JP2001096879A - Ink cartridge for stencil printing - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] To provide a stencil printing ink cartridge capable of accurately knowing a squeegee replacement time and simplifying a squeegee replacement operation. SOLUTION: An ink cartridge 10 has an ink pack 14 containing ink in a housing 12 thereof.
And the squeegee 16 are stored.
Is linearly movable between a storage position in which the entirety is completely housed in the housing 12 and an operating position protruding out of the housing 12, and is manually operated by an operator to operate the same. The lever 24 is provided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a stencil printing apparatus using a squeegee, and more particularly to an ink cartridge for use in the stencil printing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Among stencil printing apparatuses provided with a squeegee,
Rotary stencil printing apparatus (JP-A-5-69649, JP-A-5-193241, JP-A-5-221109)
JP, JP-A-9-52427, JP-A-9-16
No. 9156, JP-A-9-188060)
In such a case, there is a problem in that the squeegee comes into contact with the inner surface of the plate cylinder, so that the tip of the squeegee gradually wears, which causes a problem that the image density changes. In other words, if the tip of the squeegee wears, the amount of ink pushed out increases and the image density increases,
That is the problem.

[0003] In particular, when a halftone dot method or an error diffusion method, which is represented by a set of fine dots, is used to represent a photographic image, a gap between dots disappears, and enlarged dots appear remarkably. In addition, when performing color printing using different color inks in a plurality of plate cylinders, if there is a difference in the amount of wear of each squeegee associated with each plate cylinder, the color balance is lost, which is still a problem. .

[0004] Such a problem is caused by a printing apparatus (for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 8-1861) for printing on a flat screen printing plate.
The same applies to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. This publication teaches that the ink replacement operation is simplified by employing the ink having a cartridge structure.

[0005] To address the problems caused by squeegee wear, it is also possible to improve the wear resistance of the squeegee, for example by making the squeegee from a hard material.
However, from the viewpoint of securing the adhesion between the squeegee and the inner surface of the plate cylinder, the squeegee is preferably made of a somewhat soft material. In fact, in the conventional printing apparatus, the squeegee is periodically replaced, but this operation requires a complicated disassembling operation to be performed while keeping hands dirty.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a stencil printing ink cartridge which can accurately know when to replace a squeegee. Another object of the present invention is to provide a stencil printing ink cartridge that can simplify the squeegee replacement operation.

[0007]

According to the present invention, a squeegee is provided in an ink cartridge provided with an ink pack containing ink.
This is attained by providing an ink cartridge for stencil printing, wherein the ink cartridge is movable between a storage position stored in a housing of the ink cartridge and an operation position protruding from the housing.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is preferable that the amount of ink in the ink pack is set to be smaller than the amount of ink required for the number of prints, which is the life of a squeegee that causes a problem in a printed image. As a result, the ink runs out before the image density increases due to abrasion of the squeegee and the reproducibility of the fine line is deteriorated. Therefore, it is possible to automatically know the squeegee replacement time, and simply replace the ink cartridge. This allows the operator to automatically and easily replace a new squeegee. Setting the ink exhaustion earlier than the life of the squeegee means that the initial performance of the squeegee only needs to be maintained for one ink pack.
Lower abrasion resistance than conventional squeegees will suffice. Therefore, it becomes possible to make a squeegee with a cheaper material than the conventional squeegee, and it is also advantageous in terms of cost.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on examples, but the present invention is not limited to these. 1 to 4 show a stencil printing ink cartridge. FIG. 1 is a plan view of an ink cartridge in which a part of a housing is cut away, FIG. 2 is a side view of the ink cartridge of FIG. 1 viewed from the right side (the direction indicated by arrow II), and FIG. FIG. 4 is a side view of the first ink cartridge as viewed from the left side (a direction indicated by an arrow III), and FIG. 4 is an operation explanatory view of the ink cartridge.

The ink cartridge 10 according to the present invention comprises:
An ink pack 14 containing ink and a squeegee 16 are stored in the housing 12, and the squeegee 16 is completely stored in the housing 12 at a storage position (FIGS. 1 and 2). ) And an operating position (FIG. 4) protruding from the housing 12 to the outside. The housing 12 is formed in the shape of a flat rectangular parallelepiped in the specific example shown, but may be in any shape such as a cylindrical shape.

The squeegee 16 has a rectangular squeegee main body 18.
And a rod 20 extending in a direction transverse to the housing 12 and attached along an edge of the squeegee main body 18. The rod 20 is arranged such that one end thereof is exposed to the outside through a slit 22 formed in the right side wall 12a of the housing 12, and an operator manually operates the exposed portion. A lever 24 is attached.

The slit 22 formed in the right side wall 12a of the housing 12 extends linearly as shown in FIG. 2, so that the operator can move the lever 24 linearly along the slit 22, The squeegee 16 assumes the operating position (FIG. 4). Reference numeral 26 shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 denotes a cap. The cap 26 closes an ink outlet 28 that communicates with the ink pack 14. The ink cartridge 10 is mounted on a printing apparatus (described later). When using this, the cap 26
Remove.

The above-described ink cartridge 10 is shown in FIG.
And as shown in FIG. 6, it can be mounted on a stencil printing plate cylinder 30 and used for printing. The stencil printing plate cylinder 30 has a cartridge holder 32 for fixing the ink cartridge 10. The ink outlet 28 is connected to a connection portion with an ink supply pipe (not shown) provided inside the cartridge holder 32. The cartridge holder 32 is located inside the plate cylinder, and it is preferable that the cartridge holder 32 be provided with a guide plate or a guide groove for guiding the cartridge 10 when the cartridge 10 is mounted on and / or removed from the cartridge holder 32. Thus, the cartridge 10 can be mounted on or removed from the cartridge holder 32 while sliding on the guide plate or the guide groove. Since the squeegee 16 is stored in the housing 12 until the cartridge 10 is mounted on the plate cylinder 30, it is possible to prevent the squeegee 16 from contacting and damaging the tip of the squeegee 16 during storage or mounting of the cartridge 10. Can be prevented.

After the ink cartridge 10 is mounted on the stencil printing plate cylinder 30, the stencil printing plate, which has been made, is wound around the outer peripheral surface of the stencil printing plate cylinder. Is exposed to the outside of the cartridge housing 12, and the squeegee tip 18a is set to an operating position where the squeegee tip 18a contacts the plate cylinder inner surface 30a. Next, the ink in the cartridge 10 is removed from the cartridge holder 32 by an ink supply pump (not shown).
The ink is supplied to the nozzle 34 via an ink supply pipe (not shown) inside. The ink discharged from the nozzle 34 is applied to the plate cylinder 30.
The ink In is kneaded by a doctor roller 36 and an ink roller 38, and the plate cylinder inner surface 3 is supplied.
Then, the ink is moved to the vicinity of the squeegee tip 18a by rotating the plate cylinder 30. At this time, in synchronization with the start of rotation of the plate cylinder 30, the image receiving paper is
0 and a press roller (not shown).
Printing is performed by a printing apparatus including the plate cylinder 30 by sandwiching the sheet between the image receiving sheets and applying a printing pressure to transfer the ink to the image receiving sheet.

Approximately 20,000 using this stencil printing plate cylinder 30
When the actual printing was performed by setting the capacity (amount of ink) of the ink pack 14 in the ink cartridge 10 so that the ink was exhausted when the sheet was printed, the same as the first sheet until immediately before the ink was exhausted A printed matter of excellent image quality was obtained. After printing, the cartridge 10 was pulled out of the plate cylinder 30 with the squeegee pushing lever 24 raised from below and the squeegee main body 18 housed in the storage position, and a new cartridge 10 was mounted on the plate cylinder 30 again. My hands were clean during this operation. 5 and 6, reference numeral 40 indicates a stay handle, 42 indicates a stay, and 44 indicates a plate cylinder driving gear.

That is, it is important to consider the abrasion resistance of the squeegee 16 in relation to the amount of ink contained in the ink pack 14. It is good to set so that the ink in 14 may run out. As a result, running out of ink in the ink pack 14 (a phenomenon in which the stored ink runs out) serves as an index for detecting wear of the squeegee 16.

This setting is, in other words,
The material choices for the squeegee body 18 (FIG. 7) are diversified, and any material that can be processed into a flat plate, such as rubber, plastic, metal, or paper, can be used. Among them, a rubber-based material has a suitable elasticity and can be suitably used. Specific examples of the rubber-based material include natural rubber, nitrile rubber, silicone rubber, urethane rubber, fluorine rubber, and the like. Of these, urethane rubber is preferable from the viewpoint of printability. The hardness of the rubber-based material is not particularly limited, but is preferably 50 to 90 degrees. The squeegee main body 18 may have a configuration including metal and rubber. As a specific example, the squeegee main body 18 includes a rubber 42 at a tip portion (a portion close to the plate cylinder 30) of the metal plate 40.
(FIG. 8).

Although the width of the squeegee 16 may have any length, it is preferable that the width of the squeegee 16 be larger than the image portion of the target printed matter. Squeegee 16
If the width of the image is smaller than the image portion of the printed matter, there is a possibility that a part of the image is not printed. In general, printed matter is often B5 size or more, so that the width of the squeegee 16 is preferably 182 mm or more of the short side of B5 size.

FIGS. 9 and 10 show modifications of the ink cartridge 10 described above. The illustrated ink cartridge 50 has a concave portion 52 for receiving the rectangular squeegee 16 on one side surface of the housing 12, and the base end of the squeegee 16 pivots on the housing 12 via a pivot shaft 54. The squeegee 16 is freely mounted so that the squeegee 16
The storage position (FIG. 9) forming one side of the
4 and can assume an operating position (FIG. 10) protruding from the housing 12.

The above-described ink cartridges 10, 50
Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 11, when the squeegee 16 is set at the operating position, the squeegee 16 may be fixed at the operating position, and a reinforcing member 56 for reinforcing the squeegee 16 may be provided. . This reinforcing member 56
It is sufficient that at least the squeegee 16 is connected to the housing 12 and the squeegee 16 can be fixed to the housing 12, and the shape of the reinforcing member 56 may be plate-like or rod-like. The material of the reinforcing member 56 may be any material that can reinforce the squeegee 12, for example, metal,
Specific examples include plastic, rubber, paper, and glass.

The squeegee 16 of the ink cartridges 10, 50 may be moved manually from the storage position to the operation position and / or from the operation position to the storage position, as described above, but may be manually driven by a drive source such as a motor. May be automatically connected to a drive mechanism (not shown) including

In order to prevent the contact pressure between the squeegee 16 and the plate cylinder 30 from fluctuating due to the vibration generated during printing, the stencil printing ink cartridges 10, 50 are prevented from vibrating in order to prevent the printing density from fluctuating. A mechanism (not shown) can be provided. As the vibration preventing mechanism, any mechanism can be used as long as it can prevent vibration. Specific examples include a vibration absorbing material such as sponge and gel, and a heavy balancer. Can be mounted inside or outside of the cartridges 10,50.

Incidentally, the cylindrical portion of the stencil plate cylinder 30 may be formed of a tubular mesh member. in this case,
Printing is performed by winding a stencil printing plate around the outside of the mesh member. Further, the stencil printing plate can be directly mounted without providing a cylindrical mesh member or the like on the cylindrical portion of the stencil printing plate cylinder 30. In this case, it is necessary to fix the stencil printing plate and the plate frame, but it is possible to adopt a method of providing a projection and a hole in each of them, fixing them by inserting, and bonding them with an adhesive.

[0024]

According to the ink cartridge for stencil printing of the present invention, the squeegee can be easily and periodically replaced when the ink in the ink cartridge runs out without soiling the hands. In addition, by periodically replacing the squeegee, it is possible to prevent an increase in image density and a deterioration in thin line reproducibility due to abrasion of the squeegee.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an ink cartridge according to an embodiment of the present invention in which a part of a housing is cut away.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the ink cartridge of FIG. 1 viewed from a direction indicated by an arrow II.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the ink cartridge of FIG. 1 viewed from a direction indicated by an arrow III.

FIG. 4 is an operation explanatory view of the ink cartridge of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a stencil printing plate cylinder in a state where an ink cartridge according to the present invention is mounted, as viewed from a side.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing a cross section of the stencil printing plate cylinder of FIG. 5 and showing the inside thereof.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a main body of the squeegee.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a modified example of a squeegee.

FIG. 9 is a plan view of another ink cartridge according to the present invention, with a squeegee in a storage position.

FIG. 10 is a plan view showing the ink cartridge of FIG. 9, with a squeegee in an operating position.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory view showing an example in which a reinforcing member for reinforcing a squeegee at an operating position is provided in the ink cartridge according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Ink cartridge 12 Housing 14 Ink pack 16 Squeegee 18 Squeegee main body 24 Lever 30 Stencil printing plate cylinder 40 Metal plate 42 Rubber 54 Pivot shaft 56 Reinforcement member

Claims (13)

[Claims] 1. A squeegee is provided in an ink cartridge provided with an ink pack containing ink, and the squeegee is
An ink cartridge for stencil printing, wherein the ink cartridge is movable between a storage position stored in a housing of the ink cartridge and an operating position protruding from the housing. 2. The stencil printing ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the squeegee is fixed in the operating position. 3. The stencil printing ink cartridge according to claim 2, wherein the squeegee moves linearly between the storage position and the operating position. 4. The stencil printing ink cartridge according to claim 2, wherein the squeegee rotates between the storage position and the operating position. 5. The stencil printing method according to claim 1, wherein the squeegee is completely accommodated in the housing when the squeegee is in the storage position. For ink cartridge. 6. The stencil printing ink cartridge according to claim 1, further comprising a reinforcing member for fixing the squeegee at the operating position and reinforcing the squeegee. 7. The stencil printing ink cartridge according to claim 3, wherein the squeegee has a lever for an operator to manually operate. 8. The stencil printing ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein a main body of the squeegee is made of rubber. 9. The stencil printing ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein a main body of the squeegee is made of rubber and metal. 10. The ink cartridge for stencil printing according to claim 9, wherein the main body of the squeegee is made of a metal plate and rubber provided at a tip portion thereof. 11. The stencil printing ink cartridge according to claim 8, wherein the rubber is urethane rubber. 12. The squeegee according to claim 1, wherein a width dimension of the squeegee is larger than a width of an image portion of a printed matter.
12. The stencil printing ink cartridge according to any one of 11. 13. The stencil printing ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the squeegee has a width of 182 mm or more.