Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
  • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
  • B41J11/00—Devices or arrangements  of selective printing mechanisms, e.g. ink-jet printers or thermal printers, for supporting or handling copy material in sheet or web form
  • B41J11/0015—Devices or arrangements  of selective printing mechanisms, e.g. ink-jet printers or thermal printers, for supporting or handling copy material in sheet or web form for treating before, during or after printing or for uniform coating or laminating the copy material before or after printing
  • B41J11/002—Curing or drying the ink on the copy materials, e.g. by heating or irradiating
  • B41J11/0021—Curing or drying the ink on the copy materials, e.g. by heating or irradiating using irradiation

Definitions

• the invention relates to a method for printing with an ink printer according to the preamble of claim 1.
• Ink printers are inexpensive to manufacture, especially in the case of serial printers, and flexible in the design of the printed image. They exert no pressure on the printed matter and the print head does not come into direct contact with the surface to be labeled. Thus, they are in principle suitable for printing on a wide range of print material, including sensitive materials and surfaces.
• ink printers are mainly used for printing on absorbent print material with water or oil based ink, such as paper, cardboard, wood and similar materials.
• the ink droplets ejected from the nozzles of the print head reach the print material surface at a speed of several meters per second.
• At the moment of impact of the drops on the print material deform the streamlined drops and form a lenticular shape.
• a small portion of the drop volume atomises to small secondary drops, which precipitate randomly on the surface of the print material after a reflected flight motion in the vicinity of the impact point of the main drop.
• the absorbency of the print material is improved by capillary structures. They ensure that all drops on the surface quickly sink into the depth of the material. As a result, bleeding of the ink droplets in their edge regions is avoided. Therefore, the drops resting on the surface of the print form sharp-edged pixels. By juxtaposing the main drops, the printed image pattern with slight shades in the environment arises from the precipitate of the ink mist.
• the disadvantage is that with the water or oil-based inks non-absorbent materials can be printed with capillary structures only with low sharpness, because the ink can not penetrate into the material and runs in the capillaries. To solve this problem, it is well known to use solvent-based inks. The solvent achieves two effects.
• Light-curing ink-operable ink printers have an exposure head for irradiating and exposing the photocuring ink. It is traversed during printing with the print head traversing between two housing sides of the ink printer and irradiates the sprayed via nozzles of the print head on the print material ink.
• the emitted light is selected in its wavelength so that the photoinitiator is excited and the ink is at least partially polymerized.
• the polymerization leads to an increase in viscosity and solidification of the ink. The degree of solidification depends on the duration of the irradiation and on the radiation power of the illumination head.
• the difficulty with this method is that very high radiant energy is required in a very short time to cure the ink sprayed on the print material.
• the energy required for curing for UV-curable inks is, for example, on the order of one Joule. To get the necessary energy even at high
• the invention is therefore based on the object to develop a method for printing in a suitable as Auftischêt ink printer, with a sharp, hardened print image is generated.
• the printhead and an exposure head connected thereto are moved traversing in printing operation between a first housing side and a second housing side.
• first housing side On the way to the first housing side, light-curing ink is sprayed onto a printed material, while the exposure head irradiates the light-curing ink sprayed onto the print material.
• the exposure head on its way to the second housing side, irradiates the light-curing ink sprayed onto the print material again, ie a second time. After the second irradiation, the print material is transported transversely to the direction of movement of the print head.
• the viscosity of the sprayed ink is increased and it is gelatinized. This avoids bleeding of the sprayed-on ink and ensures a sharp-edged print image.
• the ink is cured.
• This provides the advantage that the printed image of the sprayed ink is smudge and scratch resistant.
• the invention has the advantage that the light-curing ink is cured with low radiation powers of the exposure head. Low radiant powers are sufficient in the method of the present invention because the photocurable ink is first irradiated on the path of the exposure head to the first housing side and then again on the way to the second housing side, the printhead on the way to the second housing page stores and retains all ink. Thus, no light-curing ink is sprayed out of the print head in this way. After reaching an end position of the exposure head in the region of the second housing side, the print material is then transported transversely to the direction of movement of the print head.
• the radiation energy of an exposure head required for printing results essentially from two functions.
• the ink sprayed onto the surface of the print material is to be fixed in order to prevent the ink from running.
• the radiant energy used for curing and hardening the sprayed ink so that it adheres to the print.
• the two functions are substantially successively met in a printing process that the exposure head is moved in the on state on the way to the first housing side and on the way to the second housing side at different speeds ,
• the sprayed-on ink is gelated on the way to the first housing half and fixed on the print material while it is hardened out and hardened on the way to the second housing half. Due to the different speeds of the exposure head and the correspondingly different irradiation periods, the radiation energy can be split and reduced functionally.
• the required radiation energy of the exposure head can be reduced in that the exposure head in the on state on the way to the first Housing side is moved faster than on its way to the second housing side.
• the printer can be operated particularly energy-saving with its exposure head when the exposure head is moved to the first side of the housing a lot faster than the second side of the housing, since only a small amount of radiation energy is needed to fix the ink.
• FIG. 1 shows a longitudinal section through the printer at right angles to the printing plane
• FIG. 2 shows a plan view of a part of the printer, parallel to the printing plane with a partially inscribed label carrier as print material.
• Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 show a printer according to the invention with a printhead and an exposure head connected thereto in a longitudinal section and in a plan view, respectively.
• the printer according to the invention is preferably designed as a desktop printer and consists essentially of a housing pan 1 and a housing top part 2, in which a
• Printer frame with side walls 3, 4 is provided. These are by an angle traverse
• a slide guide 6 is mounted on a slide
• the carriage 7, 7.1 is driven by an endless traction means 9 via a motor 10, wherein the traction means 9 is deflected via a roller 11.
• the traction means 9 is deflected via a roller 11.
• 7, 7.1 is a printhead 12, 12.1 and next to an exposure head 13,13.1 mounted.
• a heat shield 14,14.1 which protects the print head 12, 12.1 from heat radiation of the exposure head 13, 13.1.
• a cleaning device 16 is provided for the print head 12 in the basic position of the carriage 7.
• a light transformation device 17 in which the light energy of the exposure head 13 is converted into heat in the basic position of the carriage 7 and dissipated to the outside.
• Nozzle device 15, 15.1 a label carrier 18 is shown as a printed matter in cross section, which is transported transversely to the carriage transport direction by the transport device 19, 19.1 and by the pressing elements 20, 20.1 to the transport elements 19,
• 12.1 is an ink supply 23, 23.1, through which the print head 12, 12.1 via a hose, not shown here is supplied with ink from a tank mounted on the carriage 7, 7.1.
• the transport device 19, 19.1, 20, 20.1 is arranged between the two end positions of the traversing carriage 7, 7.1, which moves the print image carrier 18 line by line in the direction of the arrow designated 26.
• the label carrier 18 consists of guide webs 27, 28, between which labeling elements 29 are attached to predetermined breaking points 30. 2, a first row 31 of the labeling elements 29 is labeled, while the second row 32 is in the labeling position.
• the carriage 7, 7.1 is in position 7.1.
• the carriage moves 7.1 with the printhead 12.1 and the exposure head 13.1 at high speed to the right in the direction of the side wall 3.
• the printhead 12 injects programmatically at selected locations drops of ink on the label carrier elements 33 of the labeling element row 32nd
• the printhead 12 is followed at a short distance 34 of the exposure head 13, which has a rectangular exposure window 39 with a width 35 and a length 36.
• the ink sprayed onto a print material is irradiated by the exposure head 13 via the exposure window 39 shortly after its impact on the print material.
• the ink sprayed onto the print material forms lenticular drops, which are irradiated shortly after their formation with the light emitted by the exposure head 13. Due to the small time difference between the impact of the ink on the print substrate and its irradiation with light is achieved that the lenticular ink droplets are polymerized at least in their edge regions. As a result, the viscosity increases in the drop edge areas, whereby the ink is fixed.
• a sharp-edged print image is achieved, but overall this is not yet smudge-proof.
• the exposure head 13 and the print head 12 move on the carriage 7 to the left in the direction of the side wall 4, wherein the exposure head 13 irradiates the sprayed ink and the print head 12 does not release ink.
• the exposure head 13 is moved at different speeds to the right and left. Preferably, its speed to the right is greater than that to the left.
• the ratio of the speeds can be up to a factor of 10, depending on the ink used and the print material to be printed.
• the speed to the left and / or to the right can also be matched to the ink and the print material.
• Essential parameters for the speeds and the ratio of the speeds are, for example, the
• the print image carrier 18 is further moved by the transport device 19, 19.1, 20, 20.1 to a label element row and the labeling cycle begins again.
• characteristic values can be entered manually into the device control 21, which then processes and compares the information with stored data and classifies it.
• the device controller 21 controls the print head 12 and the exposure head 13 in their
• the device control in addition to the speeds and the radiant power of the exposure head 13 in dependence of the print material and / or the ink controls.

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• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Toxicology (AREA)
• Ink Jet (AREA)
• Ink Jet Recording Methods And Recording Media Thereof (AREA)

Priority Applications (4)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

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Family Applications (1)

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Citations (5)

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• 2006
  • 2006-01-25 DE DE102006003765A patent/DE102006003765B4/de active Active
• 2007
  • 2007-01-19 CN CN2007800029671A patent/CN101370667B/zh active Active
  • 2007-01-19 ES ES07702891T patent/ES2356572T3/es active Active
  • 2007-01-19 JP JP2008551703A patent/JP5119167B2/ja not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2007-01-19 WO PCT/EP2007/000461 patent/WO2007085384A1/de not_active Ceased
  • 2007-01-19 EP EP07702891A patent/EP1979170B1/de active Active
  • 2007-01-19 US US12/162,242 patent/US8033661B2/en active Active

Patent Citations (5)

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