JPS5987194A - Printing method of armored cable surface - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide high-quality printing on the surface of an armored cable having uneven surface by applying electrostatically charged and deflected ink particles to the armored cable with uneven surface by an ink jet printing method. CONSTITUTION:Charged ink particles 3 are jetted from a nozzle 2 at a jetting rate of 1m/sec. or more onto a armored cable 1 being moved according to information of picture element positions. The ink particles 3 pass through an electrostatic deflector 4 before arrival to the surface of the cable 1, where the ink particles 3 are deflected vertically and/or bilaterally to form dots on the cable 1. In this case, the ratio of dot interval S to dot diameter d, S/d, is preferably controlled to be S/d<=5.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates in particular to a method of printing on the surface of a guide cable whose surface is not smooth.

The method of printing characters and symbols on the surface of a cable is usually carried out by bringing the cable and a printing jig into mechanical contact with each other. In this method, if the cable surface is not smooth, the printed characters and symbols will have defects such as deformation, disappearance, or partial loss. Therefore, non-contact type, etc.
What is desired is a method that can provide high quality printing on non-uniform or uneven surfaces.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art and to provide a method which allows printing with excellent visibility on the non-flat surface of a guided cable.

According to the present invention, the above object is achieved by employing a so-called inkjet printing method. The inkjet printing method suitable for carrying out the present invention uses a charge-controlled printing principle, in which characters and symbols to be printed are divided into pixels into a dot matrix, and ink is applied at a voltage proportional to the positional information of each pixel. Pixel characters are printed by charging the particles and deflecting them by passing them through an electrostatic field so that they reach the surface of the moving guide cable.

The invention will be explained below with reference to embodiments shown in the drawings.

Ink particles 3 charged in accordance with pixel position information are ejected from a nozzle 2 at a speed of tm or more per second to a guide cable 1 that moves in FIG. Before reaching the surface of the cable 10, the ink particles 3 pass through an electrostatic deflection device 4, which deflects the particles 3 in the X direction and/or in the Y direction, as shown in FIG. It has the function of

In order to form distinguishable characters and symbols by attaching a plurality of dots to the cable surface in this manner, the correlation between the dot diameter S and the dot spacing S is extremely important, as shown in FIG.

Good results can be obtained by setting S/d to 5 in the guy-equipped cable 1 according to the present invention.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to print neat characters and symbols on the surface of a guide cable having unevenness or irregularities, which is extremely advantageous to the industry.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the principle of the method of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the deflection of ink particles, and FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the correlation between dot size and dot spacing. 1.Guide cable, 2.. nozzle, 3. ink γ I
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Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method for printing a surface of a guide cable having a curved surface, the method comprising printing the surface of the cable by directing charged ink particles according to position while applying an electrostatic field deflection.