JPH0691853A - Printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve a workability and stabilize a printing state regardless of a thick variation of a glass substrate serving as a printing member by a method wherein a drive means is actuated based on a recognition signal from a sensor to ensure a constant contact state of a printing part with a drum at the time of printing. CONSTITUTION:After a length measuring machine (sensor) 17 measures a height of a part of a glass substrate 9 opposed to the length measuring machine 17, a difference between the measured value and a height of a rotating shaft 10a of a drum 10 is compared with a reference difference. A drive amount Z of a Z drive part 7 required for setting the difference equal to the reference difference is previously calculated and stored. Next, when an X travel body 5 is traveled from the measurement position in a direction shown by an arrow (a) by a distance X, a controller 20 issues an instruction to the Z drive part to vertically actuate the Z drive part 7 by a distance Z to keep the glass substrate 9 at a predetermined height.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus for printing a filter material on a glass substrate in a predetermined pattern to manufacture a color filter for liquid crystal, for example.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, there is a printing apparatus for printing a filter material on a glass substrate in a predetermined pattern in order to manufacture a liquid crystal color filter.

This printing apparatus is, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, and comprises a substrate 1. Inside the base 1, a guide surface 1a having a flat and horizontal upper surface is provided, and a support pillar 1b is provided upright on the upper part of the base 1.

An X drive means 2 is provided on the guide surface 1a of the base body. The X driving means 2 is composed of a guide rail 3 provided in the X direction and a ball screw mechanism 4 provided along the axis of the guide rail 3.
An X moving body 5 is attached to a screw shaft 4a of the ball screw mechanism 4 so as to reciprocate along the guide rail 3 when the ball screw mechanism 4 operates.

A Z guide body 6 is fixed in one end of the X moving body 5, and a Z drive portion 7 is provided in the Z guide body 6.
Is provided. The Z drive unit 7 holds a mounting table 8 guided by the Z guide body 6 so as to be vertically movable. The mounting table 8 is provided with its upper surface flat and horizontal, and a glass substrate 9 which is an object to be printed is provided on the upper surface.
The lower surface of the can be held.

At the other end of the X-moving body 5, although not shown, a plate mounting table for holding a printing plate on which grooves of a predetermined pattern are formed is the same as the mounting table 8 described above. It is provided in the Z guide body so as to be vertically movable by a Z drive unit.

On the other hand, a cylindrical printing drum 10 (hereinafter referred to as "drum 10") is provided on the holding column 1b of the base body 1.
Are rotatably supported with their axes parallel to the Y direction. The drum 10 is rotatably driven by a rotary motor 11 connected to the rotary shaft of the drum 10.

Next, the glass substrate 9 is formed by using this printing apparatus.
The case where the filter material is printed on will be described.

First, in order to prevent the printing state from being different for each glass substrate 9 ...
When printing is performed on the ..., The glass substrates 9 are divided into a plurality of groups according to their thicknesses.

That is, when there are variations (deviations) of ± 50 μm (100 μm) in the thickness of a plurality of (for example, 100) glass substrates 9 ..., the plurality of glass substrates 9 ... Are allowed during printing. Range of variation, for example, 1
It is divided into 10 layers (100 μm / 10 μm) at intervals of 0 μm and held.

Then, for each layer, the glass substrate 9 serving as a reference is taken out, the glass substrate 9 is placed on the placing table 8 and brought into contact with the drum 10, and the contact state (nip width) is visually observed. Observe and adjust the height of the mounting table 8 as appropriate.

After the height of the mounting table 8 is adjusted, ink (filter material) is placed in the groove of the printing plate (not shown).
To supply. When ink is supplied to the plate, the X driving means 2 is operated and the moving body 5 is moved to transfer the ink from the plate to the surface of the rotary drum 10.

When the ink is transferred to the rotary drum 10, the moving body 5 is driven in the direction shown by the arrow (a) in the figure, and the drum 10 and the glass substrate 9 are brought into contact with each other by rolling. The ink is transferred onto the glass substrate 9.

As a result, the filter material is printed on the glass substrate 9 in a predetermined pattern.

[0015]

By the way, according to the above-mentioned structure, the plurality of glass substrates 9 are divided into layers, and each time the layers of the glass substrates 9 are changed during printing, It is necessary to perform a setup operation for adjusting the height of the mounting table 8 to a predetermined value.

However, the work of layering the glass substrates 9 ... And the work of adjusting the height of the mounting table 8 described above are troublesome works requiring skill, and the workability is sometimes very poor.

Moreover, even if such a work is performed, there is usually a variation in thickness within one glass substrate 9, and this variation causes printing pressure to vary, resulting in a non-uniform printing state. there were.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, has good workability, and has a stable printing state regardless of variations in the thickness of the glass substrate, which is a member to be printed. The purpose is to provide a device.

[0019]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a printing apparatus for performing printing of a predetermined pattern on a substrate to be printed, which includes a placing table that holds the substrate to be printed and reciprocates, and the placing table described above. A drum for performing printing of the predetermined pattern on the substrate to be held and moving by rolling contact with the substrate to be printed, and a driving unit for driving the mounting table and the drum so as to relatively come into contact with and separate from each other, A sensor for recognizing a predetermined printing portion of the substrate to be printed held on the mounting table, and the driving means so that a contact state between the printing portion and the drum becomes constant during printing based on a recognition signal from the sensor. And a control unit for operating the.

[0020]

According to this structure, it is possible to print a predetermined pattern on the glass substrate while maintaining the contact width between the glass substrate and the drum at a predetermined value.

[0021]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. The same components as those of the conventional example are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

This printing apparatus is similar to the conventional example in that the substrate 1
And the X driving means 2 provided on the base body 1 and the drum 1.
0, a mounting table 8, and a plate mounting table (not shown).

The holding column 1b provided on the upper surface of the base body 1 is provided with a drum vertical drive unit 15 for vertically driving the drum 10. And the drum 10
Is vertically driven along a drum holding portion 16 provided in the support column 1b, and is brought into contact with and separated from the mounting table 8 held by the X moving body 5. .

Further, a reflection type length measuring device (sensor) 17 is attached to a position of a front distance x (shown in the figure) of the holding column 1b provided on the upper part of the base 1. The reflection type length measuring device 17 is provided with its measuring surface facing the X moving body 5, and the height of the portion of the upper surface of the glass substrate 9 and the plate facing the length measuring device 17 can be obtained.
By moving the X moving body 5, the height of the facing portion of the glass substrate 9 (plate) held by the X moving body 5 can be sequentially measured over the entire length (width). It is like this.

The reflection type length measuring device 17 includes an image processing unit 19
The image processing unit 19 is connected to the controller 20. Also, this controller 20 is the above X
It is connected to a Z drive unit 7 provided in the moving body 5, and by issuing a command, this Z drive unit 7 (drive means) is operated by a predetermined amount to adjust the height of the upper surface of the glass substrate 9. It has become.

Although not shown, this controller 2
0 is also connected to Z drive means for moving the plate up and down,
The height of the upper surface of the plate can also be controlled.

Next, a case where a film material is printed on the glass substrate 9 in a predetermined pattern by using this printing apparatus will be described.

First, before actual printing, the relationship between the height of the upper surface of the glass substrate 9 and the height of the rotating shaft 10a of the drum 10 is obtained. That is, the glass substrate 9 for test is placed on the upper surface of the above-mentioned mounting table 8, and the drum 10 with ink is pressed against the glass substrate 9. The printing width (nip width) at this time is observed by, for example, a CCD camera (not shown), and the height of the drive shaft 10a of the drum 10 and the height of the upper surface of the glass substrate 9 such that the nip width becomes a predetermined value. And the difference (hereinafter referred to as "reference difference").

Similarly, the relationship between the height of the upper surface of the plate and the height of the rotating shaft 10a of the drum 10 is also obtained, and the relationship is calculated so that the printing pressure of the plate and the drum 10 becomes a predetermined value. To do.

The controller 20 determines the operation amount of the Z drive unit 7 based on the reference difference thus obtained. That is, when the height of the portion of the glass substrate 9 facing the length measuring instrument 17 is measured by the length measuring instrument 17, the difference between this and the height of the rotary shaft 10a of the drum 10 is defined as the reference difference. By comparison, the drive amount z of the Z drive unit 7 required to make this difference equal to the reference difference is calculated in advance and stored.

Then, when the X moving body 5 moves from that position in the direction indicated by the arrow (a) by the distance x, the controller 20 issues a command to the Z driving body, and
The driving part 7 is operated by z (up and down) to keep the glass substrate 9 at a predetermined height.

Next, the printing apparatus actually prints.

That is, first, the controller 20 described above.
Operates the drum up-and-down drive unit 15 to drive the drum 1
While maintaining 0 at a predetermined height, the plate is positioned at a predetermined height with respect to the drum 10. Then, ink is supplied to this plate. Then, the X driving means is operated to transfer the ink to the drum 10.

Next, the glass substrate 9 is placed on the upper surface of the X moving body 5 and is in the X direction (the direction indicated by the arrow (a)).
Move to. As described above, the glass substrate 9 is vertically moved by a predetermined amount when the height of the upper surface of the glass substrate 9 is measured at the position x in front of the drum 10 and when the glass substrate 9 is moved by x from that position. As a result, the drum 10 comes into contact with that portion with a predetermined nip width, and ink is transferred to the portion to be printed.

As the glass substrate 9 is driven in the X direction, the controller 20 sequentially performs the above-mentioned work on all parts of the glass substrate 9, and the height of the mounting table 8 is set in real time. The height difference of the upper surface of the glass substrate 9 and the height of the drum 10 is controlled to be always constant while controlling with.

As a result, the glass substrate 9 always has a constant nip width regardless of its thickness.
Since it contacts 0, the film material is uniformly printed on the glass substrate 9 over the entire length.

According to this structure, once the positional relationship between the thickness of the glass substrate 9 and the drum 10 is obtained,
It is possible to print the film material on all the glass substrates 9 in a predetermined pattern and in a uniform state without dividing the glass substrates 9 into layers.

Further, even if the thickness of one glass substrate 9 varies depending on the part, since the height of the drum 10 is adjusted in real time, it can be easily dealt with and uniform over the entire length of the substrate. Can be printed.

Further, the positional relationship between the drum 10 and the glass substrate 9 can be easily carried out by using the reflection type length measuring device 17 without manual operation.

As a result, workability is improved and printing accuracy is improved.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be variously modified without changing the gist of the invention.

For example, in the above embodiment, the drum 1 is used.
In order to keep the difference between the height of the rotating shaft 10a of 0 and the height of the upper surface of the glass substrate 9 constant, the glass substrate 9 side is driven up and down, but the invention is not limited to this, and the driving is not limited to this. The drum vertical drive unit 15 may be used as the means to vertically drive the drum 10 side. Also,
Both the drum 10 side and the glass substrate 9 side may be moved up and down depending on the thickness of the glass substrate 9.

Further, in the above-mentioned one embodiment, the printing device prints the film material on the glass substrate 9, but the printing device is not limited to this, and the printing device prints the wiring pattern on the printed circuit board. May be.

In the above-described embodiment, the reflection type length measuring instrument 17 is used as the sensor, but the sensor is not limited to this, and may be a non-contact type probe, for example.

In the above embodiment, the printing state is determined based on the nip width, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a load cell is used to measure the printing pressure of the drum 10. The print state may be determined based on this.

[0046]

As described above, the present invention is a printing apparatus for performing printing of a predetermined pattern on a substrate to be printed, which is a holding table which holds the substrate to be printed and reciprocates, and the placing table described above. A drum for printing the predetermined pattern on this substrate by rolling contact with the substrate to be held and moving on the substrate, and a driving means for driving the mounting table and the drum so as to relatively contact and separate from each other. , A sensor for recognizing a predetermined print portion of the substrate to be printed held on the mounting table, and the drive so that the contact state between the print portion and the drum becomes constant during printing based on a recognition signal from the sensor. And a control unit for operating the means.

According to this structure, since it is not necessary to divide the glass substrate into layers for each thickness, workability is improved, and even if there is a variation in thickness within one glass substrate,
There is an effect that uniform printing can be performed regardless of the variation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference numeral 7 ... Z drive unit (drive unit), 8 ... Mounting table, 9 ... Glass substrate (printed substrate), 10 ... Drum, 15 ... Drum vertical drive unit (drive unit), 17 ... Reflective length measuring sensor (sensor), Two
0 ... Controller (control unit).

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Takeshi Onozuka, 7-1, Nisshin-cho, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Toshiba Electronics Engineering Co., Ltd. 1 Within Toshiba Electronics Engineering Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printing apparatus for printing a predetermined pattern on a substrate to be printed, comprising: a mounting table that holds the substrate to be printed and reciprocates; and the substrate to be printed that is held and moved by the mounting table. A drum for printing the predetermined pattern on the substrate by rolling contact with the driving means, a driving means for driving the placing table and the drum so as to relatively contact and separate from each other, and a drum held on the placing table. A sensor for recognizing a predetermined printing portion of the substrate to be printed and a control unit for activating the driving means based on a recognition signal from the sensor so that a contact state between the printing portion and the drum becomes constant during printing. A printing device characterized by: