JPH0447981A - Printing method for diaphragm face of optical element and its device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a printing surface from being injured and to enable a diaphragm face to be printed by a method wherein printing is performed while a pad is being made to stand by before transferring to an optical surface of an optical element. CONSTITUTION:Coating 8 is set by being buried in a pattern groove 5 of an original plate 6. A holding tool 20 is attached to a centering position correcting device 13 and besides, its lens chucks 23, 24 are fitted to DELTA holding base 21. A lens 1a is fixed to perform centering. Thereafter, the coating 8 buried in the pattern groove 5 is added to a transferring surface of a pad 2 by forcing the coating transferring surface of the pad 2 onto the pattern groove 5. Herein, specific stand-by time is allowed to stand, and stress-compressive strain generat ed in the pad 2 are removed. Thereafter, eccentricity of the transferring surface of the pad to the lens 1a is corrected controlling by operating X, Y, and O axis tables 16, 18, 19 of the centering position correcting device 13. The transfer ring surface of the pad 2 is forced onto an optical surface of the lens 1a to transfer the coating 8 to an outer peripheral fringe of the lens 1a, and a dia phragm face 9 is printed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for printing an aperture surface in an optical element.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in optical elements such as lenses, an aperture surface is provided on the surface of the optical element for purposes such as adjusting the amount of light and preventing flare or ghosting.

In general, the method for forming the aperture surface on the optical surface of an optical element is, for example, in the case of an optically polished lens, a black material and a light absorbing material are added to a part of the optical surface. It is formed by applying.

That is, a method is widely adopted in which a part of the optical path is blocked by a coating film applied to the optical surface of the lens to form an aperture surface.

Furthermore, as a method for printing an aperture surface on an optical element such as a lens, a coating method described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 57-58101 is known.

This coating method uses a flexible transfer material that is elastically deformed when pressed against the surface to be painted, adheres closely to the surface to be painted, and does not come into contact with anything other than the surface to be painted. This method is based on a so-called pad printing method in which the flexible transfer body is pressed against the optical surface of the lens after coating is applied to the areas that are in close contact with each other, and the paint in the areas that are in close contact is transferred to the optical surface of the lens.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in the method of printing the aperture surface of an optical element using the pad printing method, as the number of times of printing increases, deformation of 5 to 10 μm, which is usually not a problem, occurs, and the magnitude of the deformation gradually increases.

In addition, when holding the lens using the printing method,
As shown in FIG. 9a, the lens 1 is simply placed on the upper side of the mounting table 30.
In this case, lens 1 is fixed.
As shown in FIG.
There is a method of fitting the lens 1 into the holding part 31 with a concave part formed at 0. In this method, while the stability of the lens 1 can be obtained, the lens 1 after the aperture surface printing can be held on a holding stand. This has the disadvantage that the printed surface is easily damaged when taken out from the holding section 31 of the printer.

That is, as shown in FIG. 9, the lens 1 is attached to the holding part 31.
When inserted and mated, the thickness of lens 1 is 0.3
-, the protrusion thickness of lens l! (See Figure 9) is 0
．． If the setting is not greater than 11 and the protruding portion is pinched and removed with tweezers (not shown), the coating film 32 formed on the printing surface is likely to be damaged because the pinching margin is small.

Therefore, the printing method of the aperture surface of an optical element using such pad printing can be applied to, for example, an aperture lens for an endoscope where the lens itself is small and the dimensional accuracy of the aperture diameter is required to be within the range of 10 to 30μ. It was impossible to adopt it as is.

Therefore, the present invention was developed in view of the drawbacks in printing the aperture surface of an optical element using the pad printing method, and allows the optical element to be accurately positioned and stably held during printing. In addition, the optical element can be easily removed after printing, prevents damage to the printed surface, and is capable of printing the aperture surface with dimensional accuracy that is not affected by the number of times of printing. The purpose of this invention is to provide a method and apparatus.

[Means and effects for solving the problems] The present invention transfers paint applied from a required pattern groove from an original plate to an optical surface of an optical element through a pad that is elastically deformable in response to a pressing force. A printing method for printing an aperture surface of an optical element, characterized in that printing is performed while a pad is kept on standby for a certain period of time before being transferred to the optical surface of the optical element, and a printing device that is held movably vertically and horizontally. A pad, a paint applicator that applies paint in a pattern corresponding to a desired aperture surface shape to the transfer surface of the pad, and a holder that holds the optical element while centering or positioning it, and this holder X , and a centering position correction device that is adjustable in the Y and 0 axis directions.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of the printing apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the centering position correction device, FIGS. FIGS. 4a and 4b are a plan view and a cross-sectional view taken along the line A-A of the optical element holder, which is different from that shown in FIG. 3; FIGS. Figures a and b are explanatory diagrams showing a method of printing an aperture surface of an optical element using the printing apparatus of Figure 1.

As shown in FIG. 1, the printing apparatus IO of the present invention is equipped with a paint applicator 12 on a printing stand 11 and an optical element centering position correction device 13 adjacent to the paint applicator 12. 12 and an optical element centering position correction device 13, a paint transfer pad 2, an ink blade 3, and an ink coater 4 are installed.

In addition, the pad 2 is a flexible material that is formed so that when printing the aperture surface on the optical surface of the optical element, the surface to which the paint is applied comes into close contact with the aperture surface forming part of the optical element and does not come into close contact with other surfaces. The pad 2 is made of an elastic material and is movable vertically and horizontally via a drive section (not shown) built into the slide section 14 of the device stand 11, and the pad 2 itself can be replaced depending on the type of optical element. It is said to be configured to obtain.

Further, the ink blade 3 and the ink coater 4 are also provided so as to be able to reciprocate in the horizontal direction and move up and down via the drive section of the slide section 14.

Further, the paint applying section 12 is configured by providing an ink stocker 7 and removably mounting an original plate 6 having a pattern groove 5 corresponding to the aperture surface of the optical element on the front side of the ink stocker 7. .

Further, the optical element centering position correction device 13 is attached to an X-axis table 16 movably in the X direction via a guide table 15 attached to the upper side of the device mount 11, and is fixed to the upper side of this X-axis table 16. A Y-axis table 18 is attached to be movable in the Y-axis direction via a guide table 17, and a 0-axis table 19 is attached above this Y-axis table 1, and an optical element holder is attached above this O-axis table 19. 20 is removably attached.

The optical element holder 20 has the configuration shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, and the holder 20 in FIG. 3 is configured to be able to hold the circular lens 1a, and the holder 20 in FIG. The holder 20 is configured to be able to hold the prism 16 having a triangular cross section.

The holder 20 for the lens 1a in FIG.
It is constructed by detachably attaching a pair of lens chucks 23 and 24 to the outside of the prism lb shown in
The holder 2o holds the prism 1 between a pair of holders 25 and 26.
It is constructed by providing a fitting portion 27 of b.

Now, to explain the case of printing an aperture surface on the optical surface of the lens 1a or prism 1b as an optical element using the printing apparatus 1o having the above configuration, first, in FIG. The required amount of paint 8 is scraped out from the ink stocker 7 onto the original plate 6, and the ink blade 3 scrapes the paint 8 back into the ink stocker, thereby embedding and setting the paint 8 in the pattern grooves 5 of the original plate 6.

On the other hand, the holder 20 shown in the third figure is attached and set on the centering position correction device 13, and the lens chucks 23 and 24 of the holder 20 are removed from the holder 21, and the lens 1a is placed on the mounting pedestal 22. After, lens chuck 23.
24 into the holding base 21, the lens la is fixedly set. Incidentally, after the lens chucks 23 and 24 are fitted to the outside of the holding base 21, they are fixed by adhering an adhesive tape 28 to the outside of the joint between them.

By fixing the lens la with the lens chucks 23 and 24, it is possible to center the lens la on the holding table 21.

After that, as shown in FIG.
4 to reach the upper side of the pattern groove 5 of the original plate 6, and then lowered to press the paint transfer surface of the pad 2 against the pattern groove 5, and then raised again.
The paint 8 embedded in the pattern groove 5 is applied to the transfer surface of the band 2.

After completing the application of the paint 8 to the transfer surface of the band 2,
The pad 2 is moved horizontally again to reach the upper side of the lens 1a held by the holder 20, and in conjunction with the lowering of the pad 2, the X, Y and 0 axis tables 16° of the centering position correction device 13 are moved. After correcting the eccentricity of the transfer surface of the band 2 and the lens 1a while controlling the operation of the pad 2, the transfer surface of the pad 2 is pressed against the optical surface of the lens la, as shown in FIGS. 7a and 7b. The aperture surface 9 can be printed by transferring the paint 8 to the outer peripheral edge of the lens 1a.

In the case of FIGS. 6a and 6b, the printing state is shown when the pad 2 and the lens 1a held by the holder 20 are eccentric at the transfer position.

Regarding the printing accuracy, the original plate 6 is
2 and the lens chuck 2 of the lens 1a.
The surface metal accuracy according to 3.24 can be set within 5μ, and the adjustment of the X and Y axes is also within 5μ, so it is 10μ.
It is possible to ensure eccentricity accuracy within

Furthermore, when printing the aperture surface of the prism 1b, by dropping the prism lb into the fitting part 27 formed between the holding bases 25 and 26 of the holder 20, the prism 1b can be printed.
The angle of the prism 1b allows the prism 1b to be fixedly set at a fixed position at all times, and a desired aperture surface can be printed on the optical surface of the prism 1b in the same manner as for the lens 1a.

Note that the aperture surface 9 of the lens 1a can be removed after printing using the adhesive tape 28 that fixes both lens chucks 23 and 24.
By peeling off the lens chucks 23 and 24 from the holding table 21, the lens 1a is exposed on the mounting table 22 and can be easily taken out using a bottle set (not shown). It will not damage surface 9.

In the case of the prism 1b, a gap 29 is set in advance between the fitting part 27 and the prism lb, and the tweezers can be inserted into this gap 29 while being removed. This simplifies work and prevents damage to the aperture surface.

Now, printing of the aperture surface 9 on the optical surface of the lens 1a or prism 1b can be performed continuously by repeating the same method as described above.

The aperture surface 9 of the lens 1a is formed by circularly printing a band-shaped aperture surface 9 on the outer periphery of the lens la, but the printing method using the pad 2 usually has high-speed printing performance. In many cases, a perfect circular aperture surface 9 as shown in FIG. As shown, the deformation of the printed surface increases and ellipses of 10 to 20 μm or more often occur.

Therefore, when transferring the paint 8 to the optical surface of the lens 1a after applying the paint 8 to the transfer surface of the band 2, a waiting time of 1 second or more (time to remove stress-compressive strain generated within the pad 2) is provided. By doing so, the printing conditions by the pad 2 can be kept constant, and a precise printing surface can be stably obtained.

Note that even when creating the original plate 6 by machining, it is possible to create pattern grooves that can correspond to any pattern within an intersection of 5 μm or less.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, it is possible to stably hold the optical element, perform high-precision centering and positioning, and improve the relative positional accuracy with the pad, thereby creating a high-precision diaphragm that is not affected by the size of the optical element. Surface printing is possible, and variations in the shape of the printed surface due to pad stress can be prevented.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of the printing apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the centering position correction device, FIGS. 4a and 4b are a plan view and a sectional view taken along the line A-A of a holder for an optical element different from that shown in FIG. 3, FIG. 5, FIG. 6 a, b, FIG. 7 a,
b and FIGS. 8a and 8b are explanatory diagrams showing a method of printing an aperture surface of an optical element using the printing apparatus of FIG. 1, and FIGS.
b is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional lens holding state; 1...-Optical element la...Lens 1b...Prism 2...Band 3...Ink blade 4...Ink coater 5...Pattern groove 6...-Original plate 7...Ink stocker 8...Paint 9...Aperture surface 10...Printing device 11...-Device mount 2...Paint applying section 3...Centering position correction device 4...Sliding section 5.17--・Guide table 6...X-axis table 8...Y-axis table 9...O-axis table 0...Holder 1.25.26...Holding table 2...Placement table 3.24・... Lens chuck 7 ... Fitting part 8 ... Adhesive tape 0 ... - Mounting table L - Holding part 2 ... - Paint film

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) Through a pad that can be elastically deformed in response to pressing force,
In a printing method that prints an aperture surface while transferring paint applied from a required pattern groove from an original plate to an optical surface of an optical element, printing is performed while a pad is kept on standby for a certain period of time before being transferred to the optical surface of the optical element. A method for printing an aperture surface of an optical element, characterized by: (2) A printing pad held vertically and horizontally, a paint application unit that applies paint in a pattern corresponding to the desired aperture surface shape to the transfer surface of this pad, and an optical 1. An aperture surface printing device for an optical element, comprising a holder for holding the element and a centering position correction device held by the holder so as to be adjustable in X, Y, and O axis directions.