JPS58124653A - Pad printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform a pad printing on an object having an uneven shape and size, by a method wherein ink pads and object holders are continuously revolved respectively on adjoining locus circles in one-way direction, and the object holder is positioned so that it can elastically move backward in the direction of the center of the locus circle. CONSTITUTION:Ink pads 4 and object holders 14 are continuously revolved on the respective adjacent locus circles at a constant speed so that they meet each other in order. When they meet, the pushing surface of the ink pad 4 is brought into press contact with a surface of a massive object D held by the object holder in a no-slip and rolling contact condition. Ink transferred to the pushing surface of the pad from an ink pocket at a periphery of a plate drum 7 is transferred and adhered to the surface of the object D. In order to perform a pad printing on the object D having an uneven shape and size, the individual object holder 14 is positioned so that it can elastically move backward in a direction of a radius of a revolving locus circle.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a pad printing machine that mainly targets bulk articles, and aims to enable pad printing to be performed sequentially and efficiently on the articles having irregular shapes and sizes. It is something to do.

By the way, 1. Using a highly elastic ink pad as an ink medium, the ink in the ink pocket of an intaglio printing plate is transferred to the surface of the pad, and then the pad is pressed against the surface of the target article. , a mourning pad printing machine configured to transfer the above ink from the former to the latter,
The whole ink pad has high elasticity, so even if the surface of the object is curved or bent in a concave or convex manner, it can print perfectly on the surface, and therefore can print various three-dimensional images. However, the printing mechanism in this type of printing machine moves the ink pad back and forth nine times between the printing plate and the target item, and prints once for each round trip. Since the printer is configured to print at a rate of , it has the disadvantage that the number of prints per unit time is small and efficiency is poor.

Also, the article feeding mechanism in this type of printing machine.

It is configured to sequentially supply articles of uniform shape and size to a printing position and send them out from the printing position. Therefore, if the shape or size of the target article is irregular even within a limited range, there is no flexibility in dealing with this, so the printing area for each article is determined by the predetermined position determined by the relationship with the ink pad. 9. It is difficult to bring the paper to the printing reference surface. This results in a situation where printing becomes impossible.

On the other hand, in the case of bulk products such as citrus fruits, the variety, the name of the fruit, the place of origin, or other symbols or marks may be written on the surface of each product. It is customary for such markings to be displayed at the shipping location, but since the number of items being shipped is huge, it will have a significant impact on shipping costs unless very efficient printing methods are used. .

However, pad printing is the most suitable method for printing on fruits since there is no risk of damaging the fruits, but conventional pad printing machines do not have the printing processing ability as described above. From this point of view, it is still insufficient.

Also, look at it in general.

The fruits mentioned above are not perfectly spherical, but have irregular individual shapes, and unless they have been selected according to ancient times, the individual fruits are irregular in size. For the reasons mentioned above, it is quite difficult to print on fruits of different sizes using a conventional pad printing machine.

Therefore, the present invention is different from the conventional method in order to easily and efficiently print marks on the above-mentioned fruits and similar articles, that is, articles with irregular shapes and sizes and a lumpy surface. The aim is to provide a pad printing machine of the same type. That is, the feature of the pad printing machine according to the present invention is that while the ink pad and the article holder are continuously rotated in one direction on their respective adjacent locus circles, the ink pad and the article holder are rotated continuously in one direction on their respective adjacent locus circles, and at the point where the locus circles of both of them touch, Then, the ink pad and the bulk article supported by the article holder are brought into pressure contact with each other in a sliding contact state.

The ink is efficiently transferred from the former to the latter, and the article holder is elastically retractable toward the center of the trajectory circle, so that it can accommodate irregular shapes and sizes of bulk articles. It is in. Hereinafter, an embodiment shown in the drawings will be described in detail.

In the figure, l is a vertical substrate that supports the main parts of the pad printing machine according to the present invention, the printing mechanism is on the upper front side, the ink supply mechanism 1 is on the upper side of the front side, and A component feeding mechanism 0 is installed at the bottom, and D is a bulk article to be pad printed.

The printing mechanism A consists of a pad disk 3 supported by the substrate 1 with a rotating shaft 2, and a plurality of pads (five in the illustrated example) arranged at equal angular intervals on the same circumference around the disk. ), and each of these ink pads 4 is individually mounted on a pad disk using a pad support stand 5 with its respective suppression surface 4a facing outward in the radial direction. It is attached to 3. Such pad disk 3
, it is assumed that the ink pads 4 rotate at a constant speed in the direction of arrow (A) through the rotation axis 2, and therefore, each of the above ink pads 4 travels on the same trajectory circle centered on the rotation axis 2. This will cause the vehicle to turn at a constant speed in the direction of the arrow above.

Next, the ink supply mechanism 2 has a printing plate supported on the substrate 1 with a rotating shaft 6, an ink tray 8 attached to the substrate 1, and a 9-inch plate supported on the substrate 1 side with a pin 91. The squeegee consists of a squeegee 0, and the peripheral surface of the plate cylinder is an intaglio plate having the required ink holes. This version has a body.

While submerged in the ink in the tray 8, constant speed rotation in the direction of the arrow (middle) is applied via the rotation shaft 6, and the spring 11 is used to achieve this situation. The tip of the squeegee 10 that is pressed against the tip of the squeegee 10 is bent so as to scrape off excess ink that has adhered to the part other than the ink pocket on the scissor surface.

What is this type of plate cylinder and the pad disk 3 described above?

The ink pad number provided in the latter is maintained in a relative positional relationship such that it can be brought into pressure contact with the circumferential surface 7a of both while rotating and descending.
The kettle is elastically deformed so as to follow the surface of the plate cylinder, and the ink in the ink pockets of the surface is transferred to the four pressing surfaces. The plate cylinder 1 of such an ink pad 4
It is necessary to press the pad disc 30 into contact with the pad disc 30, and it is necessary to press the pad disc 30 into contact with the pad disc 30.
The rotation and the rotation of the plate cylinder are in opposite directions as shown by the arrows (A) and (center) in Figure 1, and the respective rotational speeds are determined by the circumferential speed of the ink pad suppression surface numbering turtle and the rotation of the plate cylinder circumferential surface. It is determined that the circumferential speeds of , and .

In contrast to both of these mechanisms BK, the article feeding mechanism C has a holder disk 13 supported on the substrate 1 with a rotating shaft 12, and is arranged at equal angular intervals on the same circumference around the disk. A plurality of (six in the example) article holders 1
4, and each of the article holders 14 is individually mounted on a holder disk 13 using a holder support 15 with a conical recess 1411 formed at the top of each article holder 14 facing radially outward. It is equipped with. The holder disk 13 is given constant speed rotation in the direction of arrow (c) via its rotation shaft 12.

Therefore, each of the article holders 14 described above is rotated at a constant speed in the direction of the arrow above on the same trajectory circle centered on the rotation axis 12. Note that the above-mentioned article holder 14 is
This is an integrally provided leg 16, which is supported by the holder support base 15 so as to be able to move forward and backward in the radial direction of the trajectory circle, and is biased radially outward by a spring 17, so that the leg 16 is biased radially inwardly by a spring 17. It is possible to elastically retreat to. Further, in the figure, reference numerals 18 and 19 denote circular covers placed before and after the article holder 14, and 20 denotes an arc-shaped cover placed between the article holders 14 and 14.

The holder disc 13 of the article feeder groove 0 and the pad disc 3 of the printing mechanism are arranged so that the article holders 14 and the ink pad numbers are adjacent to each other at points where the respective orbit locus circles of the article holders 14 and ink pad numbers are adjacent to each other. The relative positional relationship between the pads is determined so that the pressing surface 4a of the pad can be brought into pressure contact with the surface of the block object held in the conical recess 14a of the holder. The four pegs are elastically deformed to conform to the surface shape of the article rack, so that the ink that has been transferred from the plate cylinder peripheral surface 7a to the pad pressing surface 4a is transferred to the surface of the article tray. Of course, the above-mentioned relative positional relationship is determined based on the smallest item expected to be supplied among the unevenly sized items, and for larger items, the item holder 14 can be elastically retracted. I am trying to make it compatible. Ink pad 4
Pressure contact with the article must be carried out in a state of non-slip rolling contact between the two, therefore, the pad disk 13 rotates 30 times and the holder disk 13 rotates as indicated by the arrow (a) in Figure 1. , (as shown by →, the directions are reversed, and the respective rotational speeds are determined so that the circumferential speed of the ink pad suppressing surface 4a and the circumferential speed of the article held by the article holder 14 are equal. In addition, each ink pad 4 on the pad disk 3 and each article holder 14 on the holder disk 13 that rotate under such a speed relationship melts, and one ink is injected one by one at locations where the locus circles of both are adjacent. It is necessary to have a meeting,
Therefore, the distance between the ink pads 4, 4 and the article holder 14 are
．． The intervals between 14 and 14 are made equal.

The printing mechanism is equipped with an ink removal roll 21 for wiping ink from the suppression surface 4a of the ink pad 4, and is located at a position where the ink pad number, which is rising while rotating, can be brought into pressure contact with the suppression surface 4m. In this case, the substrate l is rotatably mounted on a roller shaft 22. The article feeding mechanism C also includes a supply chute 23 for rolling the bulk articles into the conical recess 14 of the article holder 14 which is rising while rotating, and a supply chute 23 for rolling the bulk articles into the conical recess 14 of the article holder 14 which is rising while rotating. An unloading conveyor 24 is attached to receive the lumpy articles that have rolled out of the conical recess 14a of a certain article holder 14, and the above-mentioned supply chute 23 is also carried upwards to supply the articles to the article holder 14. A group of guide rolls 25 for guiding the bulk article Dt to the position where the ink pad 4 is brought into pressure contact is attached so as not to impede the turning of the ink pad.

In a pad printing machine configured as described above.

Printing on the block material is carried out as follows.

First, the pad disk 3, plate cylinder, and holder disk 13 of each mechanism s, o are given a predetermined rotation in each direction shown by the arrows (a), ←), and (c). Then, ink supply mechanism B
Since the first plate cylinder is rotated while immersed in the ink in the ink tray 8, the ink adheres to the circumferential surface '7a of the cylinder for a while, and then Squeegee-1 removes excess ink that has adhered to areas other than the ink pocket.
Scraped at 0. On the other hand, in the printing mechanism, as each ink pad 4 rotates in the direction of arrow (A) and descends while rotating, the presser surface 4a sequentially presses the above-mentioned plate cylinder circumferential surface. Press it to lI. However, such press contact of the pad suppressing surface 4m to the plate peripheral surface ma is carried out in a state of rolling contact between the two without slipping, and the former is elastically deformed so as to follow the latter. Therefore, the ink in the ink pocket on the plate cylinder circumferential surface 7□ is directly transferred to the pad suppression surface 4.

On the other hand, in the article feeding mechanism C, each article holder 14 rotates in the direction of arrow (c) and sequentially meets the ink pad number. Therefore, when the bulk articles Df are fed one after another from the supply chute 23, each of the articles fits one by one into the conical recess 14m of the article holder 14, which is rising while rotating.

While being held by the holder, it is pivoted to a position where it meets the ink pad number, and the pressing surface 6 of the pad is pressed against the surface thereof. However, when the pad suppressing surface 41 is brought into pressure contact with the lumpy object, the two are in rolling contact with no slippage, and the former is elastically deformed so as to conform to the surface of the latter. Therefore, the ink that was previously transferred from the plate cylinder 7 to the pad suppressing surface 4 is transferred as it is to the surface of the article tray.

By the way, since the bulk articles fed from the supply chute 23 are generally irregular in shape and size, it is difficult to determine how far the articles stored in the conical recess 14 & of the article holder protrude from the recess.

This varies depending on the fit and size of the article, and naturally a large article D' as shown by the chain line has a large amount of protrusion. However, since the article holder 14 is resiliently retractable radially inward against the spring 17, the recess 14
When the amount of protrusion of an object that falls within m is large, the object does not touch the holder 14 at least when the ink pad 4 is pressed against the ink pad 4.
The ink pad 4 can be brought into pressure contact with the ink pad 4 without any trouble as in the case where the amount of protrusion is small, especially if the guide roll group 25 as shown in the figure is provided. It is convenient because even a large amount of goods can be easily retreated.

When printing is completed on one bulk article in this way, the ink used for printing and the printed article continue to rotate on their respective locus circles, move away from each other, and are newly printed. The next ink pad and block article respectively rotate and meet.

The next printing will be performed. Note that the ink pads used for printing have their suppressed surfaces wiped with the ink removal roll 21 and then head back toward the plate cylinder, and some ink pads are used for printing without ink being transferred due to a lack of supply of lumps. In the same way, it is wiped clean and sent to the plate cylinder. The printed bulk article then rolls out of the conical recess of the article holder in which it was held and is sent out by the output conveyor 24, which then returns to the supply chute 23.

As described above, in the present invention, a plurality of ink dots and an article holder are continuously rotated at a constant speed on their respective adjacent locus circles to bring them together one after another, and when they come together, the ink and knit suppression surfaces is brought into pressure contact with the surface of the bulk article held in the article holder in a smooth rolling contact state, and the ink that has been transferred from the good pocket on the circumferential surface of the plate cylinder to the pad suppression surface is transferred to the surface of the article. Since the ink is transferred, if the present invention is applied, pad printing can be performed sequentially and continuously on a large number of ink pads, and the unit print rate is smaller than in the conventional method of reciprocating ink pads. The number of times of printing per hour can be increased dramatically. Furthermore, in the present invention, since each article holder can be elastically retracted inward in the radial direction of the turning locus circle, even if the bulk articles to be printed have irregularities in shape or size, It is possible to perform pad printing on bulk articles without any trouble. Therefore, by using the pad printing machine according to the present invention, it is possible to efficiently print marks and the like on citrus fruits of irregular shapes and sizes without the risk of damaging the fruits.

Even if the number of items to be shipped is enormous, it can be expected to be processed without affecting the shipping cost.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cut-away front view showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line 1--1 in FIG. A: Printing mechanism, B: Ink supply mechanism, C: Article feeding mechanism, D: Bulk article, 3: Pad disk, 4
・Ink pad, 5... Pad support stand, 2... Plate cylinder, 8... Ink plate, 10... Squeegee-113...
-Holder disc, 14...article holder, 15...
Holder support base% 16-・Legs, 17...Spring applicant Ohira Kogyo Co., Ltd. Y-

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A plurality of highly elastic ink pads are placed on the same circumference around a pad disk that is continuously rotated at a constant speed, with their respective suppression surfaces facing outward in the radial direction. Excess ink is scraped off from the printing mechanism arranged at equal angular intervals and the intaglio plate cylinder, which is given continuous constant speed rotation while immersed in the ink in the ink tray. An ink supply mechanism to which a squeegee is attached, and a plurality of article holders each having a concave portion at the top for holding a lumpy article on the same circumference around a holder disc that is continuously rotated at a constant speed. comprises an article feeding mechanism arranged at equal angular intervals so as to be able to elastically retreat inward in the radial direction with each of the recesses facing outward in the radial direction,
Regarding the printing mechanism and ink supply mechanism, the positions and their positions are adjusted so that the pressing surface of each ink pad of the former is pressed against the peripheral surface of the plate cylinder of the latter in a non-slip rolling contact state. The direction and speed of rotation given to each are determined, and the printing mechanism and the article feeding mechanism are brought together one by one with each ink pad of the former and the article holder of the latter one by one, and attached to the holder. In order to bring the pad suppression surface into pressure contact with the surface of the held block article in a state of non-slip rolling contact, the positions of both of them and the direction and speed of rotation given to each of them are determined. Pad printing machine.