JP2002248585A - Pattern printing method by laser beam - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a pattern printing method by a laser beam which is easily controlled and no affection by a change of laser performance. SOLUTION: In a pattern printing method by transferring an ink layer 12 coated on a printing surface (a base material layer) 11 to a printed surface (a printed article) W, a part of the ink layer 12 coated on the printing surface (the base material) 11 is removed by an irradiation of a laser light to make the ink layer 12 having a printing pattern and the ink layer 12 with the pattern formed by an irradiation of the laser light is transferred to the printing surface W.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of printing a pattern by a laser, and more particularly, to a method of printing a pattern by a laser capable of obtaining a required contrast with a simple control.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, pad printing, hot stamping, and the like are known as methods for printing patterns such as characters and designs on products by transfer. Pad printing is
Apply ink to the printing pattern grooves engraved on the printing plate,
In this method, the applied ink is transferred and transferred to a transfer pad, and the pad is pressed against a printing material to perform printing. Hot stamping is a method in which an ink layer of a stamp foil on which a dedicated ink layer is applied is transferred to a printing material by a hot plate and printed. For example,
In the case where the smooth surface of the product is to be a printing material, the hot plate is formed with a printing pattern as a relief plate, and the stamp foil is located between the printing material and the hot plate. Then, printing is performed by pressing and heating the stamp foil against the printing material by the hot plate, and transferring the ink layer to the printing material.

[0003] Conventional pad printing and hot stamping can print only a pattern engraved in advance on a printing plate or hot plate. In this regard, according to a printing method of removing a paint applied to a product by a laser to obtain a desired pattern, it is convenient to print a product identification symbol or the like. As a prior art in which such a printing method is described, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-98 disclosed by the present applicant.
08 described above. In the printing method of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 7A, at least two coatings of a color-forming layer 101 and a surface layer 102 are applied to a printing material W, and then the coating is irradiated with a laser beam by a laser 105. The identification display is recorded by removing the paint on the other surface side while leaving the coloring layer 101. Further, when printing a pattern of a plurality of colors by this method, as shown in FIG. 7 (b), a plurality of paint layers are applied in advance to a printing substrate, and this is applied to FIG. 7 (c). As shown, the pattern as shown in FIG. 8 was printed by removing the paint with a laser to a depth at which the color to be displayed could be seen.

[0004]

In the above-described method of printing a pattern such as an identification display by removing paint applied to a product by using a laser, the amount of paint removed is controlled by the amount of laser beam irradiation. I have. However, the intensity of the laser beam tends to be weakened due to aging, and a pattern may not be generated without sufficiently removing a layer to be removed. Further, if a laser having a high intensity is used in anticipation of aging, there is a problem in that the lower layer paint which is not desired to be removed is removed, and a desired contrast cannot be obtained. Even when a single layer of paint is applied, if one layer of paint is not sufficiently removed, poor printing will result. Conversely, if the laser beam is irradiated too much, a delicate product, for example, the base material is a substrate pattern. In such a case, a problem similarly arises, such as a change in the resistance value or the electric capacity.

Therefore, in the present invention, a pattern can be freely printed in accordance with an individual printing material, and delicate control of a laser is not required, and printing of a pattern by a laser without a change in print quality over time is possible. The aim is to provide a method.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of printing a pattern by transferring an ink layer applied on a printing surface to a printing surface. A part of the ink layer applied to the surface is removed by irradiating a laser beam to form an ink layer having a pattern to be printed, and the ink layer having the pattern formed by irradiating the laser beam is applied to the surface to be printed. It was characterized by transcription.

According to such a pattern printing method,
When removing a part of the ink layer applied to the printing surface by irradiation with a laser beam to form an ink layer having a pattern to be printed, even if the laser beam is strongly irradiated,
There is no problem with the print quality transferred to the substrate.
Therefore, not only is it unnecessary to delicately control the irradiation amount of the laser beam, but also it is possible to use a stronger laser beam in consideration of aging in advance, and print a pattern with good print quality over a long period of time. be able to.

When printing a pattern of a plurality of colors, it is possible to easily print the pattern of a plurality of colors by repeating the above-mentioned printing method and performing printing in different colors. .

[0009]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

According to the present invention, as described above, in a printing method for transferring an ink layer to a printing surface, a part of the ink layer is removed by laser beam irradiation before transfer. So, as a typical example of a transfer type printing machine,
The printing method of the present invention will be described using a hot stamp and a printing apparatus having a laser provided in the hot stamp.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a printing apparatus for carrying out a method of printing a pattern by a laser according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a front view showing a state in which an object to be printed is mounted on a pedestal of a printing apparatus for performing the pattern printing method using a laser according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, a printing apparatus 1 includes a base 2
And the main body 3 fixed on the pedestal 2, a hot plate 5 as a printing pattern plate, and the hot plate 5 are moved up and down to
, A pressing device 4 fixed to the main body 3, a hot stamp foil 10 horizontally flowed immediately below the hot plate 5, and a laser 20 for forming an individual print pattern for each printing substrate W on the hot stamp foil 10. It is mainly composed of

The pedestal 2 is a table on which the printing material W and the laser 20 are placed and fixed, and a part thereof is moved up and down in accordance with the size of the printing material W so that the printing surface is a hot plate. The height can be adjusted to be close to 5.

The hot plate 5 is generally a plate in which a pattern to be printed is formed by a relief plate. In the case of the present invention, a pattern to be printed by a laser 20 is formed on the hot stamp foil 10. Therefore, a metal plate having a flat entire surface or a rubber plate having a surface may be used. Inside the hot plate 5, a heater 5a is provided, and the hot plate 5 can be heated to a predetermined temperature (see FIG. 2).

The pressing device 4 is fixed to the main body 3. Then, it is possible to move the hot plate 5 supported downward through the hydraulic cylinder up and down and further press the hot plate 5 against the printing material W.

The hot stamp foil 10 is obtained by applying an ink layer 12 as a paint on a base layer 11 which is a tape of a resin film serving as a base via a release agent layer or the like (see FIG. 3). . In FIG. 3, the release agent layer and the like are omitted. The unused portion of the hot stamp foil 10 is wound around the take-out reel 7a with the ink layer 12 inside, and the portion used for printing is taken up by the take-up reel 7b. Further, the base material layer 11 of the hot stamp foil 10 corresponds to a printing surface described in the claims.

Unwind reel 7a and take-up reel 7b
Are located on both sides of the pressurizing device 4, respectively. Hot stamp foil 10 unwound from unwind reel 7a
Is horizontally stretched by round bar-shaped guides 6 and 6 below the unwinding reel 7a and the take-up reel 7b, respectively, and flows horizontally just below the hot plate 5.

Reel support pins 8 serving as axes on which the unwinding reel 7a and the take-up reel 7b rotate, and guides 6
Are the support arms 3a, 3b,
3b.

The laser 20 is applied to the hot stamping foil 10 before it is used for printing which is stretched between the guides 6,6.
Is a device for irradiating a laser beam from below to form a print pattern on the hot stamp foil 10. A visible light semiconductor laser oscillator is provided inside the laser 20 (not shown), and a laser beam emitted from the visible light semiconductor laser oscillator is swung in the width direction of the hot stamp foil 10 by a polygon mirror. It is configured to be scanned. At the time of this scanning, a laser beam is turned on and off, so that a printing pattern can be formed on the hot stamp foil 10. The scanning of the laser beam is performed not only in the width direction but also in the hot stamp foil 1.
It is also possible to draw a pattern such as a character by two-dimensional scanning by performing the scanning in the length direction while 0 is stopped. Further, the position of the laser 20 is not limited to the pedestal as shown in the figure, and the laser 20 can be installed at any position as long as a laser beam can be applied to the hot stamp foil 10 before printing from the ink layer 12 side.

On the side of the hot plate 5, a hot stamp foil 10
The mark sensor 21 for detecting the positioning mark drawn on the hot stamp foil 10 is provided so as to be located directly above the hot stamp foil 10.

With the printing apparatus 1 having the above-described configuration, a pattern can be printed on the printing material W as follows.

The hot stamp foil 10 unwound from the unwinding reel 7a is stretched horizontally by guides 6 and 6, while the ink layer 12 is directed downward, from the left side to the right side in FIGS. It flows. The hot stamp foil 10 that has passed through the left guide 6 is irradiated with a laser beam from below by a laser 20.

FIG. 3 is a view taken in the direction of the arrow Z in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a process of transferring an ink layer.
(A) shows the state before the transfer, (b) shows the state of heating and pressing the hot stamp foil with a hot plate, and (c) shows the state after the transfer. A part of the hot stamp foil 10 that has received the laser beam is removed, and the other portion is burned off by the laser beam, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, leaving a character pattern such as a product name and a serial number. At this time, a positioning mark 15 indicating the position of a pattern such as a character is written as a thin line or the like by a laser beam using an end portion or the like not used for printing in the hot stamp foil 10. In FIG. 3, the positioning mark 1
5 is described as a black line, but may be described as a white line obtained by removing the ink layer 12 with a laser beam. In this manner, by positioning the positioning mark 15 on the hot stamp foil 10 and performing the positioning by detecting the mark with the mark sensor 21, the positioning of each color can be performed accurately, especially in the case of multi-layer printing. The pattern can be printed.

It is preferable that the intensity of the laser beam when the ink layer 12 is burned off is high enough that the ink layer 12 can be sufficiently blown off. By increasing the intensity of the laser beam, even if the substrate layer 11 is slightly damaged, the printing quality is not affected as long as the intensity can be maintained without the hot stamp foil 10 being cut. is there. In addition, by using a slightly stronger laser beam, printing can be continued with the same print quality without the need for replacement and adjustment even when the intensity of the laser beam has been reduced due to long-term use.

Next, the printing material W is set on the pedestal 2 such that the printing surface of the printing material W is directly below the hot plate 5 (see FIG. 4A). As described above, when the ink layer 12 in which the pattern of characters and the like has flowed onto the printing substrate W, the hot plate 5 is moved downward by the pressurizing device 4 and a predetermined pressure is applied (see FIG. 4 (b)). At this time, the hot stamp foil 10 may be stopped when the mark sensor 21 detects the positioning mark 15.

Since the heating plate 5 is constantly heated to a predetermined temperature by the heater 5a, when the hot stamp foil is pressed and heated for a predetermined time, for example, 1 second, the ink layer 1 is heated.
2 closely adheres to the printing substrate W. Thereafter, the pressurizing device 4 moves up, the ink layer 12 is peeled off from the base material layer 11, and the printing is performed on the printing substrate W (see FIG. 4C).

In the completed printing, when the hot plate 5 is flat, all the patterned ink layers 12 are transferred, and characters and figures are displayed. Also,
When the hot plate 5 is a letterpress having patterns and characters formed thereon,
For example, like the product label 30 shown in FIG. 5, a portion where a common pattern is printed on the same type of product is printed on the plate of the hot plate 5, and only the serial number 31 different for each product is formed by the laser 20 to form characters. It can also be printed. In this way, by combining the present invention with a hot stamp, together with a pattern common to the same product, a different pattern can be combined and printed for each product,
Further, at that time, delicate control of the laser can be omitted.

As described above, printing can be performed by the method of printing a pattern using a laser according to the present invention.
In the present embodiment, the ink layer 1 of the hot stamp foil 10
2 is processed into a predetermined pattern by the laser 20, and the processed ink layer 12 is transferred to the print substrate W. Therefore, the intensity of the laser beam of the laser 20 can be set to be high, and the aging This has no effect on the print quality, and the printing apparatus requires less maintenance and has a longer life.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. That is, in the embodiment, only the hot stamp is taken as an example. However, the method of printing by transferring the ink layer is not limited to the hot stamp, and the ink layer on the printing surface before transfer is processed by laser. Thereby, the present invention can be applied. For example, even in pad printing, a pattern may be formed by irradiating a laser beam to the ink layer attached to the pad, or a pattern may be formed by the laser beam when the ink on the printing plate is slightly dry. Is also good. In these cases, the pad or the printing plate is the printing surface described in the claims.

Further, in the embodiment, only the case where one ink layer is printed is taken up, but by repeating the same operation as in the embodiment, a pattern of a plurality of colors is printed with a plurality of ink layers. You can also. For example, FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a process when printing a three-color pattern. As shown in FIG. 6A, the first ink layer 41 is applied to the print substrate W by a known method such as a brush or a hot stamp. Next, as shown in FIG. 6B, a hot stamp foil 45 on which a second ink layer 42 in which a pattern is formed in advance by a laser beam on a base material 40 is transferred to the first ink layer 41 to which the transfer has been performed. Position directly above. Then, the second ink layer 42 is transferred onto the first ink layer 41 as shown in FIG. Similarly,
If the third ink layer 43 is also transferred onto the second ink layer 42 (see FIG. 6D), a pattern composed of a plurality of colors as shown in FIG. 7 can be printed. Even in the case of printing in a plurality of colors as described above, when forming a pattern by skipping each ink layer with a laser beam, it is sufficient to penetrate the ink layer, so delicate control is unnecessary, and a stronger laser is used. Can be used.

[0031]

As described above in detail, according to the pattern printing method using a laser of the present invention, it is not necessary to delicately control the irradiation amount of the laser beam, and it is necessary to consider the aging of the laser in advance and to strengthen it. Since a laser can be used, the maintenance frequency of the printing apparatus can be reduced and the service life can be extended. Further, it is possible to print a pattern with good print quality over a long period of time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a printing apparatus for carrying out a pattern printing method using a laser according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing a state in which an object to be printed is placed on a pedestal of a printing apparatus for performing a pattern printing method using a laser according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a view taken in the direction of the arrow Z in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is a view showing a process of transferring an ink layer, and FIG.
(B) shows the hot stamp foil being heated and pressurized by a hot plate, and (c) shows after the transfer.

FIG. 5 is an example of a product label printed by the laser pattern printing method of the present invention.

6A and 6B are diagrams illustrating a process of printing a pattern composed of three colors, in which FIG. 6A illustrates a state where a first ink layer is applied,
(B) is a state where the second ink layer is located directly above the first ink layer, (c) is a state where the second ink layer is transferred onto the first ink layer, and (d) is a state where the second ink layer is transferred onto the first ink layer. The state where the third ink layer was transferred onto the second ink layer is shown.

7A and 7B are diagrams showing a conventional pattern printing method using a laser, wherein FIG. 7A shows a process in which a surface layer of a two-layer coating film is blown off by a laser, and FIG. Status,
(C) shows a state where a part of the layer structure of (b) is removed by laser.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a pattern printed in a plurality of colors by the conventional or the printing method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 11 base material layer 12 ink layer 20 laser 41 first ink layer 42 second ink layer 43 third ink layer

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method of printing a pattern by transferring an ink layer applied to a printing surface to a printing surface, wherein a part of the ink layer applied to the printing surface is removed by irradiation with a laser beam. A method of printing a pattern by a laser, comprising: forming an ink layer having a pattern to be printed by irradiating a laser beam onto the ink layer having the pattern formed thereon;