JP2015178224A - Intaglio printing plate - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an intaglio printing plate having a fine pattern, and having sufficient hardness to heighten durability.SOLUTION: An intaglio printing plate has a pattern-formed substrate, and an electroless nickel plating film formed on the substrate surface including a recessed surface of the pattern-formed substrate.

Description

  The present invention relates to an intaglio printing plate used for gravure offset printing, and a method for producing the intaglio printing plate.

  In recent years, printing using intaglio (intaglio printing) has the advantage that a relatively fine print pattern can be formed with a substantially uniform thickness and at a low cost. It has been used as a manufacturing method of industrial products in various fields such as electronics, life, electrical and information. For example, it is also used in the process of creating color filters for liquid crystal displays and circuit boards for various electronic devices.

  Intaglio printing generally involves applying paste such as ink on the surface of the intaglio in which grooves are formed in a predetermined pattern on the substrate, filling the grooves with paste, and extra paste protruding from the inside of the grooves. Is scraped off with a doctor blade, and the paste packed in the grooves formed on the intaglio is transferred to the transfer object. As the intaglio used for such intaglio printing, a metal substrate having been etched to form a groove has been used. However, in the method of etching a metal substrate, the depth of the groove to be formed is uneven. However, even if a fine groove pattern is created with high dimensional accuracy, there is a problem that the fineness of the groove and the accuracy limit are reached to some extent. This problem becomes more serious as it becomes necessary to form ultrafine patterns on a color filter of a liquid crystal display or circuit boards of various electronic devices while maintaining high dimensional accuracy.

  In addition, when soft glass such as soda glass is used for the substrate, an extremely fine pattern can be etched with high accuracy, but soda glass having a Vickers hardness of about 500 to 550 is not sufficient in hardness, and a doctor blade There was a problem that the pattern was likely to be chipped during the scraping process. Therefore, a method has been proposed in which a hard chromium film having a Vickers hardness of 850 to 1000 or more is provided on a soda glass substrate to form a protective film (see cited document 1).

  However, when chromium plating is used, there are problems that fine cracks are likely to occur on the surface, and that the thickness of the chromium film is not uniform.

Japanese Patent No. 3467317

Yoshihiko Abe et al. 291 (1992) p. 43

  An object of the present invention is to provide an intaglio printing plate having a fine pattern and sufficient durability by having a sufficient hardness.

  The intaglio printing plate of the present invention has a patterned substrate and an electroless nickel plating film formed on the surface of the substrate including the concave surface of the patterned substrate. In one embodiment of the present invention, the nickel plating film has a Vickers hardness of 800 or higher. In one embodiment of the present invention, the substrate is copper or nickel.

  Furthermore, the present invention includes (i) a step of forming a pattern on the substrate, (ii) a step of performing electroless plating of nickel on the patterned substrate, and (iii) a step of curing the nickel by heating the substrate. A method for producing an intaglio printing plate is provided. In one embodiment of the invention, the substrate is heated at a temperature of 200-600 ° C.

  In one embodiment of the present invention, (i) the step of forming a pattern on the substrate includes (a) a step of forming a pattern on the base material with a reverse plate, and (b) a conductive property on the patterned base material. Forming a thin film; (c) forming a substrate on the conductive thin film by electrolytic plating; and (d) peeling the base material from the laminate of the conductive thin film and the substrate.

  The present invention can provide an intaglio printing plate having an extremely fine pattern and improved durability.

It is the figure which showed the manufacturing method of the intaglio printing plate of this invention.

  DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The following embodiment is merely an example of the present invention, and those skilled in the art can change the design as appropriate.

  FIG. 1 is a view showing a method for producing an intaglio printing plate of the present invention. Hereinafter, FIG. 1 shows (i) a step of patterning a substrate, (ii) a step of performing electroless plating of nickel on the patterned substrate, and (iii) a step of curing the nickel film by heating the substrate. It demonstrates along a process.

(Process to form a pattern on the substrate)
In the step of forming a pattern on the substrate of the present invention, a pattern may be formed on the substrate material using an etching method. As the etching mask and the etching gas, a method well known in the art can be used.

  In one embodiment of the present invention, the substrate is patterned as shown in FIGS. 1 (a) to 1 (h).

  A radiation functional resist 12 is bonded onto the substrate 11 (FIG. 1A) (FIG. 1B), and a reverse pattern mask (not shown) of a desired pattern is adhered and exposed ( FIG. 1 (c)). Next, development is performed (FIG. 1D), and etching is performed using the remaining resist pattern 13 as a mask (FIG. 1E). Further, the resist 13 is peeled off to form a reverse pattern of a desired pattern on the base material 11 (FIG. 1 (f)). Next, a conductive thin film 14 is formed on the surface of the patterned base material 11, and electrolytic plating is performed with a substrate material (FIG. 1 (g)) to form a substrate 15 (FIG. 1 (h)).

  The base material 11 should just be a thing which can form a fine pattern, Preferably it is glass. More preferred is soda glass.

  The radiation functional resist 12 is a resist that reacts to radiation light such as visible light, ultraviolet light, and electromagnetic waves and changes its properties. As the radiation functional resist, those well known in the art can be used as those used as the etching mask 1 after curing. The radiation functional resist 12 may be in the form of a solution that forms a film after coating, or in the form of a film. Further, since the exposure wavelength is related to the accuracy of the pattern to be formed, the radiation functional resist 12 may be selected depending on the size of the pattern to be formed. For example, Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd. RY-3625 can be used for the radiation functional resist 12 of the present invention.

  The conductive thin film 14 provided on the substrate 11 on which the reverse pattern of the desired pattern is formed can be formed by a method well known in the art, such as sputtering, vapor deposition, and CVD. Preferably, it is formed by sputtering. The formed conductive thin film 14 only needs to have conductivity that can serve as an electrode for electrolytic plating. For example, silver, aluminum, gold, chromium, copper, titanium, platinum, nickel, tungsten, molybdenum, iridium, hafnium , Lead, rhodium, ruthenium, tantalum, bismuth, niobium, tin, or alloys thereof, or oxides thereof, or ITO, GZO, FTO, IGZO, or a mixture thereof can be used. Nickel and copper are preferred. The thickness of the conductive thin film 14 is 10 nm to 4 μm, and preferably 20 nm to 1 μm.

  For the substrate 15 of the present invention formed by electrolytic plating, for example, copper or nickel can be used. The thickness of the substrate 15 is 100 μm to 2 mm, preferably 300 μm to 1.5 mm. After the substrate 15 is formed, the substrate 15 on which a desired pattern is formed can be obtained by removing the base material 11.

(Process of electroless plating of nickel on patterned substrate)
A nickel plating film 16 is formed on the pattern surface of the substrate 15 on which a desired pattern is formed by electroless plating (FIG. 1 (i)). The nickel plating film 16 of the present invention is preferably made of a nickel composite film containing nickel-phosphorus, nickel-boron and silicon carbide. Electroless nickel plating can be performed by methods well known in the art. For the electroless nickel plating of the present invention, for example, a nickel-phosphorous electroless nickel plating bath can be used. The thickness of the nickel plating film 16 is 0.5 μm to 5 μm, preferably 1 μm to 3 μm.

(Process to heat the substrate and harden the nickel film)
The nickel plating film 16 formed by the electroless plating method is cured by heating (see Non-Patent Document 1). Heat treatment temperature should just be 200 degreeC or more, and 200 to 600 degreeC is preferable. More preferably, it is 300 degreeC-500 degreeC. The nickel plating film 16 after the heat treatment has a Vickers hardness of 600 or more. The nickel plating film 16 of the present invention after the heat treatment preferably has a Vickers hardness of 800 or more. More preferably, the Vickers hardness is 900 or more.

  The intaglio printing plate of the present invention formed as described above has a fine pattern and is excellent in durability.

  Examples of the present invention will be described below. However, the following examples do not limit the present invention at all, and various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the gist of the present invention.

<Example 1>
An etching resist (manufactured by Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd .: RY-3625) was bonded to soda glass having a width of 100 mm, a length of 150 mm, and a thickness of 4.8 mm. A mask having a reverse pattern of the printed pattern was brought into close contact with the bonded etching resist and exposed with a laser beam. The uncured etching resist was removed by development, and an etching mask having a reverse printing pattern was formed on soda glass. The soda glass was etched along the etching mask, and the etching mask was further removed to produce a reverse printing pattern on the soda glass.

  A nickel film having a thickness of 0.1 μm was formed by sputtering on the soda glass surface on which the reverse printing pattern was produced. Thereafter, copper was laminated to a thickness of 300 μm on the nickel film by electrolytic plating, and the nickel film and copper laminate were peeled from the soda glass. The printed pattern produced on the laminate was Line / Space = 30/30 μm and 500 stripe patterns having a depth of 3 μm were formed.

  The nickel film and copper laminate on which the printing pattern was formed were immersed in a nickel-phosphorous electroless nickel plating bath (manufactured by Sanwa Plating Industry Co., Ltd.), and plating with a film thickness of 1 μm was performed. Next, the laminate was heated at 400 ° C. to cure the nickel plating film, thereby producing an intaglio printing plate. The hardness of the nickel plating film after curing was Vickers hardness 950.

<Comparative Example 1>
An etching resist (manufactured by Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd .: RY-3625) was bonded to soda glass having a width of 100 mm, a length of 150 mm, and a thickness of 4.8 mm. A mask having a desired print pattern was brought into close contact with the bonded etching resist and exposed with laser light. The uncured etching resist was removed by development, and an etching mask was formed on soda glass. The soda glass was etched along the etching mask, the etching mask was further removed, and a printing pattern similar to that of the laminate of Example 1 was formed on the soda glass to prepare an intaglio printing plate.

<Comparative Example 2>
A reverse printing pattern was produced on soda glass in the same manner as in Example 1.

  A nickel film having a thickness of 0.1 μm was formed by sputtering on the soda glass surface on which the reverse printing pattern was produced. Thereafter, copper was laminated to a thickness of 300 μm on the nickel film by electrolytic plating, and the nickel film and copper laminate were peeled from the soda glass. The printed pattern produced on the laminate was Line / Space = 30/30 μm and 500 stripe patterns having a depth of 3 μm were formed.

  The nickel film and copper laminate on which the printing pattern was formed was subjected to chromium plating with an electroplating method to a thickness of 1 μm to prepare an intaglio printing plate. The chromium plating film had a Vickers hardness of 900.

<Comparative Example 3>
In the same manner as in Example 1, a laminate of nickel film and copper in which 500 stripe patterns having a line / space = 30/30 μm and a depth of 3 μm were formed, and an intaglio printing plate was prepared.

<Evaluation test>
A printing test was performed using the intaglio printing plates of Example 1 and Comparative Examples 1 to 3 produced as described above. The doctor blade was Swedish steel having a width of 100 mm and was doctored at a pressure of 300 N / m and a speed of 200 mm / sec. The silver paste ink was used as the ink, and the number of chipped patterns in the printed material after doctoring 1000 times was evaluated. The results are shown in Table 1.

  As shown in Table 1, it was shown that the intaglio printing plate of the present invention had high durability without chipping of the pattern even after 1000 uses. On the other hand, a few chrome platings having a Vickers hardness of 900 resulted in a large number of chipped patterns in Comparative Examples 1 and 3 where the plating treatment was not performed.

11 Substrate 12 Radiation functional resist 13 Resist pattern 15 Substrate 16 Electroless nickel plating film

Claims (11)

  An intaglio printing plate comprising: a patterned substrate; and an electroless nickel plating film formed on the substrate surface including a concave surface of the patterned substrate.   The intaglio printing plate according to claim 1, wherein the nickel plating film has a Vickers hardness of 800 or more.   The intaglio printing plate according to claim 1, wherein the patterned substrate is copper or nickel.   The intaglio printing plate according to claim 1, wherein the electroless nickel plating film has a thickness of 0.5 μm to 5 μm.   (I) a step of forming a pattern on the substrate, (ii) a step of performing electroless plating of nickel on the patterned substrate, and (iii) a step of curing the nickel by heating the substrate. A method for producing an intaglio printing plate.   6. The method of claim 5, wherein step (iii) includes heating the substrate at a temperature of 200-600 [deg.] C.   The step (i) includes (a) a step of forming a pattern with a reverse plate on a base material, (b) a step of forming a conductive thin film on the patterned base material, and (c) on the conductive thin film. The method according to claim 5, further comprising: forming a substrate by electrolytic plating; and (d) peeling the base material from the conductive thin film and the laminate of the substrate.   The method according to claim 5, wherein the substrate is copper or nickel.   The method according to claim 5, wherein the conductive thin film is formed by sputtering.   The method according to claim 5, wherein the conductive thin film is copper or nickel.   The method according to claim 7, wherein the substrate is glass.

Images