CN111468728A

CN111468728A - a printing device

Info

Publication number: CN111468728A
Application number: CN201910058080.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 曹志强
Original assignee: Beijing Dream Ink Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Dream Ink Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-01-22
Filing date: 2019-01-22
Publication date: 2020-07-31

Abstract

The invention discloses a printing device, which relates to the technical field of printing. Among them, the printing equipment, the printing table, the printing head, and the moving mechanism that drives the printing head to move above the printing table according to the first path, are arranged on the printing table and can close the outlet of the printing head. a sealing member of the ink end; and a guide member provided on the first path of the print head, the position of the guide member is fixed, and is used to communicate with the print head when the print head is moved toward it by the moving mechanism The print head contacts and generates an external force exerted on the print head, adjusting the first path of the print head to be directed toward the second path of the seal. The printing device in the present invention can avoid the oxidized impurities generated by the long-term exposure of the printing head, and has simple structure design and low energy consumption.

Description

Printing equipment

Technical Field

The invention belongs to the technical field of printing equipment, and particularly relates to printing equipment.

Background

The liquid metal is used as a novel additive manufacturing metal material, has the characteristics of good conductivity and low melting point, and is very suitable for being used as a printing and printing material.

The existing liquid metal printer mostly adopts a direct-writing printing head, and the drawing on the surface of a substrate is realized by contacting with a printing substrate, although the direct-writing printing head solves the problem of liquid metal printing, the liquid metal is easy to oxidize in the air to form metal oxide attached to a pen point, the pen point is frequently required to be replaced again, and the reliability and the stability of the liquid metal printer are seriously influenced.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus to solve the problem that the long-term exposure of the print head of the printer in the prior art affects the reliability and stability of the printer.

In some illustrative embodiments, the printing apparatus has: the printing head has elastic offset in the vertical and/or horizontal direction, and can generate directional offset under the action of external force and recover after the external force is eliminated; the printing apparatus, further comprising: the sealing element is arranged on the printing workbench and can seal the ink outlet end of the printing head; and the guide piece is arranged on the first path of the printing head, and the position of the guide piece is fixed, so that when the printing head moves towards the guide piece through the moving mechanism, the guide piece is in contact with the printing head and generates an external force applied to the printing head, and the first path of the printing head is adjusted to be directed to the second path of the sealing piece.

In some optional embodiments, the guide has a first guide inclined face that cooperates with the print head.

In some optional embodiments, the printing apparatus, further comprising: and the transmission mechanism is linked with the printing head, forms fit with the first guide inclined plane of the guide piece and acts on the printing head.

In some optional embodiments, the printhead is a direct write printhead comprising: the pen comprises a direct writing pen, a driving mechanism, a linkage mechanism and an elastic reset piece; the direct writing pen is connected with the linkage mechanism and is respectively matched with the driving mechanism and the elastic resetting piece; the driving mechanism is used for controlling the direct writing pen to perform pen-falling action, and the elastic resetting piece is used for controlling the direct writing pen to perform pen-lifting action; the deformation of the elastic reset piece in the vertical direction constitutes the elastic offset of the printing head in the vertical direction.

In some optional embodiments, the transmission mechanism comprises: the device comprises a fixed seat linked with the direct-writing printing head, a warping plate arranged on the fixed seat, a pressure head and a sliding piece; the seesaw is fixed on the fixed seat through a rotating shaft and rotates by taking the rotating shaft as an axis, and a torsion spring for maintaining the initial position of the seesaw is sleeved outside the rotating shaft; the pressure head and the sliding part are respectively connected at two ends of the warping plate, the sliding part is used for being matched with the first guide inclined plane of the guide part, and the pressure head at the other end of the warping plate is driven to provide downward pressing acting force for the direct-writing printing head.

In some optional embodiments, the sliding member is a steel ball roller, and the spherical surface of the sliding member is used for forming a matching with the first guide inclined surface of the guide member.

In some optional embodiments, two sides of the rocker are provided with limit blocks for preventing the rocker from deforming.

In some optional embodiments, the printing head is provided with a second guide inclined surface matched with the guide.

In some alternative embodiments, the guide is provided at an end position of the first path of the printhead.

In some optional embodiments, the seal comprises: and the hard sealing piece, the elastic sealing piece or the liquid sealing piece is used for covering the ink outlet end of the printing head.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following advantages:

the invention avoids the problem that the printing head is easy to block the pen point when being exposed in the air for a long time through the use of the sealing element; on the other hand, the original moving path of the printing head on the moving mechanism can be changed by additionally arranging the guide piece matched with the printing head on the basis of the original printer without changing the hardware structure and the control mode of the original printer, and continuous electric control is not needed after the sealing piece acts on the ink outlet end of the printing head, so that the energy consumption of the printer is saved.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printing apparatus in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing an operation state of the printing apparatus in the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a print head in the printing apparatus in the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printing apparatus in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printing apparatus in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printing apparatus in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printing apparatus in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a partial schematic view of a printing apparatus in an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural view of a print head of the printing apparatus in the embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural view of a transmission mechanism of the printing apparatus in the embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustrate specific embodiments of the invention to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. The examples merely typify possible variations. Individual components and functions are optional unless explicitly required, and the sequence of operations may vary. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in or substituted for those of others. The scope of embodiments of the invention encompasses the full ambit of the claims, as well as all available equivalents of the claims. Embodiments of the invention may be referred to herein, individually or collectively, by the term "invention" merely for convenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope of this application to any single invention or inventive concept if more than one is in fact disclosed.

It should be noted that the technical features in the embodiments of the present invention may be combined with each other without conflict.

The invention discloses a printing device, and particularly relates to a printing device, as shown in FIGS. 1-2, FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of the printing device in an embodiment of the invention; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an operating state of the printing apparatus in the embodiment of the present invention; the printing apparatus includes: a printing table 100, a printhead 200, a moving mechanism 300, a sealing member 101, and a guide 400; the print head 200 is assembled on the moving mechanism 300, the moving mechanism 300 provides a first path for the print head 200, so that the print head 200 moves along the first path above the printing workbench 100, and the print head 200 has vertical and/or horizontal elastic offset, can generate directional offset under the action of external force and can recover after the external force is eliminated; the sealing member 101 is arranged on the printing workbench 100 and can seal the ink outlet end of the printing head; the guide 400 is disposed on a first path of the print head 200, is fixed in position, and is engaged with the print head 200 moving along the first path, and is configured to contact the print head 200 and generate an external force applied to the print head 200 when the print head 200 is moved thereto by the moving mechanism 300, so as to adjust the first path of the print head 200 to a second path directed to the sealing member 101, so that the print head 200 moves to the sealing member 101, and the sealing member 101 closes an ink outlet end of the print head 200. When the engagement between the print head 200 and the guide 400 is removed, the print head 200 is restored to its original position state by its elastic deviation amount. The guide 400 may be connected to the moving mechanism 300 to fix the position thereof, or may be erected on the printing table 100 or connected to another fixed structure to fix the position thereof.

As shown in fig. 3, in some embodiments, the print head 200 itself has a vertical and/or horizontal elastic offset, which can be realized by an elastic restoring member 204 disposed in a vertical and/or horizontal direction, and the elastic restoring member 204 can be realized by various methods such as a spring, an elastic rope, an elastic gel, an elastic sheet, and the like. For example, a spring is selected as the elastic reset member, and when the elastic offset of the print head 200 in the vertical direction is realized, the print head 200 is matched with the vertically arranged slide bar 206, the print head 200 can move in the vertical direction along the slide bar 206, the spring is sleeved outside the slide bar, one end of the spring is connected to the print head 200, the other end of the spring is fixed on the mounting plate 205, when the print head 200 is subjected to an external force in the vertical direction, a certain vertical displacement can be obtained through the extrusion/extension spring, and after the external force is eliminated, the print head 200 is driven by the spring to be restored to the initial position state. A similar structure can be adopted for the horizontal elastic offset of the print head 200; if the print head 200 needs to have the elastic offset amount in the vertical and horizontal directions at the same time, the print head 200 needs to have the reset structure in the vertical and horizontal directions at the same time.

On one hand, the invention avoids the problem that the printing head is easy to block the pen point when being exposed in the air for a long time through the use of the sealing element; on the other hand, the original moving path of the printing head on the moving mechanism can be changed by additionally arranging the guide piece matched with the printing head on the basis of the original printer without changing the hardware structure and the control mode of the original printer, and continuous electric control is not needed after the sealing piece acts on the ink outlet end of the printing head, so that the energy consumption of the printer is saved.

The printing platform 100 in the embodiment of the present invention is generally a plane for holding a printing substrate, and may also be other functional platforms such as a maintenance platform for maintaining a printing head; preferably, the printing table 100 has a planar structure, and has a plurality of functional areas, wherein the functional areas have at least one area for placing a substrate thereon, and one area for not placing a substrate thereon is used as a maintenance area of the printing head 200. The seal 101 may be disposed on a region of the printing table 100 where the substrate is not disposed.

The moving mechanism 300 in the embodiment of the present invention may refer to a robot arm, a rail structure, etc., and the rail structure may be, for example, one or any combination of X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis.

The sealing member 101 in the embodiment of the present invention may be a hard sealing member, an elastic sealing member, or a liquid sealing member to cover the ink outlet end of the print head. A hard sealing member, such as a cap made of hard plastic, corresponding to the structure of the ink outlet end of the print head 200, and when the print head 200 moves along the first path and contacts the guide 400, the guide 400 guides the print head 200 to the position of the cap and inserts into the cap to close the ink outlet end of the print head 200. The elastic sealing element can be made of elastic polymer materials such as silica gel, polyethylene, foaming silica gel, sponge, flexible plastic and the like, and the printing head 200 enables the ink outlet end of the printing head 200 to be in contact with the elastic sealing element and form certain extrusion under the action of the guide element 400, so that the ink outlet end of the printing head 200 is sealed. The liquid sealing element can adopt liquid which does not react with ink automatically, such as oily liquid, acid solution, alkali solution and the like, and the printing head 200 enables the ink outlet end of the printing head 200 to be immersed in the liquid sealing element under the action of the guide element 400, so that the ink outlet end of the printing head 200 is sealed; when the liquid sealing element is selected, a corresponding container needs to be configured, and the opening of the container faces upwards. When the ink is liquid metal, the acid solution can be diluted hydrochloric acid, and the alkali solution can be sodium hydroxide solution. In addition to this, an ethanol solution may be used as the liquid seal.

The area of the seal 101 that closes the ink outlet end of the printhead 200 may be above the surface of the print table 100, may be flush with the surface of the print table, or may be below the surface of the print table 100, such as a groove.

As shown in fig. 4, in some embodiments, the guide 400 has a first guide inclined surface 401 that cooperates with the printhead 200. The guide 400 adjusts the print head 200 from its first path to a second path directed to the sealing member 101 by its first guide inclined surface 401, so that the sealing member 101 acts on the ink discharge end of the print head 200. The first guide inclined surface 401 of the guide 400 may be an inclined surface varying in vertical and/or horizontal directions, and should correspond to the direction of the elastic offset of the print head 200 itself. The inclined plane with a vertical change refers to an inclined plane formed by connecting lines between points with different inclination trends in the vertical direction, such as different heights; the inclined surface that changes in the horizontal direction means an inclined surface formed by a line connecting two points on two straight lines that are parallel to each other with an inclination tendency in the horizontal direction. The inclination angle of the inclined plane is between 0 and 90 degrees. More specifically, when the print head 200 has an elastic offset in the horizontal direction, the guide 400 may be an inclined surface that changes in the horizontal direction by the first guide inclined surface 401 thereof, and guides the print head 200 to adjust the moving path thereof in the horizontal direction. If the print head 200 has both horizontal and vertical elastic offsets, it is sufficient that the guide 400 guides the print head 200 to adjust its moving path in the vertical and horizontal directions by the slopes of the horizontal and vertical changes. The adjustment amount of the first guide inclined surface 401 to the print head 200 in this embodiment does not exceed the range of the elastic offset amount of the print head 200.

As shown in fig. 5, in some embodiments, the guide 400 directly acts with the printhead 200, e.g., the printhead 200 has a second guide inclined surface that mates with the guide 400;

or in other embodiments, the printhead 200 and the guide 400 may have guide slopes that cooperate with each other.

In some embodiments, guide 400 may provide an indirect effect on printhead 200 through an actuator mechanism; preferably, an actuator is directly or indirectly connected to the print head 200 to follow the movement of the print head 200, and the actuator cooperates with the first guide inclined surface of the guide 400 to generate a force acting on the print head 200 during the movement of the print head 200 along the first path.

As shown in fig. 6, in some embodiments, the printing platform 100 is further provided with a cleaning component 102 for cleaning the ink outlet end of the print head 200, and the cooperation between the guide 400 and the print head 200 drives the ink outlet end of the print head 200 to first contact the cleaning component 102 to complete cleaning and then contact the sealing member 101. When the print head 200 is disengaged from the guide 400, the ink outlet end of the print head 200 is first removed from contact with the sealing member 101, and then contacts the cleaning member 102 to complete cleaning, and then the printing operation is performed. The cleaning member 102 may be a soft sponge, or other flexible material.

The print head 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention may be a print head of a direct writing type, an inkjet type, or other ink discharge type.

Example 1

Referring now to fig. 7, the present invention discloses a preferred structure of a printing apparatus, comprising: the printer comprises a housing 600, a printing table 100 in the housing 600, a moving mechanism 300 mounted on the printing table 100, a printing head assembled on the moving mechanism 300, a sealing member 101 arranged on the printing table 100, a guide member 400 (not shown) fixed at the end of the moving mechanism 300 (shielded by a transmission mechanism 500), and a transmission mechanism 500 linked with the printing head.

The print head 200 is located at one side of the moving mechanism 300 and moves along the moving mechanism 300 in the X-axis direction (the printing substrate moves on the printing table 100 in the Y-axis direction via the rotating wheel, which is located below the moving mechanism 300 and is in contact with the printing substrate, not shown in the figure), the sealing member 101 is located at an end portion close to the moving mechanism 300 and in an area on the printing table 100 where the printing substrate is not located, the position directly above the area is the initial and standby position of the print head 200 on the moving mechanism 300, and the guide member 400 is engaged with the transmission mechanism 500, so that the ink outlet end of the print head 200 is sealed by the sealing member 101 at the position. Wherein,

the moving mechanism 300 is a rail structure on which the print head 200 is mounted by a slider.

As shown in fig. 8-9, the print head 200 is a direct-writing print head, and includes a direct-writing pen 201, a driving mechanism 202, a linkage mechanism 203, an elastic reset member 204 and a mounting plate 205; the direct writing pen 201 is assembled on the mounting plate 205 through a vertical sliding rail and a sliding block, and can vertically move on the mounting plate 205; the driving mechanism 202 is fixed on the mounting plate 205, the linkage mechanism 203 is connected with the direct writing pen 201 and is matched with the driving mechanism 202, the driving mechanism 202 can drive the linkage mechanism to move downwards, so that the direct writing pen 201 is driven to drop and contact with a printing substrate, and two ends of the elastic resetting piece 204 respectively abut against the connecting linkage mechanism 202 and the mounting plate 205, so that the direct writing pen 201 is maintained at a pen-lifting height. The driving mechanism 202 may be an attracting electromagnet, and the elastic restoring member 204 may be a spring, which pulls the linkage mechanism 203 to move downward when the driving mechanism 202 is powered on and causes the spring to form a certain deformation amount, and releases the deformation amount to move the linkage mechanism 203 upward when the driving mechanism is powered off, thereby implementing the control of pen drop and pen lift of the printhead 200. In which the print head 200 is mounted on the moving mechanism 300 by a mounting plate 205.

The amount of deformation of the elastic restoring member 204 in the vertical direction constitutes the amount of elastic offset in the vertical direction of the print head 200.

As shown in fig. 10, the transmission mechanism 500 includes: a fixed seat 501 linked with the printing head 200, a warping plate 502 arranged on the fixed seat 501, a pressure head 503 and a sliding piece 504; the seesaw 502 is fixed on the fixing base 501 through the rotating shaft 505, and can rotate by taking the rotating shaft 505 as an axis, and the rotating shaft 505 is sleeved with a torsion spring 506 maintaining the initial position of the seesaw 502; the pressing head 503 and the sliding member 504 are respectively connected to two ends of the rocker 502, and the sliding member 504 is configured to cooperate with the first guiding inclined surface 401 of the guiding member 400, so as to drive the pressing head 503 at the other end of the rocker 502 to apply a pressing force to the linkage 203. The sliding member 504 is a ball roller, and the spherical surface of the ball roller is matched with the first guiding inclined surface 401 of the guiding member 400 to reduce the contact friction with the first guiding inclined surface 401. Preferably, the two sides of the rocker 502 are provided with stoppers 507 for preventing the rocker 502 from deforming. Wherein, the fixing seat 501 is assembled on the mounting plate 205, thereby realizing the linkage of the transmission mechanism 500 and the printing head 200.

In some embodiments, the ram 503 is fixed to the paddle 502 by a ram connecting plate 508, and the ram connecting plate 508 is used to increase the radius of rotation of the ram 503 on the paddle 502, so that the ram 503 can be moved relatively more when the sliding member 504 at the other end of the paddle 502 is moved a small amount by the guide 400. Preferably, the radius of rotation of the ram 503 on the rocker 502 is 2 times greater than that of the slider 504, so that when the slider 504 is lifted up 1 unit distance, the ram 503 falls 2 unit distances. Wherein, unit distance sets for 1mm or 2mm, makes printing apparatus's structure compacter when satisfying the drive and beat printer head, reduces occupation space.

In this embodiment, when the print head 200 in the printing apparatus is at the initial position, due to the cooperation between the guide 400 and the transmission mechanism 500, the pressure head of the transmission mechanism 500 moves downward, so as to push the linkage mechanism 203 to drive the direct writing pen 201 to contact the sealing member 101.

When the print head 200 performs a print job and moves out of the initial position, the direct writing pen 201 is restored to the initial print state of pen lifting by the elastic restoring member 204 due to the elimination of the cooperation between the guide member 400 and the transmission mechanism 500, and then the direct writing pen 201 is controlled by the driving mechanism 202 to perform pen falling action, when the printing is finished or the standby condition is triggered, the print head 200 returns to the initial position, and the pen point of the direct writing pen 201 is closed by the sealing member 101 due to the action of the guide member 400 again.

The invention only adds simple guiding, driving and sealing structures on the basis of the original printing equipment, does not need to redesign the printing equipment, does not need to change the original control logic of the printing equipment, reduces the hardware and software cost of the printing equipment, reduces the energy consumption of the printing equipment and realizes the oxygen isolation and sealing of the printing head.

In some embodiments, the print table 100 is provided with a cleaning member 102 juxtaposed to the seal 101, the cleaning member 102 being closer to the center of the print table 100 than the seal 101, and the ink outlet end of the print head 200 forms a wiping clean with the cleaning member 102 during movement toward and away from the seal 101.

Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

Claims

1. A printing apparatus having: the printing device comprises a printing workbench, a printing head and a moving mechanism for driving the printing head to move above the printing workbench according to a first path, and is characterized in that the printing head has elastic offset in the vertical and/or horizontal direction, and can generate directional offset under the action of external force and recover after the external force is eliminated;

the printing apparatus, further comprising: the sealing element is arranged on the printing workbench and can seal the ink outlet end of the printing head; and the number of the first and second groups,

the guide piece is arranged on the first path of the printing head, the position of the guide piece is fixed, and the guide piece is used for contacting the printing head and generating external force applied on the printing head when the printing head moves towards the guide piece through the moving mechanism, so that the first path of the printing head is adjusted to be directed to the second path of the sealing piece.

2. The printing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the guide has a first guide inclined surface that cooperates with the printhead.

3. The printing apparatus of claim 2, further comprising: and the transmission mechanism is linked with the printing head, forms fit with the first guide inclined plane of the guide piece and acts on the printing head.

4. The printing apparatus of claim 3, wherein the printhead is a direct write printhead comprising: the pen comprises a direct writing pen, a driving mechanism, a linkage mechanism and an elastic reset piece;

the direct writing pen is connected with the linkage mechanism and is respectively matched with the driving mechanism and the elastic resetting piece;

the driving mechanism is used for controlling the direct writing pen to perform pen-falling action, and the elastic resetting piece is used for controlling the direct writing pen to perform pen-lifting action;

the deformation of the elastic reset piece in the vertical direction constitutes the elastic offset of the printing head in the vertical direction.

5. The printing apparatus of claim 4, wherein the transmission mechanism comprises: the device comprises a fixed seat linked with the direct-writing printing head, a warping plate arranged on the fixed seat, a pressure head and a sliding piece;

the seesaw is fixed on the fixed seat through a rotating shaft and rotates by taking the rotating shaft as an axis, and a torsion spring for maintaining the initial position of the seesaw is sleeved outside the rotating shaft;

the pressure head and the sliding part are respectively connected at two ends of the warping plate, the sliding part is used for being matched with the first guide inclined plane of the guide part, and the pressure head at the other end of the warping plate is driven to provide downward pressing acting force for the direct-writing printing head.

6. The printing apparatus of claim 5, wherein the sliding member is a ball roller having a spherical surface for engaging with the first guide inclined surface of the guide member.

7. The printing apparatus of claim 5, wherein two sides of said paddle are provided with stoppers to prevent deformation of said paddle.

8. The printing apparatus of claim 1, wherein said printhead has a second guide ramp thereon that cooperates with said guide.

9. Printing apparatus according to any of claims 1-8, wherein the guide is provided at an end position of the first path of the print head.

10. The printing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the seal comprises: and the hard sealing piece, the elastic sealing piece or the liquid sealing piece is used for covering the ink outlet end of the printing head.