JPH07266531A - Printing method and apparatus using flat intaglio - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce abrasion and to prevent the damage of an intaglio due to refuse or the generation of printing contamination on the flat part of the intaglio. CONSTITUTION:A doctor blade 5 is inclined with respect to the vertical direction of a flat intaglio 1 so that the angle alpha formed by the surface of the flat ingaglio 1 behind the advance direction of the doctor blade and the doctor blade 5 becomes 0 deg.C<alpha<=90 deg.C and slid on the surface of the intaglio to scrape off ink.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing method using a plate-shaped intaglio plate, which has high printing accuracy and enables accurate printing without stains, and has little wear of a doctor blade or an intaglio plate, and a printing method therefor. Regarding the device used.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as one of intaglio printing methods, a method of using a flat plate intaglio formed of a thick metal plate or a thick glass plate is known. Since the printing method using a flat plate intaglio enables highly accurate printing, it has recently attracted attention as one of printing means for precise patterns such as liquid crystal displays and CRT color filters.

Usually, the printing method using the plate-shaped intaglio plate uses a plate-shaped intaglio plate in which a pattern of a printing pattern is formed as a recess on a substrate such as a thick metal plate or a glass plate, and ink is applied to the surface of the intaglio plate. After applying and sliding the doctor blade in a certain direction to scrape off the excess ink on the plate intaglio,
The ink of the flat plate intaglio is directly or indirectly transferred to the printing medium.

In a printing method using a flat plate intaglio plate, a doctor blade sliding mechanism is formed so that the doctor blade slides on the surface of the flat plate intaglio plate when scratching excess ink on the surface of the flat plate intaglio plate. An ink scraping device provided with a is known. Conventionally, in the doctor blade sliding mechanism of the above apparatus, as shown in FIG. 4A, the doctor blade 45 moves the surface of the flat plate intaglio 41 from one end of the intaglio 41 to the other end. 45 (b), 45
It is formed so as to be movable in a straight line with (c), and further, pressure is applied to the intaglio plate from above the blade so that the tip of the doctor blade 45 comes into close contact with the surface of the plate intaglio plate 41.

In the above conventional ink scraping device,
When the doctor blade 45 slides on the surface of the flat plate intaglio 41, the angle of the doctor blade is defined by the angle formed by the blade 45 and the flat plate intaglio surface behind the blade traveling direction as shown in FIG. The ink was scraped off by inclining at an angle of α exceeding 90 °. In this conventional ink scraping device, the ink 43 of the blade 45b is pressed against the surface of the intaglio plate by the blade surface, becomes the state of the blade 45c, and the blade tip is scraped by the cutting edge located behind the doctor blade 45. .

[0006]

When the above-mentioned conventional ink scraping device is used to scrape the ink, in order to cleanly scrape off the ink on the surface of the plate-shaped intaglio plate, a large amount from the upper side of the blade to the intaglio plate is used. There was a problem that pressure had to be applied. For example, the length of the blade is 30c
In the case of a doctor blade of m, it was necessary to apply a pressure of 100 kg or more. When such a large pressure is applied to the doctor blade, there is a problem that the intaglio plate or the blade wears quickly. If wear of the intaglio progresses, it will be difficult to reproduce an accurate pattern, so it will not be possible to ensure sufficient printing accuracy, and due to the rapid wear of the blade, it will take time and effort to replace the blade or re-polish it. However, the conventional ink scraping device is insufficient in terms of workability and printing accuracy.

Further, in the above-described conventional ink scraping device, when the scraped ink moves from the one end to the other end of the surface of the intaglio plate, it moves while being pressed between the blade surface and the intaglio plate. Therefore, if dust or the like adheres to the surface of the intaglio plate between the time when the ink is evenly applied and the time when the ink is scraped off by the doctor blade, the dust is caught inside the ink by the scraping operation and the blade moves toward the rear end of the blade. Since the distance between the surface and the intaglio surface is narrowed and the flat portion of the intaglio surface is strongly pressed at the blade edge, there is a problem that the intaglio surface is often scratched and printing stains often occur. .

The present invention is intended to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, in which the abrasion of the intaglio plate and the doctor blade is small, and the intaglio plate surface is not scratched or printed and the printing workability is excellent and the precision is high. An object of the present invention is to provide a printing method using a plate-shaped intaglio that is capable of printing, and an apparatus used in the method.

[0009]

A printing method using a flat intaglio plate of the present invention is to supply ink to the surface of a flat plate intaglio plate in which a pattern of a printed pattern is formed as a hollow plate, and a doctor blade to make a flat plate intaglio plate. In a printing method in which the ink of the plate intaglio plate is transferred to an object to be printed by sliding relatively from one end to the other end to scrape off the excess ink of the plate intaglio plate, The inclination of the doctor blade in the vertical direction is set so that the angle α formed between the doctor blade and the flat plate-shaped intaglio surface behind the doctor blade in the traveling direction is 0.
The gist is to perform an ink scraping operation for the flat plate intaglio by inclining it so that the angle is in the range of ° <α ≦ 90 °.

Further, the apparatus used in the printing method using the flat intaglio plate of the present invention supplies ink to the surface of the flat plate intaglio plate in which the pattern of the printed pattern is formed as the recesses, and the doctor blade is used to form the flat plate intaglio plate. An apparatus used in a printing method, in which the ink of the plate intaglio plate is transferred to an object to be printed after the excess ink of the plate intaglio plate is scraped by relatively sliding from one end to the other end. The inclination of the doctor blade in the vertical direction with respect to the flat plate-shaped intaglio is tilted so that the angle α formed by the doctor blade and the surface of the flat plate-shaped intaglio behind the doctor blade is in the range of 0 ° <α ≦ 90 °. The gist of the present invention is to provide a blade sliding mechanism capable of performing an ink scraping operation on an intaglio plate.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a part of steps of an example of a printing method using a flat plate intaglio according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a part of the steps of an example of the printing method using the flat plate intaglio of the present invention. The printing method using the flat intaglio plate of the present invention is a printing method using a flat plate intaglio plate 1 in which a pattern of a printed pattern is formed as recesses 2 on the surface, as shown in FIG. Ink 3 is supplied to the surface of the intaglio plate 1, and the roller 3 is used to fill the ink 3 into the recess 2 of the plate intaglio plate 1 and to make the surface uniform [(b) in the figure]. It should be noted that it is not limited to the roller shown in FIG. 1 that the ink supplied to the surface of the plate-shaped intaglio plate is uniformly filled in the recess, but a plate-shaped blade may be used, although not particularly shown.

Next, as shown in FIG. 1C, the doctor blade 5 is slid from one end of the surface of the plate-shaped intaglio plate 1 to the end of the other end of the plate-shaped intaglio plate 1, and the ink is put in the recess 2 of the plate-shaped intaglio plate 1. Fill 3 and scrape off the excess ink [(d) in the figure]. The doctor blade 5 may be slid relative to the surface of the flat plate intaglio 1, and either the doctor blade 5 or the flat plate intaglio 1 may be moved. In the operation of scraping the ink with the doctor blade 5, the inclination of the doctor blade 5 with respect to the vertical direction of the flat plate intaglio 1 is such that the angle between the flat plate intaglio surface behind the doctor blade advancing direction and the doctor blade as shown in FIG. The ink is scraped by inclining so that α is in the range of 0 ° <α ≦ 90 ° and moving the surface of the intaglio plate. This ink scraping operation is usually performed so that the ink can be scraped off neatly by only one scraping operation.

In the ink scraping operation shown in FIGS. 1 (c) and 1 (d), the inclination of the doctor blade is the angle α (hereinafter, simply the angle of the blade) formed by the flat plate intaglio surface on the rear side of the blade and the doctor blade 5. (Although sometimes referred to as α), it can be set arbitrarily within the range of 0 ° <α ≦ 90 °.
When the blade angle α exceeds 90 °, a large pressure is required to press the blade, while when the blade angle α is 0 °, it is practically impossible to perform ink scraping. Further, within the range of the blade angle α in the present invention, when the blade angle α becomes large, the pressing pressure may be small, but it becomes difficult to deposit the ink on the blade surface. On the other hand, when the angle α of the blade becomes small, the pressure for pressing the blade becomes large, but it becomes easy to deposit the ink on the blade surface. From this point, the blade angle α
Is preferably in the range of 30 ° <α <60 °, and more preferably in the range of 45 ° <α <55 °. Within the above range, there is a good balance between the pressure applied to the blade and the prevention of entrainment by placing ink, and a good ink scraping operation can be performed.

After the above-described ink scraping operation shown in FIGS. 1 (c) and 1 (d), the ink 3 of the flat intaglio plate 1 is placed on a separate blanket 6 as shown in FIG. 2 (e). After the transfer, the ink of the blanket 6 is pressed against the surface of the printing target 7 and transferred to the printing target 7 to complete the printing and form the printing target 8 as shown in FIG. [FIG. 2 (g)]. Further, when performing the next printing, the doctor blade 5 is returned from the other end to the one end, and the operations of FIGS. 1A to 1D and 2E to 2G are sequentially performed. Repeat the work to be done. The transfer of the ink may be performed by directly pressing the printing material against the flat plate intaglio.

The apparatus, materials and the like used in the printing method of the present invention will be described below. The apparatus of the present invention is used in the printing method using the above-mentioned flat plate intaglio, and is an apparatus for scraping ink. According to the apparatus of the present invention, the blade angle α is 0 ° <α
A blade sliding mechanism capable of sliding the surface of the plate-shaped intaglio while inclining constantly within a range of ≦ 90 ° is provided. The blade sliding mechanism includes a blade holding device that holds the doctor blade and a blade sliding device that moves the doctor blade from one end of the flat plate intaglio to the other end.

The blade holding device may be formed so that the doctor blade is held at a certain angle in the vertical direction, the blade is pressed against the intaglio plate, and the blade is removable. The blade holding device includes means for supporting both ends or one end of the doctor blade in the longitudinal direction, or means for supporting a part or all of the doctor blade on the upper side in the vertical direction. Further, the blade holding device is preferably formed so that the angle of the blade can be adjusted arbitrarily. An air cylinder is used as a device for applying pressure to the doctor blade.

The blade sliding device only needs to be formed so that the doctor blade can relatively move from one end to the other end of the flat plate intaglio plate, and only the means for moving the blade side is a flat plate intaglio plate. It suffices to have only a means for moving or both means for moving both. The blade moving device is preferably formed such that the relative moving speed of the doctor blade is about 10 mm / min to 1000 mm / min.

The material of the doctor blade 5 may be resin, metal, ceramics or the like. In particular, in the case of printing a color filter for a flat display, a ceramic blade is preferable in order to avoid metal contamination. A doctor blade having a thickness of 0.1 mm to 1 mm is used.

The plate-shaped intaglio 1 used in the printing method of the present invention has a thickness of about 3 mm to 10 mm as a base material,
A glass plate such as quartz glass or general glass or a metal plate is used, and a pattern of a printed pattern is formed as a recess on the surface of the base material by etching.

In order to form a pattern of a printed pattern on the plate-shaped intaglio, a conventionally known etching method is used. For example, when the substrate is glass, chromium is vapor-deposited or sputtered on the surface of the substrate to form a chromium film on the entire surface, and then a resist layer is formed on the surface of the chromium film, and then a mask having a print pattern is applied. The resist layer is irradiated with light having a wavelength sensitive to the mask and developed to form the resist layer so as to correspond to the print pattern. The surface of the material is exposed, and etching is performed using hydrofluoric acid to form recesses of the printed pattern at a desired depth.

[0021]

The operation of the method and apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an ink scraping state for explaining the operation of the printing method of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, when the doctor blade 5 is slid on the surface of the flat intaglio plate while pressing the angle α of the doctor blade in the range of 0 ° <α ≦ 90 °, the portion 5b holding the doctor blade The force applied to the blade 5a is transmitted to the blade edge 5a that comes into contact with the surface 1a of the flat plate intaglio.
Since the force of pressing the ink to the surface of the intaglio and the force of advancing in the traveling direction are in the same direction, the pressure at the time of scraping the ink can be small. On the other hand, in the ink scraping method used in the conventional printing method, as shown in FIG.
Since the angle α of the doctor blade 45 was slid to an angle exceeding 90 °, the force applied to the end portion of the doctor blade was the direction of the force of the advancing direction of the doctor blade and the direction of the force of pressing the blade against the intaglio plate. As a result, the force for pressing the doctor blade becomes smaller, and it is necessary to apply a large pressure to the doctor blade.

Further, looking at the movement of the ink scraped by the doctor blade, it is shown in FIG.
As shown in (a) and (c), the ink is caught between the surface of the doctor blade and the intaglio plate, and the ink is pressed against the intaglio plate. However, according to the method of the present invention,
As shown in FIG. 3 (a), since the blade surface 5c is located rearward of the tip 5a of the doctor blade, excess ink scraped off is carried on the intaglio surface (blade surface 5c). As there is no risk of dust being caught in the ink and getting caught between the blade tip and the intaglio plate, smooth ink scraping can be performed.

FIG. 3 (b) shows another example of the present invention in which the angle α of the doctor blade is 90 ° and the inclination is vertical. In this case, the ink is not pressed in the plate intaglio direction by the doctor blade as in FIG. 3 (a). Further, the force applied to the intaglio plate can be made smaller than in the case where the angle of the conventional doctor blade exceeds 90 °. Further, FIG. 7C is a plan view of the ink scraping step of the method of the present invention. The doctor blade is usually moved straight from one end to the other, as shown in the figure.

[0024]

As described above, in the printing method using the flat plate intaglio according to the present invention, the inclination of the doctor blade in the vertical direction of the flat plate intaglio is set so that the angle α formed between the back of the blade advancing direction and the surface of the intaglio plate is 0. By adopting the method of scraping the ink by inclining so that the relation of ° <α ≤ 90 ° is obtained,
Compared with the conventional method in which the doctor blade is tilted at an angle over 90 ° and the ink is scraped off for printing,
Even if the pressure applied to the blade is small, good ink scraping is possible, and by reducing the pressure applied to the blade, the abrasion of the intaglio plate and the doctor blade can be reduced. Further, the deflection of the doctor blade is reduced, and the uniformity of the ink scraping in the longitudinal direction of the blade is improved. Therefore, even if the pressing force of the blade is reduced, the pattern of the flat intaglio plate can be printed neatly, and the wear of the plate can make it possible to maintain the accuracy of the print pattern of the flat intaglio plate for a long period of time, and the life of the expensive intaglio plate is reduced. Printing cost can be reduced by extending the printing durability. Furthermore, since the wear of the doctor blade is reduced, the work of replacing the doctor blade and re-sharpening is reduced, and the printing workability is improved.

Further, since the doctor blade hardly wraps the ink between the doctor blade and the flat plate intaglio and moves the flat plate intaglio surface with the ink placed on the doctor blade surface, the ink is applied to the intaglio surface and then the Even if dust adheres to the ink, there is no risk of dust being caught in the ink and entering between the tip of the blade and the intaglio plate.
This has an effect of preventing scratches on the intaglio plate due to dust and printing stains on the flat part of the intaglio plate.

In the apparatus used in the printing method using the plate intaglio of the present invention, the doctor blade angle α is 0 ° <α ≦
Since the doctor blade is tilted so that the ink can be scraped off within the range of 90 °, the pressure to press the doctor blade becomes extremely small. Therefore, the mechanism of the portion pressing the doctor blade is a simple device. The device can be constructed at low cost. Further, by using the apparatus in the above printing method, the ink scraping operation can be automated, and printing with high accuracy and excellent quality can be performed with good workability.

The printing method using the flat intaglio plate of the present invention and the apparatus used for the printing can be suitably used for various printings, but particularly, there are many linear portions as a printing pattern, and the printing quality is higher and the quality is excellent. It is most suitable for precise printing in fields requiring printing (for example, liquid crystal displays and CRT color filters).

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a part of a process drawing showing an example of a printing method using a flat plate intaglio according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a part of a process drawing showing an example of a printing method using the flat plate intaglio of the present invention.

3A and 3B are diagrams showing an ink scraping state for explaining the operation of the printing method of the present invention, FIG. 3A is a side view showing an example of an angle of a doctor blade, and FIG. The side view which shows another example, (c) is a top view.

4A and 4B show states of a flat plate intaglio and a doctor blade in a conventional flat plate intaglio printing method, FIG. 4A is a plan view, FIG. 4A is a side view, and FIG. .

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Flat plate intaglio 2 Recesses of printing pattern 3 Ink 4 Roller 5 Doctor blade 6 Blanket 7 Printed material 8 Printed matter

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An ink is supplied to the surface of a plate-shaped intaglio plate having a pattern of a print pattern formed as recesses, and a doctor blade is slid relatively from one end to the other end of the plate-shaped intaglio plate. In the printing method of transferring the ink of the flat plate intaglio plate to the printing object after scraping the excess ink of the flat plate intaglio plate, the inclination of the doctor blade in the vertical direction with respect to the flat plate intaglio plate is adjusted to The angle α between the intaglio surface and the doctor blade is 0 °
A printing method using a plate intaglio, which comprises performing an ink scraping operation on the plate intaglio by inclining it so that it falls within a range of <α ≦ 90 °. 2. An ink is supplied to the surface of a plate-shaped intaglio plate having a pattern of a print pattern formed as recesses, and a doctor blade is slid relatively from one end to the other end of the plate-shaped intaglio plate. A device used for a printing method of transferring the ink of the plate intaglio plate to an object to be printed after scraping off the excess ink of the plate intaglio plate, and the inclination of the doctor blade in the vertical direction with respect to the plate intaglio plate Tilted so that the angle α formed by the doctor blade and the flat plate-shaped intaglio surface in the backward direction is in the range of 0 ° <α ≦ 90 °,
An apparatus for use in a printing method using a flat plate intaglio, comprising a blade moving mechanism capable of scraping ink from the flat plate intaglio.