SI8811566A8 - Device for tampon printing carrying defined quantities of printing medium per surface unit - Google Patents

Abstract

In the printing pad device described, the surface of the pad (20) is recessed while retaining essentially the same external form and volume. Also described is the use of the pad for at least partially coating a substrate (22) with a predetermined pattern. The substrate (22) is a printed circuit board for manufacturing integrated circuits, a component of a pharmaceutical presentation and/or dosage form, a label with raised characters, a prepolymer or similar.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention falls within the field of apparatus for the application of liquids or other liquid substances on surfaces, as well as the field of printing apparatus, and particularly relates to apparatus for the application of color. Designation according to the International Patent Classification:

B 05 C 1/06, B 41 L 27/26.

Technical problem

The invention solves the problem of how to construct a printing device with a tampon, which will allow to increase the contact surface of the tampon while maintaining the same external shape and volume of the mold in which the tampon is located.

The state of the art

Tampon printing machines have been known since 1968 and are suitable for printing uneven surfaces, which can be used for adjusting the tampons that carry the print medium or for printing. One buffer printer is described, for example, in DE-OS 19 39 437. The shape element to be imprinted is hollowed out by single-cliché etching, or a print mold. This cliché is fed a print medium, after the scraping operation, which dispenses the print media contained in the cliché, the buffer completely takes over the print media left in the cliché and transfers it to the object on which it is printed. An overview of the application and properties of the pad printing process can be found in the prospectus of TAMPOPRINT GmbH, Daimlerstrasse 27/1, Korntal-Mtinchigen, which is called for to avoid repetition in its entirety.

Tampon printers are very convenient because of the small space required, as they can be easily integrated into production facilities, and can also be wrapped, which is suitable for processing highly active or toxic media such as medicines, liquids for corrosion, polymerisation initiators or the like, to protect the radish, but also to reduce the rate of evaporation in unstable materials.

Up to now, no attempt has been made to use buffer printers to convey precisely regulated quantities of print media. It has been unexpectedly shown that the already known buffer printing methods allow accurate dosing of surface masses up to 26 g / m in one printing operation, with deviations within + 2% or less.

It is possible, as shown in parallel to the German patent application, for the manufacture of a matrix for discharging and / or dosing for active pharmaceutical agents through a single printing process, filed on the same day as this one from the same applicant, for highly sensitive medicaments or regulating membranes for the discharge of active substances with constant surface mass are applied to suitable substrates.

The application of the tools so far employed, such as changes in the buffer material (the softer buffer transfers more print media) and the viscosity of the print media, could provide only a slight increase, practically constant, in volume, of the discharge of the print media onto a substrate. However, this amount was not sufficient to apply 2 coats of excess specific mass, for example over 100 g / m, so that, despite its outstanding properties, the Tampon printing process is not yet very useful? - for applications such as making thick layers of material according to once a predetermined pattern, or shape, so that it was not of interest to apply the layers by this process.

Expensive silk-screen printing or complicated multi-layer printing techniques were used.

Description of solution to technical problem '· “

Therefore, the object of the invention of 'Sa' is that the existing devices are further developed so that the quantities of print media that are possible with existing tampons can transfer some substrate.

This object is achieved, according to the invention, by a single device of the type described, in which at least the contact surface for imprinting the entire surface of the tampon is raised while retaining substantially the same external shape and volume of the mold.

Increasing the surface may consist of embossing, roughing, grooving, or making small protrusions on the surface of the tampon, and this can be accomplished by machining one bare tampon body, or making an enlarged tampon surface by deforming the tampon body into some suitable shape.

Such tampons can carry more than three times the amount of print media, relative to respectable, smooth surface tampons, in the same tampon shape.

With the further development of the invention of the well-known tampon printer, for the first time it was possible to apply these machines or processes in a favorable manner in completely new areas of application, and for the manufacture of various coatings, etc. Thus, this printer can be used, for example, for the manufacture of shields in a thick layer of color, integrated circuits, which can be applied a layer of photo varnish or conductive material, for the intentional application of polymerisation initiators to prepolymers, for the application of corrosive liquids when making patterns, etc. . by corrosion, for the application of paints on porcelain, for the manufacture of pharmaceutical matrices for discharging and / or dosing, such as tablets, skin-applied systems, including systems that deliver matter through the mucosa, ie rectal and vaginal forms of application.

It is particularly suitable for the application of therapeutic systems in the form of patches for action through the skin. ·

The invention can increase the amount of print media conveyed in a single printing operation in an unexpected manner without maintaining the dosage within narrow limits of accuracy.

For the first time, the apparatus according to the invention can produce the desired printing media containing the active substances, then small doses of the active substances without the loss of the active substances, which has hitherto been the case with the methods used to apply layers of materials to surfaces, such as for example, in therapeutic systems that act through the skin, which saves expensive active substances and can avoid the problematic disposal of active substance debris.

It is further possible to apply multiple print media, such as, for example, multiple colors, colors and adhesive, adhesive and one aseptic area, or an area containing active clusters, using appropriate clichés, simultaneously and spatially clearly separated from one another. matter, with plasters or therapeutic systems, saving one production step. Both clichés and tampons can be brought to the desired temperature, so that sensitive materials can be processed, or that can only be processed in the warm state, as individual adhesives. In the same way, these parts, as well as the entire unit, can be cooled if temperature sensitive materials are processed or processed.

Choosing the right buffer material can take into account different requirements so that one can easily choose elastic materials such as natural and synthetic rubber, and especially silicone rubber, depending on the required properties such as workability, solvent resistance, thermal resistance or sufficient elasticity at low temperatures.

The shape of the tampon can be selected according to the surface to be treated. It can have all the usual shapes, so tampon-shaped, flat or egg-shaped tampons with an enlarged print surface can be used.

With one print, the device according to the invention can transfer mass per unit area of about 200 g / m of print media, even more, whereby a further increase in the amount transferred can be achieved by one skilled in the art, such as the application of softer tampons, other media for printing and the like.

Other features and advantages of the invention will be explained by reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

- Figure 1 shows a printer with a pad when applying a layer of print media to the substrate,

- Figure 2 shows the buffer printer of Figure 1 when trying out a new cliché print medium,

- Figure 3 shows a swab according to the invention with an enlarged surface,

- Figure 4 shows a second swab according to the invention with an enlarged surface,

- Figure 5 shows a cross-section of a therapeutic system in the form of a patch acting through the skin of a device according to the invention,

- Figure 6 shows a horizontal projection of an active substance layer with two different active substances made by a tampon printing device according to the invention,

- Figure 7 shows one drug delivery matrix in the form of a dragee made by the device according to the invention.

1 schematically shows a layer of print medium on a flat substrate 22 by means of a swab 20 according to the invention. The pads have an elastic, egg-shaped patch 20 made of silicone rubber, with a layer of print media taken over from the previous working surface on the raised portion 23 of the surface. forming a single recessed device corresponding to the desired form of application of the print media, which is formed in cliché 24 (see Figure 2}, presses on a flat substrate 22, on which, after lifting tampon 20, a uniform layer of media remains. The same can be done on uneven substrates, for example on rounded substrates or on undulating surfaces of liners, as well as on substrates in the form of vessels, etc.

Figure 3 shows a suitable construction of an egg pad 20 according to the invention, the upper part 23 of which is used for transferring the printing media, grooves are made as a surface enlargement, by means of which it is possible to take and transfer larger quantities of printing media. The amount of print media retrieved in this process will be determined by the depth and shape of the cliché 24, from which the entire amount of print media is taken, and after it is distributed in a scraping operation in the form of a layer of uniform thickness, whereby the copper printing press in this form and downloaded and uploaded.

Figure 4 shows another embodiment of tampon 20, which has a cylindrical shape here. On the surface of acceptance or transfer, the tampons are made small indentations in order to enlarge the surface, which serve to accommodate increased amounts of print media.

Figure 5 shows a patch containing the active substances made by the device according to the invention. This patch can be made by uniformly applying one ring layer 16 of acrylic adhesive, impermeable to the active substance, to one covering film 15, in this case, on siliconized paper, which is separated before use of the patch, as well as one round regulation layer 18, which with its constant it regulates the passage of material by thickness and chemical-physical properties, and then by printing a reservoir 14 containing the active substance by means of a tampon printing device according to the invention, and finally by lamination with a single impermeable carrier layer, in this case aluminum and polyester laminate 10. I'm editing. according to the invention, it is possible to apply both the control layer 18, the properties of which can only be achieved at a large thickness constant, and the active substance layer 14, whose content of the active substance can only be maintained at a suitable thickness for application at a large thickness constant and the surface of the applied layer for pharmaceutical purposes.

Figure 6 shows one patch, such as the one in Figure 5, prior to placement of the carrier layer 10, wherein this patch has two active agents 14 and 14 ⁴ . This embodiment can also be carried out with a single stage of application of the active substances by means of a printer with a tampon according to the invention, wherein the ring 16 of the adhesive impermeable to the active substance is also noted in the figure.

Figure 7 shows a pharmacological drug delivery matrix, which can be made by the device of the invention, in the form of a sugar coated dragee 30, with a bilayer 34, 36, which can be made by printing a layer 36 onto a circular substrate 34 without waste of the substrate material 34 or imprinted layer 36.

Other embodiments, combinations and applications of the invention according to the invention are possible within the knowledge available to one skilled in the art and are covered by the claims covered by the claims.

Claims (4)

1. A tampon printing apparatus for transferring a finite amount of printing medium to a surface unit, wherein the surface of the tampon (20), while maintaining substantially the same external shape and volume, is elevated. Apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the enlargement of the surface consists in the formation of recesses, grooves, grooves or small protrusions at least on the part (23) of the surface of the tampon, which is used for transferring the printing medium. Device according to claim 1 or 2 / characterized in that the surface area of the tampon (20) is enlarged by machining the finished body. tampons (20). Device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the enlarged portion (23) of the pad surface can be derived by molding the pad body (20) into a suitable shape.