JP2008075215A - Printer for cloth - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer for cloth, which is suitably used for color-printing on a cloth such as a textile. <P>SOLUTION: In a printer 1 for cloth, a plurality of inkjet printers 5(n) are arranged along a carrying path 3 of a carrying table 4 mounted with a printed medium 7 of cloth. In an inkjet printer 5(1), a base treatment agent is coated on the printed medium 7, then in the next inkjet printer 5(2), a white ink is coated on the printed medium 7 to form a white basis, and with the following printers 5(3).., color printing is performed on the white base. The color printing can be efficiently performed on the cloths by using plural inkjet printers. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a fabric printing apparatus that performs printing on fabrics, clothing such as T-shirts, and other fabrics using an inkjet printer.

Conventionally, a textile ink jet printer for printing a long woven fabric has been proposed (Patent Document 1). Also proposed is an inkjet printer with a configuration in which multiple rows of inkjet heads are arranged along the fabric conveyance path and ink droplets of different color inks are ejected from each inkjet head so that color printing can be performed at high speed. (Patent Document 2). Furthermore, a printed fabric strip manufacturing apparatus has been proposed in which pre-processing, printing by an ink jet printer, and post-processing on a fabric web are performed inline (Patent Document 3).
JP 2002-19093 A JP 2001-301130 A JP-T-2004-507628

  When printing on textiles using an inkjet printer, the printing surface is rough and the ink droplets have poor fixability compared to printing on general paper, and textile printing inks, dispersed inks, It is necessary to sufficiently penetrate not only the surface but also the inside of the fabric with dye ink, pigment ink, and the like.

  Also, in the case of printing on fabrics and the like, a large amount of ink is used, so an ink tank such as a large capacity ink bottle is used. In this case, since the ink liquid level decreases as the ink is consumed, the height relationship between the ink liquid level and the ink jet head of the ink jet printer changes, and the ink supply pressure also changes accordingly. In the case of a large ink bottle, since the amount of displacement of the ink liquid surface is large, the change in ink supply pressure is also large. When the ink supply pressure changes, the discharge pressure of the ink droplets from the inkjet head changes, and it may be impossible to discharge ink droplets of an appropriate size. If ink droplets are not properly ejected, the print quality will deteriorate.

  Furthermore, when printing a fabric such as a woven fabric, for example, if it is a white fabric, color printing may be performed on the surface thereof. However, in the case of a dark fabric, even if color printing is performed there, printing with a target printing color cannot be performed. Therefore, it is necessary to print a background color using white ink or the like and perform color printing thereon. Here, when white ink is used, since the dye or pigment contained therein is likely to separate from the solution and precipitate, it is necessary to periodically stir the ink tank.

  In view of such a point, an object of the present invention is to propose a cloth printing apparatus that can sufficiently infiltrate ejected ink to the inside.

  Another object of the present invention is to propose a cloth printing apparatus capable of keeping the ink supply pressure constant.

  Another object of the present invention is to propose a cloth printing apparatus in which color ink is not supplied to an ink jet head in a state where dyes and pigments are separated.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the cloth printing apparatus of the present invention includes:
An inkjet printer;
A movement mechanism for moving a fabric print medium relative to the inkjet printer via the printing position of the inkjet printer;
A vacuum suction mechanism for vacuum-sucking the print medium after being printed by the ink-jet printer from the back surface opposite to the surface on which ink droplets are applied by the ink-jet printer; .

Moreover, the cloth printing apparatus of the present invention comprises:
An inkjet printer;
A movement mechanism for moving a fabric print medium relative to the inkjet printer via the printing position of the inkjet printer;
The inkjet printer includes an inkjet head, an ink reservoir that stores ink, and an ink supply path that supplies ink from the ink reservoir to the inkjet head.
The ink reservoir includes an ink bottle that stores ink, and a spring member that supports the ink bottle so that the height position of the ink liquid level of the ink bottle relative to the inkjet head is held constant. It is characterized by having.

Furthermore, the printing apparatus for cloth according to the present invention includes:
An inkjet printer;
A movement mechanism for moving a fabric print medium relative to the inkjet printer via the printing position of the inkjet printer;
The inkjet printer includes an inkjet head, an ink reservoir that stores ink, and an ink supply path that supplies ink from the ink reservoir to the inkjet head.
The ink storage section includes an ink tank that stores ink and a vibration mechanism that vibrates the ink tank.

Here, the inkjet printer includes a plurality of inkjet printers arranged along the movement path of the print medium,
These inkjet printers include at least a cyan ink inkjet printer that ejects cyan ink, a magenta ink inkjet printer that ejects magenta ink, and a yellow ink inkjet printer that ejects yellow ink. It is characterized by.

  In the cloth printing apparatus of the present invention, the cloth print medium after the ink droplets are discharged is vacuum-sucked from the back surface so that the ink droplets penetrate into the print medium. Therefore, if the amount of ink droplets ejected from the ink jet printer is set to be large enough to penetrate the inside, a cloth printing medium printed in a predetermined color not only on the surface but also inside can be obtained. .

  In the cloth printing apparatus of the present invention, the ink bottle is supported by the spring member. For example, if the ink bottle is supported by a compression coil spring, the compression coil spring is most compressed when the ink bottle is full of ink, and the compression coil spring is most expanded when the ink bottle is empty. Therefore, the ink bottle rises as the ink is consumed. By raising the ink bottle in response to the drop in the ink liquid level, the height of the ink liquid level can always be kept constant. As a result, the ink supply pressure to the ink jet head can be kept constant regardless of the amount of ink in the ink bottle.

  Further, since the cloth printing apparatus of the present invention is provided with a vibration mechanism that vibrates the ink tank, the ink tank can be vibrated periodically or as necessary to stir the ink inside. it can. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent ink from being supplied in a state where pigments, dyes and the like are separated and precipitated.

  In addition, in the cloth printing apparatus according to the present invention, an ink jet printer that discharges ink of each color is arranged to perform color printing on a cloth print medium. Therefore, a single ink jet printer is used to perform color printing. Compared with printing, color printing can be performed at high speed.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of a fabric printing apparatus to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing a cloth printing apparatus according to Embodiment 1 to which the present invention is applied. The fabric printing apparatus 1 of this example includes an apparatus frame 2, a conveyance path 3 formed in the apparatus frame 2, a conveyance table 4 conveyed along the conveyance path 3, and a predetermined length along the conveyance path 3. Equipped with a large number of inkjet printers 5 (n) (n = 1, 2, 3,...) Arranged at intervals, and a printer driver (not shown) for driving and controlling each inkjet printer 5 (n). Computer system 6.

  By executing the printing control program installed in the computer system 6, in the cloth printing apparatus 1 of this example, the first inkjet printer 5 (1) and the second and subsequent inkjet printers 5 (2). 5 (3)... 5 (n) is caused to perform another printing operation. For example, a case of printing for clothing such as a T-shirt will be described. When color printing is performed on a dark cloth as the print medium 7 for the T-shirt, for example, the ground treatment agent is discharged from the first inkjet printer 5 (1) to perform the ground treatment. Next, white ink is ejected from the second inkjet printer 5 (2) to form a white print base on the cloth. Next, each color ink is ejected from each of the third and subsequent inkjet printers 5 (3), 5 (4)... 5 (n), and predetermined color printing is performed on the cloth. For example, cyan ink is ejected from the inkjet printer 5 (3), magenta ink is ejected from the inkjet printer 5 (4), yellow ink is ejected from the inkjet printer 5 (5), and black ink is ejected from the inkjet printer 5 (6). Is discharged. In this way, a T-shirt in which color printing is performed beautifully is obtained.

  In this case, in the inkjet printer 5 (1), it is only necessary to apply the base treatment agent to the area on the printing medium 7 where color printing is performed, so that it is possible to suppress the wasteful use of the base treatment agent.

  In addition, the transport table 4 on which the print medium 7 is placed is first transported to a printing start position by the ink jet printer 5 (1), and the surface treatment agent is applied by the ink jet printer 5 (1) while transporting from here. After the application of the surface treatment agent is completed, the transport table 4 is transported to a printing start position by the next stage of the inkjet printer 5 (2), and white ink is applied by the inkjet printer 5 (2). Thereafter, in the same manner, ink is applied by each stage of the ink jet printer.

  A stepping motor, servo motor, DC motor, or the like can be used as a drive source of the transport mechanism for moving the transport table 4, and various mechanisms such as a ball screw can be used as a mechanism for changing the motor rotation to a linear motion. be able to. It is also possible to prepare a plurality of transport tables 4 and attach them to a transport belt at a predetermined interval, and simultaneously perform printing operations on a plurality of print media while circulating them along a circulation path.

  Next, in the example of FIG. 1, the print medium 7 is placed on the transport base 4 and transported along the transport path passing through the printing position of each ink jet printer 5 (n). The ink jet printer 5 (n) may be moved back and forth through the medium mounting table at the position.

  When the cloth printing apparatus 1 of this example is used, there are the following merits. For example, when used for textile printing, the substrate treatment agent can be applied only to the portion of the print medium 7 where the design is printed by the inkjet printer 5 (1). Therefore, it is very effective for performing the pretreatment. In the conventional method, not only the printing range but also the entire surface of the printing medium is subjected to the pretreatment, so that the amount of the ground treatment agent used is large.

  Also, in this example, color inks are assigned to the second and subsequent inkjet printers 5 (2), 5 (3), etc., so that color inks such as orange and purple unique to textiles are printed. Is easy to do.

  Furthermore, the speed can be increased as compared with the case where full-color printing is performed by a single inkjet printer.

  In the cloth printing apparatus 1 of this example, drying and fixing after color printing are performed by providing a heat source such as a rubber heater, a heat ray heater, a halogen lamp, or an IR lamp on the conveyance path of the printing medium. A series of operations can be performed inline. Of course, it is possible to increase the processing capacity of the printing work by arranging a large number of cloth printing apparatuses 1 of this example.

(Embodiment 2)
FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing a cloth printing apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention. The fabric printing apparatus 10 of this example is used for printing a long woven fabric. The fabric 11 that has not been subjected to printing surface treatment is fed from a fabric roll 12 and placed in a surface treatment agent tank 13. It is made to convey along the conveyance path | route which passes through the inside of the stored surface treatment agent 14. FIG. The fabric 11 pulled up from the ground treatment agent 14 is transported via the dryer roll 16 after the excess ground treatment agent is removed by the squeezing machine 15, and the ground treatment agent is fixed to the fabric 11 during this time. Instead of the ground treatment agent tank 13, the ground treatment agent may be sprayed onto the fabric 11 using a spray gun. Moreover, you may make it apply | coat a surface treating agent using an inkjet printer.

  Thereafter, the fabric 11 is conveyed through a portion where a plurality of inkjet printers are arranged. In this example, two inkjet printers 17 (1) and 17 (2) are arranged, and the first inkjet printer 17 (1) applies white ink to the fabric 11 to white for color printing. It is for forming an underground. The second inkjet printer 17 (2) is a color inkjet printer, and performs color printing on the fabric 11. When the fabric 11 is white, application of white ink by the ink jet printer 17 (1) is omitted, and color printing is directly performed by the ink jet printer 17 (2). When the fabric 11 is a dark fabric, a white basement is formed by the inkjet printer 17 (1), and color printing may be performed thereon by the inkjet printer 17 (2).

  Here, in this example, when performing color printing, a larger amount of ink droplets than the required amount of ink is applied to the fabric 11 from the inkjet printer 17 (2), and the vacuum disposed on the back side of the fabric 11. The fabric 11 is vacuumed from the back side by the suction mechanism 18. Normally, only single-sided printing on the printing surface (front surface) can be performed, but in this example, since the applied ink penetrates to the back surface side of the fabric 11, the entire thickness direction of the fabric 11 can be printed.

  The printed fabric 11 is conveyed through a drying and fixing unit 19 in which a halogen lamp, an IR lamp and the like are arranged, and the printed portion is dried and colored. Here, a temperature sensor such as a thermistor is arranged on the back side of the fabric 11 so that the heating temperature of the fabric 11 can be controlled to an appropriate temperature, and the temperature is detected thereby to adjust the heating temperature. For example, an adjustment mechanism that moves the heating lamp toward or away from the fabric 11, a mechanism that adjusts the lamp driving voltage, or the like can be used. In addition, the fabric 11 after printing is wound up by the winding roller 19b via the conveyance roller 19a.

(Ink supply mechanism)
Here, as the ink supply mechanism in each of the ink jet printers, the configuration shown in FIG. 3 can be adopted. The ink supply mechanism 20 of the ink jet printer shown in FIG. 3 includes an ink storage unit 21 and an ink supply tube for guiding ink stored in the ink storage unit 21 such as printing ink, dispersion ink, dye ink, and pigment ink to the ink jet head 22. 22.

  The ink storage unit 21 includes a bottle case 23 and an ink bottle 24 that is accommodated in the bottle case 23 so as to be lifted and lowered through an upper surface opening 23 a of the bottle case 23. Further, the ink bottle 24 is on the bottle support base 25 inside the bottle case 23. A compression coil spring 27 that can be expanded and contracted in the vertical direction is disposed between the back surface of the bottle support base 25 and the spring receiver 26 formed on the bottom surface of the bottle case 23.

  When the ink bottle 24 is full of ink, the ink bottle 24 is heaviest, so the compression coil spring 27 is most compressed, and the ink bottle 24 is held at the lowest position. As the ink is consumed, the ink bottle 24 becomes lighter, the compression coil spring 27 gradually expands, and the ink bottle 24 gradually rises. On the other hand, the ink level 28 stored in the ink bottle 27 is lowered as the ink is consumed, contrary to the rise of the ink bottle 27.

  In this example, the expansion ratio of the compression coil spring 27 is set so that the rising amount of the ink bottle 24 is substantially equal to the falling amount of the ink liquid level 28. As a result, the ink liquid level 28 is always held at a constant height position, and therefore the vertical relative positional relationship between the ink liquid level 28 and the inkjet head 22 is always held constant. As a result, the ink supply pressure supplied to the inkjet head 22 is kept constant.

  In a conventional inkjet printer, when an ink bottle is used, the ink bottle is fixed to the apparatus and its height position is fixed. For this reason, when the ink level changes depending on the amount of ink in the ink bottle, the relative position in the vertical direction of the ink level and the inkjet head changes, and the ink supply pressure acting on the inkjet head changes. There has been a problem that the discharge amount of the ink droplet changes. By using the ink supply mechanism 20 of this example, such a problem can be avoided and printing can always be performed with good print quality.

  Next, the ink supply mechanism for supplying white ink preferably includes a vibration mechanism for applying vibration to the bottle case 23 in addition to the above configuration. For example, in the ink supply mechanism 20 shown in FIG. 3, a vibration motor 29 may be attached to the side surface of the bottle case 23 or the like as the vibration mechanism. As the vibration motor 29, for example, a small vibration motor built in a mobile phone can be used. When the vibration motor 29 is driven, the ink bottle 24 supported by the compression coil spring 27 while being movable in the vertical direction is shaken in the vertical and horizontal directions, and the ink stored therein is agitated.

  In white ink or the like, a phenomenon in which pigments and dyes separate from the solution and precipitate easily occurs. Therefore, the ink may be stirred by driving the vibration mechanism periodically or as needed.

1 is a conceptual diagram of a cloth printing apparatus according to a first embodiment to which the present invention is applied. It is a conceptual diagram of the printing apparatus for cloth which concerns on Embodiment 2 to which this invention is applied. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of the ink supply mechanism by this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Cloth printing apparatus 2 Apparatus frame 3 Conveyance path 4 Conveyance stand 5 (1) -5 (6), 5 (n) Inkjet printer 6 Computer system 7 Printing medium 10 Cloth printing apparatus 11 Cloth 12 Cloth roll 13 Ground treatment agent Tank 14 Substrate treatment agent 15 Squeezer 16 Dryer rolls 17 (1) and 17 (2) Inkjet printer 18 Vacuum suction mechanism 19 Drying and fixing unit 20 Ink supply mechanism 21 Ink storage unit 22 Ink supply tube 23 Bottle case 24 Ink bottle 25 Bottle Support base 26 Spring receiver 27 Compression coil spring 28 Ink liquid level 29 Vibration motor

Claims (4)

An inkjet printer;
A movement mechanism for moving a fabric print medium relative to the inkjet printer via the printing position of the inkjet printer;
A vacuum suction mechanism that vacuum-sucks the print medium after being printed by the inkjet printer from the back side opposite to the surface on which ink droplets are applied by the inkjet printer;
A cloth printing apparatus, comprising: An inkjet printer;
A movement mechanism for moving a fabric print medium relative to the inkjet printer via the printing position of the inkjet printer;
The inkjet printer includes an inkjet head, an ink reservoir that stores ink, and an ink supply path that supplies ink from the ink reservoir to the inkjet head.
The ink reservoir includes an ink bottle that stores ink, and a spring member that supports the ink bottle so that the height position of the ink liquid level of the ink bottle relative to the inkjet head is held constant. And a cloth printing apparatus. An inkjet printer;
A movement mechanism for moving a fabric print medium relative to the inkjet printer via the printing position of the inkjet printer;
The inkjet printer includes an inkjet head, an ink reservoir that stores ink, and an ink supply path that supplies ink from the ink reservoir to the inkjet head.
The cloth storage device includes an ink tank that stores ink, and a vibration mechanism that applies vibration to the ink tank. In any one of claims 1 to 3,
As the ink jet printer, comprising a plurality of ink jet printers arranged along the movement path of the print medium,
These inkjet printers include at least a cyan ink inkjet printer that ejects cyan ink, a magenta ink inkjet printer that ejects magenta ink, and a yellow ink inkjet printer that ejects yellow ink. A printing apparatus for cloth.

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