JPH09174799A - Printing form reproducible and usable in perpetuity and manufacture thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To manufacture a form having a structure being reproducible and usable in repetition by a direct printing form system with a very small amount of consumption material used, to enable use of water-base or oil-base ink on the occasion of printing and also to dispense with an inking mechanism for putting on ink. SOLUTION: In this printing form, a film 3 having repellence to water-base or oil-base ink is formed on a grained or polished roughened face 2 given to the surface of a base 1, by filling wax or low-melting resin therein, and then a desired roughened face area 4 is exposed by removing a part of the film 3 selectively by melting with heat, so that this area be made an image part area. Besides, the ink remaining in the image part area after completion of printing is removed by replacement by filling the wax or the low-melting resin material again in the image part area and thereby a fresh film 3 can be re- formed repeatedly in perpetuity.

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is simple and suitable for the field of light printing mainly for printing characters and line drawings, and can be repeatedly recycled without being discarded. A structure of a printing plate and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. In the field of light printing, direct printing technology and a small offset printing machine or stencil printing machine are used in order to meet various needs such as a small amount of a wide variety of products, a short delivery time and a low cost. The combined method is widely used as the mainstream, and various automations are being pursued to pursue cost reduction. However, as will be described later, in order to further reduce costs in the future, there is a limit in the prior art, and in response to environmental issues such as resource saving that must be promoted from a global environmental perspective. It is difficult to go. The problems to be solved by the present invention are listed below. (1) In the prior art, a new expensive plate material must be used to produce a plate each time the printed matter changes. This is a major factor that hinders the reduction of printing costs, as the trend of reducing the quantity of various products increases. (2) The amount of used plate materials discarded increases as the number of types of products increases, and the amount of development waste liquid and waste gas discharged during plate production also increases. It is becoming a big issue in the future from the viewpoint of saving energy and protecting the environment. (3) Even under the current situation of automation, it is considered that it is an unavoidable task to replace the plate every time the printed matter changes, which is a major obstacle to the improvement of workability. ing. (4) All of the current printing presses have a drawback that the structure is complicated and the machine is expensive because a mechanism for forming ink on the plate surface cannot be omitted. (5) Since small offset printing machines, which are currently the mainstream, cannot use water-based ink due to its mechanism, there are problems in working environment such as bad odor and dirt due to the use of oil-based ink, and environmental problems such as waste ink disposal. The problem of is left. In order to solve the above problems, the present invention can be reused permanently and repeatedly without being discarded, and is inexpensive and can be used on a printing machine by using a very small amount of consumable material. A printing plate characterized in that it is a plate that can be directly printed, and that an inexpensive printing machine is possible because it does not require an ink build-up mechanism, and that it can use water-based or oil-based inks. A structure, a manufacturing method thereof, and a printing system using the structure are provided. The first of the constituent elements of the present invention is, as shown in FIG. 1 (a), a substrate 1 having a roughened surface 2 in the form of a grain or a grain on its surface. Is. The purpose of providing the roughened surface 2 is to coat the wax or low melting point resin material 3 having resilience against water-based or oil-based inks (FIG. 1 (b),
This is for stably holding (c)). The roughened surface 2 can be provided by subjecting the surface of the substrate 1 to mechanical polishing such as sandblast polishing, brush polishing, or electrolytic polishing or chemical polishing that is usually used. In order to protect the grained or roughened roughened surface 2 thus provided from abrasion and external damage and to use it permanently, it has a good affinity for water-based or oil-based inks. In order to obtain the property, it is recommended to apply the selected metal plating on the surface with high precision. As the second component of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1 (b), the surface of the substrate 1 including the roughened or grain-like surface 2 is coated and filled with wax or a low melting point resin material. Coating 3 which is repellent to water-based or oil-based inks
Is related to the formation of As a method for forming the coating film 3 of wax or low melting point resin material, the following various methods can be practically used. (1) A wax or low melting point resin material is transfer-filled by pressing an impregnated body made of cloth or paper impregnated with wax or low melting point resin material in advance on the surface of a heated substrate 1, or the impregnated body. Is heated and pressure-bonded to the surface of the substrate 1 using a heat roller or the like to transfer and fill the wax or the low melting point resin material. (2) A method of coating and filling the surface of the substrate 1 with a wax or a low-melting resin material that has been heated and melted in advance by a roller, a spray, a shower, a squeegee and other commonly used coating means. (3) A method of coating and filling the surface of the substrate 1 with a wax or a low melting point resin material previously dissolved in a solvent by a roller, a spray, a shower, a squeegee and other commonly used coating means. The third component of the present invention is to melt and remove a desired portion from the region of the coating film 3 of the wax or low melting point resin material formed on the surface of the substrate 1 as described above to roughen it. It concerns the creation of a region 4 in which the surface 2 is exposed. A flexible sheet-shaped or ribbon-shaped absorber 5 having good thermal conductivity and having a property of easily absorbing a molten wax or a molten low melting point resin material.
Is adhered to the coating surface 3 of the wax or the low melting point resin material and a desired image is drawn by the local heating method, the wax or the low melting point resin material in the area drawn by heating is melted and the absorbent body 5 is melted. Absorbed and removed. As a result, the region 4 where the roughened surface 2 is exposed by removing the coating film 3 of the wax or the low melting point resin material is created on the surface of the substrate 1. This step is schematically shown in FIG. As the material of the absorber 5, papers such as glassine base paper and Indian paper and non-woven fabrics or cloths can be used. Further, it is recommended that these are materials colored in black in order to easily absorb heat and light. The advantage of absorbing and removing the coating film 3 of wax or low melting point resin material is that (1) no problem of environmental pollution occurs as compared with the method of heating and scattering, and (2) absorbed wax or The low melting point resin material can be recovered and used. As a method of drawing by heating, (1) a method of driving a thermal head by using a known digital or analog data conversion system for the absorber 5 pressed onto the surface of the substrate 1 can be used. At the portion where the tip of the thermal head is in contact, the coating 3 of wax or low melting point resin material is melted by the applied heat and absorbed by the absorber 5, and the roughened surface 2 is exposed. By scanning the thermal head at an appropriate temperature and speed in accordance with a controlled program, it is possible to continuously create the region 4 in which the roughened surface 2 is exposed on the surface of the substrate 1. (2) Further, instead of the thermal head, a method of scanning a thermal laser beam controlled by using a known digital or analog data conversion system can be used. The absorbent body 5 pressed onto the surface of the substrate 1
When a spot of a laser beam whose heat quantity is adjusted is irradiated, heat is transferred through the absorber 5, and only the wax or low melting point resin material film 3 at the irradiated spot is melted and absorbed by the absorber 5. By scanning the spot of the laser beam according to a program at an appropriate temperature and speed,
A region 4 where the roughened surface 2 is exposed can be continuously formed on the surface of the substrate 1. By any of the above methods (1) and (2), as shown in FIG. 1 (c), a region in which the coating film 3 of wax or low melting point resin material is stored on the surface of the substrate 1, It is possible to create a plate image composed of a region 4 in which the roughened surface 2 in the form of a grain or an abrasion is exposed by absorbing and removing the coating film 3 of the wax or the low melting point resin material. Since the surface covered with the wax or low melting point resin material film 3 has a very small surface energy, it has a large repulsion property against the ink, especially the water-based ink, and the ink, especially the water-based ink, is difficult to adhere. Since the exposed and roughened surface area 4 has a large surface energy, it has a high affinity with ink, especially water-based ink, and is in a state where ink, especially water-based ink, easily adheres. Therefore, as schematically shown in FIG. 1C, on the surface of the substrate 1, an image portion, which is a roughened surface area 4 to which ink adheres, and a non-image portion, which is a film surface area that repels ink. A plate image composed of is formed. The fourth component of the present invention relates to desired printing using the plate thus formed. The system for supplying ink to the plate surface manufactured as described above varies depending on the shape of the plate substrate 1 to be used. For example, when the cylindrical substrate 1 is used, the ink from the non-printed area as in gravure printing is used. It is not necessary to have a doctoring action for scraping off the ink and pushing the ink into the cells, and it is not necessary to use the inking roller used for ordinary offset printing, letterpress printing, etc. It is possible to print by printing ink using a supply system by direct immersion. Further, the printing system for printing the substrate is the substrate 1
Depending on the shape, it is possible to apply commonly used systems such as a method that uses a transfer roller such as offset printing or a direct printing method such as letterpress printing, stencil printing, and gravure printing on the substrate. Is. FIG. 3 shows an application example when direct printing is performed using the cylindrical substrate 1. The accuracy of the printed characters / images is determined by the fineness of the sand or crevices on the roughened surface 2, the thermal conductivity and surface roughness of the absorber 5, and the ability to absorb molten wax. is there. The fifth component of the present invention is to manufacture a desired plate by the above-mentioned process, and after the desired printing is completed, a wax or a low melting point resin material is formed only on the existing image area of the plate surface. The present invention relates to a method of refilling the sheet and resuming a state in which a new plate image to be printed next can be formed. After the printing is completed, the ink supply is stopped and the surface of the plate substrate 1 is heated at an appropriate temperature to refill the wax or the low melting point resin material. When the ink (FIG. 4 (a)) deposited in the image area of the plate surface is transferred to the printing medium, the ink film (FIG. 4 (b)) fixed on the bottom surface of the image area is formed. Left behind,
This ink film has a smaller affinity for the material surface forming the roughened surface 2 and the plated metal surface than the molten wax or the low melting point resin material. It is replaced during the filling process and floats on the surface of the coating film 3 of wax or low melting point resin material (Fig. 4).
(C)). When this residual ink is removed through a waste paper, the surface of the substrate 1 returns to the initial state (FIG. 1B) in which the coating film 3 of wax or low melting point resin material is formed on the entire surface. In this way, the same substrate 1 can be permanently and repeatedly reused as a plate. The roughened surface 2 on the surface of the substrate 1 is not roughened or damaged by processes such as filling of wax or low melting point resin material, plate image formation by heating and melting, printing and refilling. The substrate 1 provided with the surface 2 can be reused to repeat the surface repeatedly to create a new plate image. Since the present invention is configured as described above, the following effects can be obtained. (1) The substrate having a roughened surface in the form of a grain or a grain on the surface can be reused permanently any number of times thereafter, so that the depreciation cost is remarkably reduced. (2) An inexpensive wax or a low melting point resin material is used as a material for producing the plate image, and a small amount of filling is applied only to the existing image area except when the filling is performed for the first time. Therefore, an extremely low cost plate can be manufactured. (3) Since the substrate 1 is not discarded, the amount of waste is greatly reduced. (4) The amount of material consumed during plate image formation is only the wax or low melting point resin material absorbed by the absorber 5, and the absorbed material can be recovered, so almost all waste is discharged. There is nothing to do. (5) Direct printing system, and
As mentioned above, it is extremely easy to remake the plate, so
Suitable for high-mix low-volume printing. (6) When printing, an ink filling mechanism is not required, so that the structure of the printing machine is greatly simplified and a low-cost printing machine can be realized. (7) Since it is possible to use a water-based ink like the oil-based ink, it is possible to solve problems in the working environment such as bad odors and stains and problems in the global environment related to waste ink disposal. (8) By making use of the advantages described in (5), (6) and (7) above, the plate can be produced on the machine, the plate cost is low,
It is possible to produce a low-priced on-demand printing system that does not generate waste.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows a manufacturing process of a printing plate of the present invention. (A) is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a part of a substrate 1 having a roughened surface 2 in the form of a grain or a grain on the surface.
(B) is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a state where a coating film 3 of wax or a low melting point resin material is formed on the roughened surface 2. (C) is a schematic cross-sectional view showing that a desired portion is melted and removed from a region of the coating film 3 of wax or low melting point resin material, and a region 4 where the roughened surface 2 is exposed is created. FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a step of creating a region 4 in which a desired roughened surface 2 is exposed by heating and drawing with a thermal head or a laser beam through the absorber 5. FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view when printing is performed using a cylindrical substrate 1 as an application example of the present invention. FIG. 4A is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a state in which ink before printing is deposited on an image area. FIG. 6B is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a state in which the fixed ink film remains on the bottom surface of the image portion after printing. FIG. 6C is a schematic sectional view showing a state in which the residual ink is replaced by refilling with wax or a low melting point resin material. [Explanation of reference numerals] 1 substrate 2 roughened surface 3 coating film of wax or low melting point resin material 4 roughened surface exposed region 5 absorber

Claims (1)

Claim: What is claimed is: 1. A wax or low melting point resin material is coated and filled on the surface of a substrate 1 provided with a roughened surface 2 in the form of a grain or a grain in order to stably hold a surface coating. , After forming a coating 3 having repulsion against water-based or oil-based ink,
The exposed area 4 of the roughened surface 2 having an affinity for ink is selectively melted, absorbed, and removed by heating and drawing on the surface of the coating through the absorber 5. Which is used as an image part area, and is fixed by heating and refilling the existing image part area with wax or a low melting point resin material after the printing is completed. Permanently characterized in that the ink can be replaced and eliminated to restore the initial state of the coating film 3 shown in FIG. 1 (b), and by doing so, a new image area can be repeatedly created many times. Printing plate that can be recycled. 2. A roughened surface 2 in the form of a grain or a grain provided on the surface of the substrate 1 for improving the printing durability and the affinity for ink is subjected to metal plating. Printable version of. 3. In order to form a coating film 3 of wax or low melting point resin material on the roughened surface 2 provided on the surface of the substrate 1,
A method is used in which a sheet or a ribbon-shaped impregnated body in which cloth or paper is impregnated with wax or a low-melting point resin material is thermocompression-bonded to the roughened surface 2 and transfer-filled with the wax or the low-melting point resin material on the roughened surface 2. 1. A method for producing a printing plate according to claim 1. 4. In order to form a coating film 3 of wax or low melting point resin material on the roughened surface 2 provided on the surface of the substrate 1,
Transfer roller of molten wax or low melting point resin material,
The method for producing a printing plate according to claim 1, wherein a method of coating and filling the surface of the heated substrate 1 with a spray, a shower, a squeegee, or the like is used. 5. In order to form a coating film 3 of wax or low melting point resin material on the roughened surface 2 provided on the surface of the substrate 1,
The method for producing a printing plate according to claim 1, wherein a method of coating and filling the roughened surface 2 with a wax or a low melting point resin material dissolved in a solvent by using a transfer roller, a spray, a shower, a squeegee or the like is used. . 6. A roughened surface 2 selectively in the region of said coating 3.
In order to create the exposed area 4 of the film, the absorbent body 5 made of a flexible sheet or ribbon having sufficient thermal conductivity and capable of easily absorbing the melted wax or the low melting point resin material is coated with the coating film. Placed closely on the side of 3,
2. A method of heating and drawing a desired character / image by a thermal head controlled via this, and melting, absorbing, and removing the wax or low melting point resin material film 3 in the drawing area is used. Method for manufacturing printing plate. 7. Roughened surface 2 selectively within the region of said coating 3.
In order to create the exposed area 4 of the film, the absorbent body 5 made of a flexible sheet or ribbon having sufficient thermal conductivity and capable of easily absorbing the melted wax or the low melting point resin material is coated with the coating film. Placed closely on the side of 3,
A method of heating and drawing a desired character / image by scanning a controlled thermal laser beam through this and melting and absorbing the wax or low melting point resin material film 3 in the drawing area is used. A method for producing the printing plate described.