CN114161707B

CN114161707B - Printing apparatus and printing method

Info

Publication number: CN114161707B
Application number: CN202111504601.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 赵建潮; 张文兵; 高峰
Original assignee: Suzhou China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Suzhou China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-12-10
Filing date: 2021-12-10
Publication date: 2024-09-20
Anticipated expiration: 2041-12-10
Also published as: CN114161707A

Abstract

The application discloses a printing device and a printing method, wherein ultraviolet curing resin is sprayed in the shape of a single liquid drop by adopting a spraying device, a spraying point or a spraying print formed by the liquid drop is irradiated by adopting an ultraviolet light excitation device, the irradiation range of ultraviolet light is equal to or smaller than the coverage range of the single liquid drop or a plurality of liquid drops, and an uncured part is eluted by adopting an elution device. Therefore, the embodiment of the application can solve the problem that the ultraviolet curing resin cannot obtain a high-precision three-dimensional molding structure when being printed in a large range, can also obtain a three-dimensional molding with a specific precise shape and/or a required height by controlling each injection point to be cured independently and then eluted, and can also solve the overflow problem generated after OLED packaging.

Description

Printing apparatus and printing method

Technical Field

The application relates to the technical field of printing and forming in display equipment, in particular to printing equipment and a printing method.

Background

In the display field, ultraviolet curing glue is often used for printing and forming at present. When printing and forming, ultraviolet light curing glue (also called UV printing glue) with a specific range is sprayed on a region to be printed, and then ultraviolet light is used for irradiating the ultraviolet light curing glue with the specific range to cure and form a formed product. However, the uv-curable glue is in a liquid state before being cured, and has certain fluidity, and if the spraying range is too large, the flowing area of the uv-curable glue may exceed the irradiation range of uv light and cannot be cured, so that components outside the irradiation range are corroded or even damaged.

In addition, the mobility and the spraying range of the ultraviolet curing glue are too large, so that the ultraviolet curing glue is influenced by gravity, a structure with convex sides and slightly concave middle parts is formed in the whole flowing area, and even if ultraviolet light is adopted for rapid irradiation, a good three-dimensional structure cannot be formed finally, and high-precision patterning can not be realized. For example, referring to fig. 14, in an OLED display, an Ink Jet printing technology (IJP) is generally used to form a dense organic waterproof film 31 on a screen body of the display by using Ink, and the organic waterproof film 31 is used to implement encapsulation of an OLED display body. However, in order to form the organic water-blocking film smoothly with the ink, it is necessary to form a frame 32 (also called a bank) around the organic water-blocking film to be formed in advance. The dike is often formed by using ultraviolet light curing glue and utilizing a UV printing technology. However, after the ultraviolet curing glue is sprayed, the liquid level becomes flat under the self gravity, and the leveling phenomenon can lead to insufficient height of a frame formed after curing, so that better blocking cannot be formed on the ink in the frame, the ink in the frame overflows from the frame in the subsequent use process, the overflow phenomenon can cause pollution of the ink to components outside the frame, and the display effect can be affected.

Disclosure of Invention

It is an object of some embodiments of the present application to provide a printing apparatus and a printing method, which can at least overcome the problem that it is difficult to form a three-dimensional molded article with high precision when uv curable glue is applied in a wide range.

Some embodiments of the application provide a printing apparatus comprising: the device comprises a spraying device, an ultraviolet excitation device and a control device.

The spraying device is used for continuously spraying ultraviolet curing resin on the surface of the area to be sprayed drop by drop in the shape of single liquid drop, so that each liquid drop forms one spraying point, a certain distance is reserved between each two spraying points, and a spraying print is formed in the area covered by all the spraying points. An ultraviolet curable resin is defined as a resin that is capable of curing under ultraviolet light irradiation, but is not cured when not irradiated with ultraviolet light. If the ultraviolet curable resin is irradiated with an ultraviolet light portion, the ultraviolet curable resin is partially cured, the cured portion is not eluted by the eluent, and the uncured portion is eluted by the eluent.

The ultraviolet light excitation device is used for applying ultraviolet light irradiation to the whole jet print, so that ultraviolet curing resin of each jet point is cured to form curing points corresponding to each jet point one by one, and the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light is equal to the coverage range of the jet print.

The control device is used for obtaining the injection ending information after one injection of the injection device is finished, starting the ultraviolet light excitation device according to the injection ending information, obtaining the irradiation ending information after the ultraviolet light irradiation time of the ultraviolet light excitation device is finished, and starting the injection device according to the irradiation ending information so as to perform the next injection until the injection times of the injection device are larger than a preset injection times threshold value.

In some embodiments of the application, the spraying device is located on the same side of the area to be sprayed as the ultraviolet light excitation device.

In other embodiments of the present application, the spraying device and the ultraviolet light excitation device are located on both sides of the area to be sprayed, which allows the penetration of ultraviolet light.

In some embodiments of the application, the wavelength of the ultraviolet light may be selected from any one of 300 to 400nm, and may also be selected from any one of 315 to 380 nm.

In other embodiments of the application, the size of the individual droplets produced by the ejection head of the ejection device is 5 μm to 5mm.

Some embodiments of the present application provide a printing method comprising the steps of:

(1) Continuously spraying ultraviolet curing resin on the surface of the area to be sprayed drop by drop in the shape of single liquid drop, so that each liquid drop forms a spraying point, a certain distance is reserved between each spraying point, and a spraying print is formed in the area covered by all the spraying points;

(2) Applying ultraviolet light irradiation to the whole jet print to cure the ultraviolet curing resin of each jet point to form curing points corresponding to each jet point one by one, so that the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light is equal to the coverage range of the jet print;

(3) Repeating the step (1) and the step (2) until the injection times of the injection device are larger than a preset injection times threshold value.

Some embodiments of the application provide a printing apparatus comprising: the device comprises a spraying device, a plurality of ultraviolet light excitation devices, an eluting device and a control device.

The spraying device is used for continuously spraying ultraviolet curing resin on the surface of the area to be sprayed drop by drop in the shape of single liquid drop, so that each liquid drop forms one spraying point and each spraying point is separated by a distance. The ultraviolet curable resin includes ultraviolet curable epoxy resin. The epoxy resin (EpoxyResin) is irradiated by ultraviolet light and plays a role of crosslinking (CrossLinkage), can be rapidly converted from a liquid state to a solid state, the part which is already in the solid state is not washed off by the eluent, and the part which is not irradiated by ultraviolet light is still in the liquid state and can be eluted and removed by the eluent.

The ultraviolet light excitation devices are used for respectively applying ultraviolet light irradiation to each injection point to enable ultraviolet curing resin of each injection point to be cured so as to form curing points corresponding to each injection point one by one, and the irradiation range of ultraviolet light emitted by each ultraviolet light excitation device is smaller than or equal to the coverage range of each injection point corresponding to one by one.

The elution device is used for eluting uncured parts in each injection point by using eluent after each injection point forms one-to-one corresponding solidification point, so that each solidification point forms one-to-one corresponding forming point.

The control device is used for obtaining the injection end information after one of the injection devices is injected, and starting the ultraviolet excitation device according to the injection end information; obtaining irradiation ending information after the ultraviolet irradiation time of the ultraviolet excitation device is ended, and starting the elution device according to the irradiation ending information; and obtaining injection start information after the elution is finished, and starting the injection device according to the injection start information so as to perform the next injection until the injection times of the injection device are greater than a preset injection times threshold value.

In other embodiments of the application, the size of the individual droplets produced by the ejection head of the ejection device is 2mm to 35mm.

In some embodiments of the present application, the number of ultraviolet light excitation devices corresponds one-to-one to the number of spray points.

Some embodiments of the present application also provide a printing method including the steps of:

(1) Continuously spraying ultraviolet curing resin drop by drop on the surface of the area to be sprayed in the shape of single liquid drop, so that each liquid drop forms a spraying point and each spraying point is separated by a distance;

(2) Respectively applying ultraviolet irradiation to each injection point to cure the ultraviolet curing resin of each injection point so as to form curing points corresponding to each injection point one by one, wherein the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light emitted by each ultraviolet light excitation device is smaller than or equal to the coverage range of each injection point corresponding to one by one;

(3) Eluting uncured parts in each injection point by using eluent to enable each curing point to form one-to-one corresponding forming point;

(4) Repeating the steps (1) to (3) until the injection times of the injection device are larger than a preset injection times threshold value.

Some embodiments of the application also provide a printing apparatus comprising: the device comprises a spraying device, an ultraviolet excitation device, an elution device and a control device.

The spraying device is used for spraying the ultraviolet curing resin on the surface of the area to be sprayed in the shape of single liquid drops, so that the single liquid drops form a single spraying point.

The ultraviolet light excitation device is used for applying ultraviolet light irradiation to the single spray points to enable ultraviolet curing resin positioned at the single spray points to be cured, so that curing points corresponding to the single spray points one by one are formed, and the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light is smaller than or equal to the coverage range of the single spray points corresponding to the single spray points one by one. If the size of the single droplet ejected by the ejection device is larger than the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light emitted by the ultraviolet light excitation device, partial solidification and partial elution can be achieved, thereby producing a three-dimensional molded article having a desired shape and molding accuracy.

The elution device is used for eluting uncured parts in the single injection points by using eluent after the single injection points form one-to-one correspondence with the curing points, so that the curing points form one-to-one correspondence with the forming points.

In other embodiments of the application, the size of the individual droplets produced by the ejection head of the ejection device is from 5mm to 5cm.

There is also provided in some embodiments of the present application a printing method including the steps of:

(1) Spraying ultraviolet curing resin on the surface of the area to be sprayed in the shape of single liquid drops, so that the single liquid drops form single spraying points;

(2) Applying ultraviolet light irradiation to the single spray points to cure the ultraviolet curing resin positioned at the single spray points to form curing points corresponding to the single spray points one by one, wherein the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light is smaller than or equal to the coverage range of the single spray points corresponding to the single spray points one by one;

(3) Eluting the uncured part in the single injection point by using eluent so as to enable the curing points to form one-to-one corresponding forming points;

The printing equipment and the printing method in the embodiment of the application adopt the spraying device to spray the ultraviolet curing resin in the shape of single liquid drop, adopt the ultraviolet excitation device to irradiate the spraying point or the spraying print formed by the liquid drop, the irradiation range of the ultraviolet is equal to or smaller than the coverage range of the single liquid drop or a plurality of liquid drops, and optionally adopt the elution device to elute the uncured part. Therefore, some embodiments of the present application can solve the problem that the ultraviolet curing resin cannot obtain a high-precision stereolithography structure when printed in a large range, and can also obtain a stereolithography object with a specific precise shape and/or a desired height by controlling individual curing and subsequent elution of each injection point, and can also solve the overflow problem generated after OLED encapsulation.

By adopting the technical scheme of the embodiments or any combination thereof, some embodiments of the application achieve the following beneficial effects:

First, in some embodiments of the present application, the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light is not greater than the coverage of the jet print or the jet dot, so that the ultraviolet light irradiation does not burn other display structures located outside the coverage of the jet print or the jet dot, thereby eliminating the need to use an ultraviolet mask to shield the ultraviolet light from irradiating other internal structures of the display device, and reducing the workload of separately designing the mask of a specific shape and size.

Secondly, in some embodiments of the present application, the spraying device does not spray the UV printing glue (or UV curable resin) in a large range at a time, but sprays the UV printing glue in the form of droplets, so that the problem that the UV printing glue in a large range cannot obtain a high-precision three-dimensional molding structure due to the flowability and gravity of the UV printing glue is avoided.

Third, in some embodiments of the present application, the printing apparatus is capable of individually curing each ejection dot, and a three-dimensional shaped article having a specific precise shape can be obtained by controlling the shape of the individual ejection dot individually curing and assisting with the subsequent elution step.

Fourth, in some embodiments of the present application, the printing apparatus may control the hardness of the droplets of each ejection point by controlling the ultraviolet irradiation time of each different ejection point, thereby obtaining a three-dimensional molded article having different hardness.

Fifth, in some embodiments of the present application, by irradiating a part of the parts of the injection points with ultraviolet light, the irradiated parts are not eluted by the eluent because of solidification, and the rest parts not irradiated are eluted by the eluent because of solidification, so that micro-shaping of the single injection points can be achieved. After the cycle of spraying, irradiation and elution is completed, a plurality of spray points which have undergone micro-shaping are piled up to form a three-dimensional shaped object with very high height and precise shape, so that the problem that the current OLED display dam overflows ink due to low packaging height can be solved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the drawings that are needed in the description of the embodiments will be briefly described below, it being obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and that other drawings may be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort for a person skilled in the art.

Fig. 1 is a schematic layout of a printing apparatus in some embodiments of the application.

Fig. 2 is a schematic view of a three-dimensional forming structure according to some embodiments of the application.

Fig. 3 is a schematic layout of another printing apparatus in some embodiments of the application.

Fig. 4 is a schematic layout of one of the printing apparatuses in some embodiments of the application.

Fig. 5 is a schematic view of a three-dimensional molding structure according to some embodiments of the application.

Fig. 6 is a schematic layout of another printing apparatus in some embodiments of the application.

Fig. 7 is a schematic layout of yet another printing apparatus in some embodiments of the application.

Fig. 8 is a schematic view of yet another stereolithography structure according to some embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 9 is a schematic view of a three-dimensional forming structure according to some embodiments of the application.

Fig. 10 is a schematic layout of a further printing apparatus in some embodiments of the application.

Fig. 11 is a schematic layout diagram of one of the printing apparatuses in some embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 12 is a flow chart of a printing method in some embodiments of the application.

Fig. 13 is a schematic layout of one of the printing apparatuses in some embodiments of the application.

Fig. 14 is a schematic diagram of a display screen package structure in the prior art. Wherein the metal substrate 33 (METAL PLATE) is located at the lowest layer in the figure, the supporting Film 34 (back Film) is located above the metal substrate 33, and the OLED/TFT structure 35 is located above the supporting Film 34. The organic waterproof film 31 is formed using the IJP printing technique, and has a liquid level higher than the height of the frame 32.

Reference numerals illustrate:

Printing apparatus 1, ejection device 2, ultraviolet light excitation device 3, substrate 4, printing apparatus 11, ejection device 12, ultraviolet light excitation device 13, substrate 14, printing apparatus 21, ejection device 22, ultraviolet light excitation device 23, substrate 24, organic water-blocking film 31, frame 32, metal substrate 33, support film 34, OLED/TFT structure 35.

Detailed Description

The following description of the embodiments of the present application will be made clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which it is apparent that the embodiments described are only some embodiments of the present application, but not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the application without making any inventive effort, are intended to fall within the scope of the application. Furthermore, it should be understood that the detailed description is presented herein for purposes of illustration and description only, and is not intended to limit the application. In the present application, unless otherwise indicated, terms such as "upper" and "lower" used herein generally refer to the upper and lower positions of the device in actual use or operation, and specifically to the orientation of the drawing figures; while "inner" and "outer" (if any) are for the contour of the device.

Reference herein to "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of the application. The appearances of such phrases in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Those of skill in the art will explicitly and implicitly appreciate that the embodiments described herein may be combined with other embodiments.

The terms "first," "second," "third," and "fourth," etc., in this disclosure, if any, are used for distinguishing between different objects and not for describing a particular sequential order. Furthermore, the terms "comprise" and "have," if any, and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or modules is not limited to only those steps or modules but may include other steps or modules not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

Some embodiments of the present application provide a printing apparatus that prints on a substrate using an ultraviolet curable resin as printing ink to form a three-dimensional shaped article having a specific shape on the substrate.

In some embodiments of the present application, referring to fig. 1, a printing apparatus 1 includes at least a spraying device 2, an ultraviolet light excitation device 3, a control device (not shown in fig. 1), and the like.

Wherein the spraying device 2 comprises a storage cavity for storing ultraviolet curing resin and a spraying head which is in fluid communication with the storage cavity. The spray heads are arranged towards the substrate 4 and are used for continuously spraying the ultraviolet curing resin stored in the storage cavity on the surface of the area to be sprayed drop by drop in the shape of single liquid drops, so that each liquid drop forms one spray point, a certain distance is reserved between each spray point, and the area covered by all spray points forms a spray print. The double arrow in fig. 1 represents the direction of movement of the spraying device 2. The spraying device 2 moves in a direction parallel to the substrate 4, and sprays a droplet onto the substrate 4 every certain distance, and the position of the droplet on the substrate is the spraying point corresponding to the droplet. The vertical arrow in fig. 1 represents the ejection direction of the ejection head of the ejection device 2. When the droplet lands on the substrate, a semicircular droplet is formed due to interfacial tension. The distance between each injection point may be equal or different according to the injection frequency of the injection device 2.

In some embodiments of the present application, the size of the individual droplets generated by the ejection head of the ejection device 2 is 5 μm to 5mm, and the ejection size of the ejection head may be specifically designed according to the size of the individual droplets required. In other embodiments of the application, the size of the individual droplets produced by the ejection head of the ejection device 2 may be 200 μm to 2mm, or 500 μm to 1mm. The above-described individual droplet sizes are merely illustrative, and the individual droplet sizes may not be limited to the above-described ranges in practice.

The ultraviolet light excitation device 3 is capable of emitting ultraviolet light, which applies ultraviolet light irradiation to the entire jet print formed as described above, to cure the ultraviolet curable resin at each jet point within the ultraviolet light irradiation range, thereby forming curing points corresponding one by one to each jet point. The irradiation range of the ultraviolet light needs to be equal to the coverage of the ejection print, as long as each ejection point is ensured to fall within the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light so that each ejection point can be cured. By controlling the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light, other structures located outside the coverage of the jet print can be prevented from being burned by the ultraviolet light irradiation. Because the internal structure of the display device is relatively precise and is easily damaged by Ultraviolet (UV), the damage of the UV to the internal structure of the display device can be reduced by controlling the irradiation range of the UV. In addition, because the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light excitation device 3 can be controlled in a targeted manner, the ultraviolet light mask plate is not required to be used for shielding the irradiation of the ultraviolet light on the internal structure of the display device, and the workload of independently designing the mask plate with a specific shape and size is reduced. In order to control the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light, the ultraviolet light excitation device 3 needs to include a prism or a prism group, and the prism or the prism group can convert the ultraviolet light emitted by the ultraviolet light source in the prism or the prism group into parallel ultraviolet light and irradiate the parallel ultraviolet light in the direction of the jet print, so that the damage effect of the ultraviolet light on other structures outside the coverage range of the jet print can be reduced. The dashed arrow in fig. 1 indicates the irradiation range of ultraviolet light. In other embodiments of the present application, a lens or lens group may be used to convert the ultraviolet light emitted by the ultraviolet light source into focused ultraviolet light, where the irradiation range of the focused ultraviolet light on the substrate is less than or equal to the coverage range of the jet print, so as to reduce the damaging effect of the ultraviolet light on other structures outside the coverage range of the jet print.

In some embodiments of the application, the wavelength of the ultraviolet light may be selected from any one of 300 to 400nm, from any one of 315 to 380nm, and from any one of 325 to 350 nm.

The control device is used for controlling the actions of the spraying device 2 and the ultraviolet light excitation device 3. The control means may be configured to perform the following functions:

(1) After one of the injections of the injection device 2 is completed, the control device obtains injection end information sent from the injection device 2 or manually input, and then turns on the ultraviolet light excitation device 3 according to the injection end information. Thus, the ultraviolet light excitation device 3 starts to irradiate the whole jet print formed as described above, and stops irradiation until the countdown timer in the ultraviolet light excitation device 3 ends or is manually turned off. Once the ultraviolet light excitation device 3 stops irradiating, the ultraviolet light excitation device 3 transmits an irradiation ending signal to the control device whether the ultraviolet light excitation device is automatically stopped or manually and actively stopped;

(2) After the ultraviolet irradiation time of the ultraviolet excitation device 3 is finished, the ultraviolet excitation device 3 automatically sends irradiation end information to the control device, the control device starts the spraying device according to the irradiation end information, or manually sends the irradiation end information to the control device, the control device starts the spraying device 2 to spray the next time until the spraying times of the spraying device 2 are larger than a preset spraying times threshold value. That is, the number of injections is accumulated every time the injection device 2 injects, when the number of injections of the injection device 2 is equal to the predetermined threshold number of injections, the step (2) is continued, the ultraviolet light irradiation is performed by the ultraviolet light excitation device 3, and after the ultraviolet light irradiation time is ended, the control device does not turn on the next injection device 2 any more, because at this time, if the control device turns on the next injection device 2 again, the accumulated number of injections of the injection device 2 after the injection is greater than the predetermined threshold number of injections, the preset injection stop condition is reached at this time, and therefore the control device does not turn on the next injection device 2 any more. Thereby, control of the injection stop condition of the injection device 2 is achieved.

Through the process, a plurality of circulating actions are realized, and each circulating action comprises a spraying process and an irradiation process. After the cyclic actions are performed for a plurality of times, accumulation of each molding layer is realized, and finally, a three-dimensional molding structure is formed. As shown in fig. 2, through the above-described cyclic operation, each cured layer (or molding layer) is accumulated on the substrate 4 layer by layer, and the accumulation of these cured layers forms a three-dimensional molding structure. Fig. 2 is only a schematic view, so that in order to show the accumulation of each droplet in the corresponding forming layer, a gap exists between each droplet in fig. 2. In fact, since the droplets are liquid and have fluidity, when the droplets of the upper layer drop into the solidified structures of the lower layer, the voids existing between the solidified structures are filled, so that the three-dimensional molded structure finally formed does not exhibit the porous structure illustrated in fig. 2.

In the above embodiments, referring to fig. 1 or 2, the spraying device 2 and the ultraviolet light excitation device 3 are located on the same side of the area to be sprayed on the substrate 4, however, in other embodiments of the present application, the spraying device 2 and the ultraviolet light excitation device 3 may be located on two sides of the area to be sprayed on the substrate 4, where the area to be sprayed on the substrate 4 allows the ultraviolet light to penetrate, so that the curing of the ultraviolet light on the single droplet on the area to be sprayed on the opposite side can be achieved.

In some embodiments of the present application, the ultraviolet curable resin comprises an ultraviolet curable epoxy resin or the like. The epoxy resin (EpoxyResin) can play a role in crosslinking (CrossLinkage) after being irradiated by ultraviolet light, can be rapidly converted from a liquid state to a solid state, the part which is already in the solid state is not washed off by the eluent, and the part which is not irradiated by the ultraviolet light is still in the liquid state and can be eluted and removed by the eluent. Thus, in other embodiments, the elution process may also be increased after each irradiation process is completed.

The printing device provided by some embodiments of the present application is suitable for large-area printing, and is capable of continuously spraying a plurality of droplets at a certain frequency, each droplet forms a corresponding spraying point, each spraying point is individually cured by using large-range ultraviolet irradiation, and layered molding of a three-dimensional molded article is realized through a cyclic printing and irradiation process. In addition, in the large-area layered printing, all the liquid drops can be uniformly irradiated by ultraviolet light due to the small particle size, so that the curing degree is uniform, the elution process is not required to be increased, and the three-dimensional formed product with uniform density can be obtained. Of course, mention is made here only of the fact that no additional elution is necessary, not to the extent that no elution is performed at all, and that the elution may be added as appropriate. Therefore, the printing apparatus of the above-described embodiment belongs to the continuous jet and multi-point curing type.

According to the embodiment of the application, a dot-shaped UV laser source is added on the side surface of the spray head or the back surface of the glass plate, a small-radius focus is formed through lens focusing, UV laser is used for solidification after printing, a reserved part is not needed to be solidified, elution can be carried out through an organic solvent, printing precision can be ensured, and meanwhile, a three-dimensional structure can be formed through superposition printing and resolidification after single-point solidification, and the printing is not limited to plane printing. Therefore, the embodiments of the application can improve the patterning precision of UV glue printing and form a three-dimensional structure.

By way of example, UV laser can be added to the side of the inkjet nozzle, after printing, the printing is finished, and the printing is finished, part of the printing is not required to be eluted by an organic solvent (such as alcohol, acetone and the like), and the forming precision can be improved due to the fact that the shape of the formed part is controlled by the laser; the three-dimensional structure can be formed by superposition printing and resolidification after single-point solidification. Or UV laser (shown in figure 3) is added on the back of the glass backboard, after printing, the glass backboard is formed by laser, and part of the glass backboard is not required to be eluted by an organic solvent, so that the forming precision can be improved. The UV glue graphical printing precision can be improved, and meanwhile, a three-dimensional molded object structure can be formed. Therefore, the embodiments of the application can be applied to UV glue printing forming, such as barrier dam forming during organic ink printing of OLED film packaging, special patterning forming during UV glue coating, and the like.

(1) The ultraviolet curing resin is continuously sprayed on the surface of the area to be sprayed drop by drop in the shape of single liquid drop, so that each liquid drop forms one spraying point and a certain distance is reserved between each two spraying points, and the area covered by all spraying points forms a spraying print.

(2) And applying ultraviolet light irradiation to the whole jet print to cure the ultraviolet curing resin of each jet point to form curing points corresponding to each jet point one by one, so that the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light is equal to the coverage range of the jet print. In this step, the purpose of making the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light equal to the coverage of the jet print is to reduce the damage of the ultraviolet light to the precision structure inside the display device so that the ultraviolet light is mainly used for curing.

(3) Repeating or cycling the step (1) and the step (2) until the injection number of the injection device is greater than a predetermined (or preset) injection number threshold. If the number of injections of the current injection device is equal to the threshold, the injection device still injects the current time, and step (2) is entered, and the number of injections of the injection device is greater than the threshold at the next calculation, then the injection device terminates the injection. The number of shots should be set so that a three-dimensional molded article of a predetermined size can be formed after the above steps.

Some embodiments of the present application provide a printing apparatus that prints on a substrate using an ultraviolet curable resin as printing ink to form a three-dimensional shaped article having a specific shape on the substrate. The printing device can be suitable for printing work with medium area, and can produce three-dimensional molded articles with more precise structures. The printing device can continuously jet a plurality of liquid drops at a certain frequency, each liquid drop forms a corresponding jet point, each jet point is solidified independently by adopting independent ultraviolet irradiation, and layering molding of the three-dimensional molded object is realized through a cyclic printing and irradiation process. Since the printing apparatus of this embodiment causes each ejection dot to be individually cured, a three-dimensional molded article having a specific precise shape can be obtained by controlling the shape of the individual ejection dot individually cured and assisting in the subsequent elution step. In addition, the printing apparatus of this embodiment can also control the hardness of the droplets of each ejection point by controlling the ultraviolet irradiation time of each different ejection point, thereby obtaining three-dimensional molded articles having different hardness. Therefore, the printing apparatus of this embodiment belongs to the continuous jet and single-point curing type.

In some embodiments of the present application, referring to fig. 4, the printing apparatus 11 includes at least a spraying device 12, an ultraviolet light excitation device 13, an elution device, a control device (not shown in fig. 4), and the like.

Wherein the spraying device 12 comprises a storage chamber for storing the ultraviolet curable resin and a spraying head which is in fluid communication with the storage chamber. The spray heads are disposed toward the substrate 14 for continuously spraying the ultraviolet curable resin stored in the storage chamber drop by drop in the shape of individual droplets onto the surface of the area to be sprayed, so that each droplet forms a spray point and each spray point is separated by a distance, and the areas covered by all spray points form a spray print. The distance between each injection point may be equal or different depending on the injection frequency of the injection device 12. In some embodiments of the present application, the size of individual droplets produced by the ejection head of the ejection device 12 is 2mm to 35mm, and the ejection size of the ejection head may be specifically designed according to the size of individual droplets required. In other embodiments of the present application, the individual droplets produced by the spray head of the spray device 12 may be 5mm to 20mm in size or 10mm to 15mm in size. The above-described individual droplet sizes are merely illustrative, and the individual droplet sizes may not be limited to the above-described ranges in practice.

Since the printing apparatus 11 of this embodiment requires individual curing of each ejection point, the printing apparatus 11 includes a plurality of ultraviolet light excitation devices 13, the number of the ultraviolet light excitation devices 13 being set in one-to-one correspondence with the number of ejection points to be ejected by the ejection devices 12, whereby ultraviolet light irradiation can be applied to each ejection point in one-to-one correspondence with the ultraviolet light excitation devices 13, respectively, so that the ultraviolet curable resin of each ejection point is individually cured, forming curing points in one-to-one correspondence with each ejection point. The irradiation range of the emitted ultraviolet light of each ultraviolet light excitation device 13 is smaller than or equal to the coverage range of each injection point in a one-to-one correspondence. The embodiment adopts single-point curing, which is equivalent to controlling the irradiation range of ultraviolet light, so that the ultraviolet light irradiation can not burn other display structures outside the coverage range of the injection points, and a mask plate is not required to be used for shielding the ultraviolet light irradiation outside the coverage range of the injection points. In addition, when the irradiation range of the emitted ultraviolet light of each ultraviolet light excitation device 13 is smaller than the coverage range of each injection point corresponding one by one, it is possible to irradiate the individual injection points from different directions as needed, thereby realizing irradiation of the specific part, which is not eluted by the eluent due to solidification, and the rest of parts which are not irradiated are not solidified and eluted by the eluent, thus achieving micro-shaping of the individual injection points (refer to fig. 5). After all the actions (including spraying, irradiation and elution) are carried out, a plurality of spray points which have undergone micro-shaping are piled up to form a three-dimensional molded object with an accurate shape, so that the printed three-dimensional molded object has higher precision and can be adapted to precise components in a display.

And eluting uncured parts in each injection point by using eluent after each injection point forms one-to-one corresponding solidification point, so that each solidification point forms one-to-one corresponding forming point. The printing apparatus of this embodiment can also achieve micro-shaping of each ejection dot by locally irradiating and locally solidifying each ejection dot in combination with a subsequent elution process, thereby obtaining a three-dimensional shaped article having a different microstructure.

The control means is arranged to control at least the movements of the spraying means 12 and the ultraviolet light excitation means 13 described above and, in some embodiments, also the movements of the elution means. The control means may be configured to perform the following functions:

(1) After one of the injections of the injection device 12 is completed, the control device obtains injection end information sent by the injection device 12 or manually input, and then starts the ultraviolet light excitation device 13 according to the injection end information; thus, the plurality of ultraviolet light excitation devices 13 start to perform single-point irradiation on the injection points formed as described above, and the irradiation is stopped or manually turned off until the countdown timer in the ultraviolet light excitation devices 13 ends. Once the ultraviolet light excitation device 13 stops irradiating, the ultraviolet light excitation device 13 transmits an irradiation ending signal to the control device no matter in the conditions of automatic stopping, manual active stopping and the like; in some embodiments, the control device can also control the irradiation time of each ultraviolet light excitation device 13 individually so as to control the hardness of the liquid drop at each injection point by controlling the ultraviolet irradiation time of each different injection point, thereby obtaining the three-dimensional molded article with different hardness.

(2) After the ultraviolet irradiation time of the ultraviolet excitation device 13 is finished, the ultraviolet excitation device 13 automatically sends irradiation finishing information to the control device, the control device starts the elution device according to the irradiation finishing information, or manually sends the irradiation finishing information to the control device, and the control device starts the elution device according to the irradiation finishing information; after the elution is finished, the control device obtains the injection start information, and starts the injection device according to the injection start information so as to perform the next injection, and the injection device stops performing the injection until the injection times of the injection device are larger than a preset injection times threshold value. After the completion of the elution, the eluting device may send the elution completion information to the control device, and the control device may acquire the above-described ejection start information (or ejection start command) based on the elution completion command.

Through the above process, a plurality of circulating actions are realized, and each circulating action comprises a spraying process, an irradiation process and an elution process. After the cyclic actions are performed for a plurality of times, accumulation of each molding layer is realized, and finally, a three-dimensional molding structure is formed. Since one irradiation process is followed by one elution process, each molded layer can be subjected to one micro-molding at the time of elution, so that the resulting three-dimensional molded structure can form a fine structure in a predetermined morphology.

In the above embodiment, the spraying device 12 and the ultraviolet light excitation device 13 are located on the same side of the area to be sprayed on the substrate 14, however, in other embodiments of the present application, the spraying device 12 and the ultraviolet light excitation device 13 may be located on two sides of the area to be sprayed (refer to fig. 6), and the area to be sprayed on the substrate 14 allows the ultraviolet light to penetrate, so that the curing of the ultraviolet light on the single droplet on the area to be sprayed on the opposite side can be achieved.

(2) Respectively applying ultraviolet irradiation to each injection point to cure the ultraviolet curing resin of each injection point to form curing points corresponding to each injection point one by one, wherein the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light emitted by each ultraviolet light excitation device is smaller than or equal to the coverage range of each injection point corresponding to one by one;

Some embodiments of the present application provide a printing apparatus that prints on a substrate using an ultraviolet curable resin as printing ink to form a three-dimensional shaped article having a specific shape on the substrate. The printing apparatus can be applied to a printing job of a small micro area, and can produce a three-dimensional molded article having a more precise structure. The printing apparatus is capable of ejecting ultraviolet curable resin in the shape of a single droplet so that the single droplet forms only a single ejection point at a time and curing the single ejection point individually with individual ultraviolet irradiation, it is possible to obtain a three-dimensional molded article having a specific precise shape by controlling the shape of individual ejection points individually cured and assisting in the subsequent elution step. Therefore, the printing apparatus of this embodiment belongs to the single-point ejection and single-point curing types.

In some embodiments of the present application, referring to fig. 7, the printing apparatus 21 includes at least: a spraying device 22, an ultraviolet light excitation device 23, an elution device, a control device (not shown in fig. 7), etc.

Wherein the spraying device 22 comprises a storage chamber for storing the ultraviolet curable resin and a spraying head which is in fluid communication with the storage chamber. The ejection head is disposed toward the substrate 24 for ejecting the ultraviolet curable resin stored in the storage chamber in the shape of a single droplet to the surface of the region to be sprayed, so that the single droplet forms a single ejection point. The size of the individual droplets produced by the spray head of the spray device 22 may be from 5mm to 5cm. The ejection size of the ejection head can be specifically designed according to the size of the individual droplet required. In other embodiments of the present application, the individual droplets produced by the spray head of the spray device 22 may be 7mm to 2cm in size or 10mm to 1cm in size. The above-described individual droplet sizes are merely illustrative, and the individual droplet sizes may not be limited to the above-described ranges in practice. This embodiment employs micro-shaping of individual droplets, and thus, the size of individual droplets can be larger.

The ultraviolet light excitation device 23 is configured to apply ultraviolet light irradiation to the individual ejection points to cure the ultraviolet curable resin located at the individual ejection points to form curing points corresponding to the individual ejection points one by one, where the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light is smaller than or equal to the coverage range of the individual ejection points corresponding to one by one (if the coverage ranges of the individual ejection points are different for each ejection). When the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light is equal to the coverage of a single spray point, the single spray point achieves full solidification without the need for an elution process. It is of course also possible to add an elution process in order to wash away impurities from the surface of the solidification point. When the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light is smaller than the coverage of a single ejection point, if the single ejection point needs to be micro-shaped, then the subsequent elution process needs to be increased. Referring to fig. 8, after elution, the solidified portion of the single spray point is not eluted by the eluent, and the non-irradiated portion is eluted by the eluent because solidification does not occur, so that micro-shaping of the single spray point is achieved according to the irradiation range of ultraviolet light. The irradiation range of the ultraviolet light may be adjusted in combination with the irradiation angle of the ultraviolet light. After all the actions (including spraying, irradiation and elution) are performed, a plurality of spray points which have undergone micro-shaping are piled up to form a three-dimensional molded article (shown by referring to fig. 9) with an accurate shape, so that the three-dimensional shape of the three-dimensional molded article printed has higher accuracy and a preset shape, and can be adapted to the accurate components in the display.

In fig. 8 or 9, the ultraviolet light excitation device 23 emits parallel ultraviolet light, which may be implemented by adding a prism or a prism group to the exit path of the ultraviolet light source, and controlling the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light on a single injection point by controlling the exit range of the ultraviolet light source, however, in other embodiments of the present application, the ultraviolet light on the exit path of the ultraviolet light source may be converged by a lens or a lens group to form a converged ultraviolet light, where the converged ultraviolet point forms a small radius focal point on the single injection point, and the radius of the focal point may be adjusted to 20% to 60% of the radius of the single injection point, and the curing time and the curing degree of a partial area of the single injection point are controlled by moving the small radius focal point at the position of the single injection point, so as to implement micro-shaping of the single injection point (as shown in fig. 10). The oval shape in fig. 10 represents the lens or lens group employed in the above embodiment. The various embodiments of the application may be combined in any number of ways.

The elution device is used for eluting uncured parts in the single injection points by using eluent after the single injection points form one-to-one correspondence with the curing points, so that the curing points form one-to-one correspondence with the forming points. The kind of the eluent is not particularly limited as long as the uncured portion can be eluted.

The control means is adapted to control at least the actions of the spraying means 22 and the ultraviolet light excitation means 23 described above and, in some embodiments, also the action of the elution means. The control means may be configured to perform the following functions:

(1) After one of the injections of the injection device 22 is completed, the control device obtains the injection end information sent by the injection device 22 or manually input, and turns on the ultraviolet light excitation device 23 according to the injection end information; the ultraviolet light excitation device 23 starts to perform single-point irradiation on the formed single injection point until the countdown timer in the ultraviolet light excitation device 23 stops irradiation or the irradiation is manually turned off. Once the ultraviolet light excitation device 23 stops irradiating, the ultraviolet light excitation device 23 transmits an irradiation end signal to the control device no matter in the conditions of automatic stopping, manual active stopping and the like;

(2) After the ultraviolet irradiation time of the ultraviolet excitation device 23 is finished, the ultraviolet excitation device 23 automatically sends irradiation finishing information to the control device, the control device starts the elution device according to the irradiation finishing information, or manually sends the irradiation finishing information to the control device, and the control device starts the elution device according to the irradiation finishing information; after the elution is completed, the control device obtains injection start information, and starts the injection device according to the injection start information to perform the next injection until the injection number of the injection device is greater than a predetermined injection number threshold value, and then the injection device stops the injection, thereby forming the molded article. After the completion of the elution, the eluting device may send the elution completion information to the control device, and the control device may acquire the above-described ejection start information (or ejection start command) based on the elution completion command.

In the above embodiment, the spraying device 22 and the ultraviolet light excitation device 23 are located on the same side of the area to be sprayed, however, in other embodiments of the present application, the spraying device and the ultraviolet light excitation device are located on both sides of the area to be sprayed (refer to fig. 11), and the area to be sprayed allows penetration of ultraviolet light.

In the above-described embodiment, solidification is performed once every one ejection dot is formed and elution is performed once, however, solidification and elution may be performed integrally after a plurality of ejection dots are formed. Reference is made to fig. 12. In fig. 12, a trapezoid represents a spray device, and a star represents an ultraviolet light excitation device. In fig. 12, after two stacked ejection points are formed in succession, ultraviolet light irradiation and integral elution are applied to the whole. In fig. 12, the spraying means and the ultraviolet light excitation means are located on the same side of the substrate (indicated by a rectangle in fig. 12), however, both may also be located on both sides of the substrate (refer to fig. 13).

The existing printing and forming technology in the display industry is to spray and then solidify the whole surface, and the high-precision patterning cannot be realized due to the flowing of UV printing glue. In addition, in the prior art, dot-shaped ink drops are generally ejected by a nozzle, and a plurality of layers of ink drops are overlapped to form a printing film, but the film lamination is influenced by gravity and cannot form a better three-dimensional structure. For example, an OLED display screen generally adopts thin film encapsulation, and forms a layer of dense organic waterproof film on the screen body by using the IJP (Ink Jet Print) printing technology, and in order to prevent Ink overflow, a layer of dam is generally manufactured around, if UV printing is used to form the dam, the shape of the dam is flat because of UV Ink leveling, and the dam cannot be well blocked, so that overflow is prevented. Aiming at the problems, the embodiment of the application can form a narrow and high barrier dam, and the barrier dam has a required height which can be flush with the upper liquid level of the organic waterproof film, so that a good barrier effect can be obtained, and the overflow phenomenon of the organic waterproof film can be effectively prevented.

While various embodiments of the present application have been described in detail, specific examples have been employed herein to illustrate the principles and embodiments of the present application, the above examples are provided solely to assist in understanding the methods of the present application and their core ideas; meanwhile, as those skilled in the art will vary in the specific embodiments and application scope according to the ideas of the present application, the present description should not be construed as limiting the present application in summary.

Claims

1. A printing apparatus, comprising:

A spraying device for spraying the ultraviolet curing resin drop by drop on the surface of the area to be sprayed in the shape of single liquid drop, so that the single liquid drop forms a single spraying point;

the ultraviolet light excitation device is used for applying ultraviolet light irradiation to the single spray points to enable the ultraviolet curing resin positioned at the single spray points to be cured, so that curing points corresponding to the single spray points one by one are formed, and the irradiation range of the ultraviolet light is smaller than or equal to the coverage range of the single spray points corresponding to one by one;

The elution device is used for eluting uncured parts in the single injection points by using eluent after the single injection points form one-to-one correspondence with the curing points so as to form one-to-one correspondence with the curing points; and

The control device obtains injection end information after one of the injection devices is injected, and opens the ultraviolet light excitation device according to the injection end information; obtaining irradiation ending information after the ultraviolet irradiation time of the ultraviolet excitation device is ended, and starting the elution device according to the irradiation ending information; obtaining injection start information after elution is finished, and starting an injection device according to the injection start information so as to perform the next injection until the injection times of the injection device are greater than a preset injection times threshold;

the ultraviolet curing resin comprises ultraviolet curing epoxy resin, and the ultraviolet excitation device comprises a lens or a lens group.

2. Printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the spraying means and the ultraviolet light excitation means are located on the same side of the area to be sprayed; or alternatively

The spraying device and the ultraviolet light excitation device are positioned at two sides of the area to be sprayed, and the area to be sprayed allows the ultraviolet light to penetrate.

3. The printing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the individual droplets produced by the ejection head of the ejection device are 5mm to 5cm in size.

4. A printing method applied to the printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized by comprising the steps of:

(1) Spraying ultraviolet curing resin on the surface of the area to be sprayed in the shape of single liquid drops by a spraying device, so that the single liquid drops form a single spraying point;

(2) Applying ultraviolet light irradiation to the single spray points to enable the ultraviolet curing resin positioned at the single spray points to be cured, so that curing points corresponding to the single spray points one by one are formed, and the ultraviolet light irradiation range is smaller than or equal to the coverage range of the single spray points corresponding to one by one;

(3) Eluting uncured parts in the single injection points by using eluent so as to enable the curing points to form one-to-one corresponding forming points;