood, paper, metal, food packaging containers and the like.

According to the present invention, since the heater 98 is provided inside the heating roller 97 and the far infrared heaters 92 and 91 are provided on the outer peripheral side, the heating roller 97 is provided.
Since only the surface of the can be rapidly heated, and the temperature-reduced portion where the heat is taken by the soap s after the thermal transfer can be quickly heated by the auxiliary far infrared heater 92, it is always possible. Thermal transfer can be performed at a uniform heating temperature without unevenness on the surface.

Further, by attaching an electromagnetic vibrating device 86 to the tension roller 82 for applying tension to the transfer film 73, vibration in the pulling direction can be applied to the transfer film 73. Therefore, the transfer film 73 and the soap s during thermal transfer can be applied. It is possible to prevent thermal welding with the heat roller 97, reduce the occurrence rate of product defects in combination with the improvement of the temperature control performance of the heating roller 97, and significantly increase the heat transfer speed.

Further, the heater 9 is provided inside the heating roller 97.
Since 8 is embedded, the temperature change of the heating roller 97 can be suppressed and the start-up time of the thermal transfer device can be shortened. Heater 98
The capacity can be small, and even if the operation of the thermal transfer device is suddenly stopped, the temperature of the heating roller 97 can be prevented from abnormally increasing and burning can be prevented.

[0036]

As described above, according to the present invention, since a plurality of sets of spray guns and air-blowing nozzles are arranged above the conveyor for transferring the transferred material, the required thickness can be continuously applied to the surface of the transferred material. Can form a stable coating layer.

Since the far-infrared heater and a plurality of cold air outlets were sequentially arranged on the upper side of the conveyor and downstream of the coating device, the coating layer was heated and cured, and then gradually cooled from room temperature to about 0 ° C. Since it is cooled to a temperature, it is possible to obtain a coating layer as a heat transfer surface which is smooth and stable against heat without wrinkles or cracks.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an outline of a thermal transfer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a relationship between a transfer film and an object to be transferred.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a schematic configuration of a coating device.

FIG. 4 is a side view of a coating layer curing device.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing an enlarged main part of the apparatus.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of a heating unit of the apparatus.

FIG. 7 is a front view of the same.

FIG. 8 is a side view of the thermal transfer machine.

FIG. 9 is a side view showing the main part.

FIG. 10 is a plan sectional view of a heating roller.

FIG. 11 is a front view showing a positioning device for an object to be transferred, which is provided on the press-contacting table.

FIG. 12 is a plan view of the same.

[Explanation of Codes] 2: Coating device 3: Coating ink layer curing device
4: Thermal transfer machine 5: Position detection device 8: Dryer 9: Heating device 10: Cooler 11: Pressure contact table 12: Conveyor 15: Picture pattern 52, 91, 98: Far infrared heater
78: Base 79, 86: Electromagnetic vibrator 80: Elevating device 81: Support 82: Tension roller 83: Guide roller 92: Auxiliary far infrared heater 93: Temperature sensor 9
7: Heating roller 115: Guide plate 117: Stop plate

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a thermal transfer device for contacting a heating roller for thermal transfer, which is rotationally driven, with a back surface of a transfer film on which a predetermined picture pattern is printed or vapor-deposited to transfer the picture pattern to the transfer object, the transfer object is transferred to the lower side of the heating roller. Above the conveyor that supplies
A coating device consisting of a spray gun for spraying a coating agent consisting of multiple sets of thermosetting resin and an air spray nozzle for drying the coating layer, a heater consisting of a far-infrared heater for thermosetting the coating layer, and a plurality of cool air A thermal transfer device characterized in that a cooler having an outlet is sequentially provided in parallel with a heating roller.