JP2009214314A - Printing device and printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing device and a method thereof which continuously forms a high definition pattern on a flexible base material such as a glass base material and a plastic film, particularly, on a long-length plastic film having high productive efficiency or the like. <P>SOLUTION: In the printing device comprising: a feeding means feeding an ink peelable film base material 301; a coating means coating an ink liquid film; a drying means previously drying the ink liquid film; a letterpress moving means where, after a previously dried ink film is obtained, a letterpress in which a required image pattern is made into a recessed part is allowed to approach the previously dried ink film; and a pressurizing means 303 where the previously dried ink film is pressurized, and, by contacting, a non-image part is transferred to the projecting part of the letterpress, so as to be removed, and further, the image part pattern by the previously dried ink film left on the ink peelable film base material 301 is pressurized onto the surface of the objective base material to be printed, so as to be transferred, a pressurizing roll 111 includes a means achieving an axial rectilinear motion as well as an axial rotary motion. The printing method uses the same. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and method for continuously forming a high-definition pattern on a flexible substrate such as a glass substrate or a plastic film, particularly a long plastic film with good production efficiency.

  In recent years, flat panel displays have been used as image display devices for various uses such as stationary, wall-mounted, and portable types in terms of energy saving, space saving, and portability.

  In particular, in the case of a portable type, there is a demand for plasticization from the viewpoints of impact resistance that does not break even when dropped while carrying, weight reduction, and thickness reduction. In addition, the wall-hanging type also has a demand for a flexible display from the viewpoint of installing the display on a columnar column.

  However, all the conventional flat panel displays are manufactured on a glass substrate, and it is difficult to manufacture on a plastic substrate.

  The reason is that the production of the members of the conventional flat panel display includes a heating process and a photolithography process at a high temperature.

  For example, in the production of a color filter for a liquid crystal display, there are processes such as development, washing and baking in patterning a photosensitive resin, which causes damage and expansion / contraction of the plastic substrate.

  Moreover, in the manufacturing process of the thin film transistor which is a drive electrode of the display, the formation of the silicon semiconductor and the insulating film includes a high temperature process of 300 ° C. or more, which exceeds the heat resistance of the plastic substrate. Moreover, even when a pattern is formed on a glass substrate, the high temperature process involves a large energy load.

  In addition, since the photolithography process performs film formation, exposure, development, and peeling for each material, consumption of water and energy is large, and the manufacturing equipment is large, and the manufacturing cost is high.

  From the above, a printing method capable of precise patterning on a plastic substrate has been demanded, and a printing method that enables inexpensive patterning on a rigid substrate such as glass is also desired. It was.

  As one of printing methods, an inkjet method has been studied. The ink-jet method is expected as the simplest patterning method because a predetermined material can be patterned only in a predetermined portion, so that the use efficiency of the material is high and a plate is not used.

  However, the diameter of ink droplets of the current ink jet is about several tens of μm, and the landing accuracy is about several μm.

  In addition, in order to perform precise patterning using an ink jet method, a partition wall must be formed on a substrate in advance by a photolithography process, and a pattern of about 10 μm such as a black matrix of a color filter or a thin film transistor wiring of a printing method is formed. As a method of forming, it cannot be adopted as a single method.

  Examples of methods other than the inkjet method include screen printing. The screen printing method has been put to practical use in the printing of wirings, resistors and dielectrics in electronic parts.

  However, because of stencil printing, the ink is limited to a paste-like high-viscosity ink. Even if it can be adopted as a method for printing a pattern of about several tens of μm with a thick film due to the fineness of the screen mesh, it is 10 μm. It cannot be adopted as a method for forming front and rear high-definition patterns.

  Therefore, as a method other than the ink jet method and the screen printing method, a transfer method in which a dry ink film is provided on a film in advance, the so-called dry film is removed by hot pressure, and the remaining pattern is transferred to a target substrate is devised. (See Patent Document 1).

  However, since the thermal pressure is used when transferring the ink layer from the film, it involves expansion / contraction of the film base, expansion of the plate, and melting / softening of the ink layer. It is difficult to obtain reproducibility. In addition, the apparatus for uniformly applying the heat pressure becomes complicated, and it becomes difficult to cope with a large screen.

Also, ink is applied on the blanket wound around the plate cylinder and pre-dried to form an ink film, and then the relief printing plate on which the non-image area pattern is formed is pressed against the ink film and removed. A printing method has been attempted in which the remaining image pattern is formed, and finally, the image pattern remaining on the blanket is transferred onto the substrate to be printed, thereby forming the image pattern on the substrate to be printed. (See Patent Document 2)
This method is easy to adjust the ink film thickness. In this printing method, since an image pattern is formed on an ink-peeling blanket, ink transfer to a substrate to be printed is good. Further, it is possible to form a fine pattern with a thin film.

  However, the method of Patent Document 2 has a problem that the ink wettability and transferability of the blanket surface become unstable when the ink is preliminarily dried on a blanket made of silicone rubber or silicone resin. This is because it is difficult to perform uniform pre-drying because the blanket is fixed to the plate cylinder, and the solvent in the coated ink is absorbed into the blanket and swells unevenly, resulting in the printing processing time. This is due to the fact that as the process progresses, partial transferability and fluctuations in accuracy and variation increase.

  Further, since it is necessary to adjust the amount of swelling by cleaning after transfer or drying of the blanket for each transfer, it is not suitable for continuous processing. In addition, since the blanket is fixed to the plate cylinder, there are many restrictions on the alignment of the pattern on the blanket and the mark on the substrate when transferring onto a substrate on which a certain pattern is formed. It was.

  For this reason, recently, an ink liquid film has been applied on an ink peelable film substrate, and the ink liquid film has been pre-dried to obtain a pre-dried ink film. The non-image part is transferred to and removed from the convex part of the relief printing plate, and the image part pattern by the pre-dried ink film left on the ink-peeling film base is transferred onto the surface of the target substrate to be printed. A characteristic printing method has been proposed.

In the above new printing method, when transferring the image part pattern by the pre-dried ink film left on the ink peelable film substrate to the surface of the substrate to be printed on which another pattern is already provided. The ink-releasable film is made of a transparent material, and the substrate to be printed and the ink-releasable film are made parallel to each other and left on the ink-releasable film substrate using an observation device such as a camera. A method has also been proposed in which the image portion pattern is aligned with another image or mark such as a hole already provided on the surface of the substrate to be printed.
JP-A-9-90117 JP 2001-56405 A

  However, as described above, the printed substrate and the ink peelable film are brought close to each other in parallel, and the image portion pattern and the printed substrate remaining on the ink peelable film substrate using an observation device such as a camera are used. After aligning with other images or marks such as holes already provided on the surface of the material, the pressure roll runs when the image pattern is pressed and transferred onto the surface of the substrate to be printed by the pressure roll. If the running parallelism of the guide to be driven is not 10 μm (per 1 m) or less, the image portion pattern is transferred in a rotational direction or parallel direction from the position where the alignment is performed, and the printing accuracy deteriorates. Yes.

  In order to maintain the running parallelism of the guide of the pressure roll at 10 μm (per 1 m) or less, it can be achieved by using an air slide guide formed of stone, but there is a problem that it is expensive.

  Further, even if the running parallelism of the guide of the pressure roll is achieved at 10 μm (per 1 m) or less, it is very difficult to adjust the conveyance of the ink-peeling film horizontally with respect to the running.

  The present invention is configured so that the running parallelism of the pressure roll guide is 10 μm (1 m) or more, and even if the conveyance of the ink peelable film is not horizontal with respect to the running of the pressure roll guide, the image portion pattern The present invention provides a printing apparatus and a printing method capable of improving printing accuracy without being transferred in a rotational direction or parallel direction from a position where the alignment is performed.

  In order to achieve the above object in the present invention, first, in the invention of claim 1, a supply means for supplying an ink peelable film substrate, a coating means for applying an ink liquid film, and the ink liquid film A drying means for pre-drying the plate, a plate moving means for bringing a relief plate having a recessed portion with a required image area pattern after obtaining the pre-dried ink film, and a pressure contact with the pre-dried ink film Thus, the non-image portion is transferred to the convex portion of the relief printing plate and removed, and the image portion pattern by the pre-dried ink film left on the ink-peelable film substrate is further applied onto the surface of the target printing substrate. In a printing apparatus provided with a pressure roll as means for applying pressure and transferring, the pressure roll is provided with means for enabling not only axial rotation but also axial movement.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, the axial movement of the pressure roll is constituted by using at least one of an air slider, an LM guide, a bush, a bearing, and a ball screw. It is.

  According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided the printing apparatus according to the first or second aspect, further comprising positioning means for returning the pressure roll to an arbitrary position.

  Moreover, in invention of Claim 4, it is a printing method using the apparatus of any one of Claims 1-3.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the image portion pattern on the ink-peelable film substrate is pressed and transferred onto the surface of the substrate to be printed by the pressure roll, the running parallelism of the traveling guide of the pressure roll. Without depending on the pressure roll, the pressure roll can run according to the ink peelable film in contact and apply force only in the pressure direction, so the image pattern is rotated or parallel to the substrate to be printed. Therefore, it is possible to provide an apparatus that is not transferred in a misaligned manner, that is, the printing accuracy can be improved. In particular, it is very effective when performing alignment with other images or marks such as holes already provided on the surface of the substrate to be printed.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, the axial linear movement of the pressure roll of the first aspect can be performed easily or with low resistance, so that a configuration capable of high accuracy can be provided.

  When the pressure roll adopts the mechanism according to claim 1 or 2 and continuously travels, there is a possibility that the position of the pressure roll moves from the initial position although it is a minute amount. According to the invention which concerns on Claim 3, it can return to arbitrary positions and can respond to continuous production stably.

  According to the invention which concerns on Claim 4, a high-definition and highly accurate printed matter can be provided with the printing method using the apparatus of any one of Claims 1-3.

  A printing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below in detail according to an embodiment with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of the printing apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing the state of transfer misalignment. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram for explaining the cause of the printing accuracy deterioration phenomenon caused by the traveling guide rail of the pressure roll. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram for mainly explaining the relationship of the pressure roll in the embodiment of the present invention.

  Next, an example of the printing apparatus of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1 and will be described according to a printing process when the substrate to be printed is a flexible film.

  Ink peelable film substrate unwinding part 101, ink peelable film substrate unwinding part 107, printed substrate unwinding part 108, printed substrate unwinding part 110, etc. It is equipped with a cylinder equipped with a mounter that can be mounted and a motor that controls the rotation and tension to transport the film substrate.

  The coating unit 102 is provided with a movable stage 1022 and a coating apparatus 1021 that applies ink to an ink-peeling film substrate provided on the movable stage. The coating device 1021 is driven by a ball screw, a linear motor, or the like, and stabilizes the reciprocating motion while maintaining the level in the horizontal direction with respect to the movable stage. Further, a table (not shown) capable of adsorbing the peelable film substrate is provided on the movable stage, and this table uses an adsorption method using an adsorption hole or a porous material. Further, when the film is conveyed, the movable stage 1022 is lowered to prevent film interference. In this example, a die head type coating apparatus is illustrated, but the coating method is not limited thereto.

  The drying unit 103 is installed to pre-dry the ink applied to the ink peelable film substrate by the coating unit 102.

  A relief plate (pattern removal plate) 104 for removing the ink film in the non-image area is installed in connection with the plate moving means 112, and brings the relief plate 104 closer to the coating ink film on the ink peelable film substrate. Further, the plate moving means can also retract the relief plate (pattern removed plate) 104 from the printing unit 106.

  The pressure roll 111 can run on the ink peelable film substrate by a guide and an actuator. First, by applying pressure from the ink peelable film substrate toward the relief plate 104, the non-image area ink on the ink peelable film substrate is transferred to the relief plate 104 and removed, and the remaining image portion pattern is removed. It forms on an ink peelable film base material. Thereafter, the relief plate 104 is retracted from the printing unit 106 by the plate moving means 112. In order to transfer the image portion pattern on the ink peelable film substrate onto the flexible film as the substrate to be printed, the pressure roll 111 is actuated again. Can be prevented by the present invention from deviating in the pressurizing and transferring steps. In general, the pressure roll 111 is made of metal, rubber, or the like, but is not limited thereto.

  By using the alignment camera unit 105, it is possible to superimpose the image part pattern formed on the ink peelable film substrate and the pattern already formed on the printing substrate of the flexible film. . In this case, the ink peelable film substrate is transparent to the wavelength of light that gives the effective sensitivity of the camera.

  In the process of transferring or transferring the ink on the ink peelable film to another, the ink peelable film substrate and the relief plate 104 or the printing part 106 are positioned with a slight gap, and by pressing and rolling the pressure roll 111, Transfer or transcribe.

  The printing substrate drying unit 109 is provided to dry the pattern transferred onto the printing substrate.

  This will be described through a series of operations. First, an ink film is formed by the coating unit 102 on the film fed from the ink peeling film substrate unwinding unit 101, pre-dried by the drying unit 103, and the pre-dried ink film is removed for patterning Roll out to the letterpress 104. Then, the pattern removing relief 104 is brought close to the ink film by a plate moving means 112, and the preliminarily dried ink film is brought into contact with the pattern removal relief 104 by the pressure roll 111. Thereafter, by peeling, the pre-dried ink film on the ink peelable film substrate is transferred to the convex portions of the pattern removing relief plate 104, and the image portion pattern is left on the ink peelable film substrate. . Next, the relief plate 104 for pattern removal is retracted by the plate moving means 112, and the substrate to be printed is brought close to the surface of the ink peelable film substrate on which the image portion pattern is formed. At this time, if there is a pattern already formed on the substrate to be printed, the alignment camera unit 105 performs alignment with a hole or pattern, presses with the pressure roll 111, and the pattern is formed on the substrate to be printed. The transferred pattern in a semi-dried state can be dried by the printing substrate drying unit 109 and the pattern can be fixed on the printing substrate.

  In the printing method for obtaining a pattern through such a process, when distortion occurs in the travel of the pressure roller 111, the alignment camera unit 105 does not align the position even after alignment is performed. However, there is a phenomenon that the printing accuracy is deteriorated due to the transfer in the rotational direction or the parallel direction.

  FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing the state of transfer misalignment. For example, when transferred to the alignment mark 201 by the alignment camera unit, if there is a deviation, it indicates that the image is transferred to the transfer position 202, and the position of the transfer position 202 with respect to the alignment mark 201 is defined as the amount of deviation. To do. As the amount of deviation increases as the pattern becomes higher in definition, the allowable value becomes stricter and must be reduced to several μm or less in the horizontal and vertical directions.

There are three main causes of the deviation. The first is the mechanical error of the actuator that recognizes the image output from the alignment camera unit and aligns the substrate to be printed. The second is the elongation of the peelable film due to tension. The third is the running of the pressure roll. It depends on the running parallelism of the guide rail.

  The present invention relates to reducing the shift caused by the traveling parallelism of the traveling guide rail of the pressure roll.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating the cause of the printing accuracy deterioration phenomenon caused by the traveling guide rail of the pressure roll.
First, it demonstrates with the front view of FIG.3 (c) of a structure of a pressurization roll part. The pressurizing roll 111 is connected to the pressurizing mechanism 303. By pressing the pressurizing roll 111 by the operation of the pressurizing mechanism 303, pressure is applied from above the ink peelable film substrate 301, and the patterned ink film 304 is formed. Is transferred to the substrate 305 to be printed. For the pressurizing mechanism 303, for example, an air cylinder or a torque motor is used. Immediately before the pressurization, an interval of several tens of μm to several hundreds of μm is provided between the ink peelable film substrate 301 and the substrate to be printed 305. Can be brought into contact with the substrate 305 to be printed. Furthermore, the entire pattern can be transferred to the printing substrate 305 by causing the pressure roll 111 to travel along the travel guide rail 302 of the pressure roll over the pattern transfer range.

  FIG. 3A is a top view when the guide running parallelism is zero, and FIG. 3B is a top view when the guide running parallelism is not zero. As shown in FIG. 3A, in the case where the travel guide rail 302 of the pressure roll is ideally in parallel degree 0, the pressure roll 111 can move straight, so that the transfer deviation is reduced. However, in the actual case where the running parallelism of the traveling guide rail 302 of the pressure roll is not 0 as shown in FIG. 3B, the pressure roll moves in a distorted manner as indicated by the thick arrow in the figure. The pattern is transferred while distorting 301. As a result, a transfer deviation as shown in FIG. 2 occurs.

  The traveling parallelism of the pressure roll tends to increase as the traveling distance increases, and it is considered impossible to make the traveling parallelism of the traveling guide rail zero.

  FIG. 4 schematically shows an example of the present invention.

  In order to solve the problem that the pressure roll 111 is distorted and moved on the ink peelable film substrate 301 as shown in FIG. 3 (b), the shaft support portion of the pressure roll 111 is shown in FIG. 4 (b). The bush 401 is installed, and not only the rotational movement but also the linear movement of the pressure roll, that is, the free movement 403 of the pressure roll, the running guide rail 302 of the pressure roll as shown in FIG. Even when the parallelism is not 0, the pressure roll 111 can travel without being affected by the bending of the travel guide rail, so it can travel without distorting the ink peelable film substrate 301, and transfer deviation can be eliminated. Become.

  In addition, when the pressure is continuously applied, the pressure roll moves freely, so that the initial position is lost. Therefore, once the pressure roll 111 is lifted and positioning means for returning the end of the shaft to an arbitrary position by the centering mechanism 402 can be provided, the operation of returning to the initial position can be performed, and continuous and stable pressurization can be performed. Can be done. The centering mechanism 402 generally uses an air cylinder as a drive part.

  In this description, the bush 401 is used. However, it is also possible to use a bushing 401 by replacing the bush with at least one of an air slider, an LM guide, a bearing, and a ball screw to enable a linear movement of the pressure roll. Is possible.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the amount of deviation at the time of transfer, and high-precision patterning can be performed stably.

  Since the printing apparatus of the present invention can print on a glass substrate, plastic film, etc., color filter members such as a color pattern, black matrix, white matrix, spacer, gate electrode, source electrode, drain electrode It can be used for organic EL manufacturing apparatuses such as gate insulating films, transistor members such as organic semiconductor materials, and organic light emitting layers.

1 is a schematic explanatory diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of a printing apparatus according to the present invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the condition of a transfer gap typically. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the cause of a printing precision deterioration phenomenon. (a) Top view when guide running parallelism is 0 (b) Top view when guide running parallelism is not 0 (c) Front view of pressure roll It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating mainly the relationship of a pressure roll about the form of the implementation apparatus of this invention. (a) Top view of an embodiment of the present invention (b) Front view of an embodiment of the present invention

Explanation of symbols

101 ... Ink peelable film substrate unwinding part
102 ... Coating department
103 ... Drying section
104 ... letterpress (pattern removal version)
105… Alignment camera
106 ... Printing section
107 ... Ink peelable film substrate winding part
108 ... Printed substrate unwinding part
109 ... Printed substrate drying section
110 ... Printed substrate winding part
111… Pressure roll
112 ... Plate moving means
201 ... Alignment mark
202 ... Transcription position
301 ... Ink peelable film substrate
302 ... Pressure roll travel guide rail
303… Pressure mechanism
304 ... Patterned ink film
305 ... Substrate for printing
401… Bush
402 ... Centering mechanism
403 ... Free axial linear motion of the pressure roll
1021 ・ ・ ・ Coating device
1022 ・ ・ ・ Moving stage

Claims (4)

  Supply means for supplying an ink-releasable film base, coating means for applying an ink liquid film, drying means for pre-drying the ink liquid film, and necessary image area after obtaining a pre-dried ink film A plate moving means for bringing the relief plate with a pattern as a recess close to the pre-dried ink film, and removing the non-image portion by transferring to the convex portion of the relief plate by pressing and contacting the pre-dry ink film, In the printing apparatus provided with a pressure roll as a means for pressing and transferring the image portion pattern formed by the pre-dried ink film left on the ink-peelable film substrate onto the surface of the target substrate to be printed, A printing apparatus characterized in that the roll is provided with means for enabling not only rotational rotation but also linear movement of the roll.   2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the axial linear motion of the pressure roll is configured using at least one of an air slider, an LM guide, a bush, a bearing, and a ball screw.   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a positioning unit that returns the pressure roll to an arbitrary position.   The printing method using the apparatus of any one of Claims 1-3.