JPH0820157A - Method and apparatus for printing spherical surface of ceramic ware - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To accurately print a pattern on the spherical surface of ceramic ware while suppressing the deformation of a pad at the time of printing. CONSTITUTION:A work table 2 supporting ceramic ware W having a spherical surface such as a bowl and a pad arranging mechanism 7 arranging a doughnut- shaped pad composed of silicone rubber to the position coming into contact with an original plate under pressure and the position coming into contact with the ceramic ware W under pressure are provided in a printer 4. The pad arranging mechanism 7 is constituted of a slide member 9 and a lift member 10 and pad 5 is attached to the lower end of the drive shaft 11 inserted in the lift member 10. The pad 5 is rotated by a stepping motor 13 and the stepping motor 13 is controlled according to the pattern corresponding to the spherical surface of the ceramic ware W. The pad 5 is brought into contact with the spherical surface of the ceramic ware W under pressure at a part to which no pigment is bonded and trially rotated within an angle range not accompanied by printing therefrom before the start of printing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for printing a pattern on a ceramic such as a bowl or a cup of water, and more particularly to a technique for printing a spherical surface of the ceramic using a donut-shaped pad made of a flexible material. It is a thing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional printing method, for example, a technique shown in FIG. 5 is known. In the figure, reference numeral 5 is a pad and 6 is an original plate. Usually, the pad 5 is formed in a donut shape using a flexible material such as silicon rubber. At the time of printing, first, as shown in (a) and (b), the pad 5 is pressed against the original plate 6, and the paint P on the original plate 6 is transferred to the end surface of the pad 5. Next, as shown in (c), the pad 5 is pressed against the ceramic W, and in that state, the pad 5 is rotated by a motor to transfer the paint P on the pad 5 to the printing surface of the ceramic W. Here, when the printing surface is a conical surface like a plate, the generatrix of the pad 5 is a straight line, so that the amount of distortion of the pad 5 at the time of press contact is uniform in each part, and the pattern can be printed correctly.

[0003]

However, in the case where the printing surface includes a spherical surface such as a bowl or a cup of water, the bus bar is a curved line as shown in FIG.
The amount of strain at the time of pressure contact is different in each part, and if printing is immediately started in this state, there is a problem that the pad 5 is locally deformed during rotation and the pattern is not printed correctly.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus capable of correctly printing a pattern on the spherical surface of a ceramic.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the printing method of the present invention is such that a donut-shaped pad made of a flexible material is pressed against an original plate so that the paint on the original plate is applied to a part of the pad. Step of transferring and pressing the pad to the spherical surface of the ceramic in the part where the paint is not attached, and rotating the pad in a predetermined pattern from the pressing position by the stepping motor to transfer the paint on the pad to the spherical surface of the ceramic. It consists of a process and.

Further, the printing apparatus of the present invention arranges a work table for rotatably supporting a ceramic having a spherical surface, a donut-shaped pad made of a flexible material at a position to be pressed against the original plate and a position to be pressed against the ceramic. It is composed of a pad arrangement mechanism, a stepping motor that rotates the pad, and a control circuit that controls the stepping motor in a pattern corresponding to the spherical shape of the ceramic.

[0007]

According to the printing method of the present invention, the pad is acclimated and rotated from the press contact position to the print start position, that is, in the angular range not accompanied by printing. Then, in this process, the pad conforms to the spherical surface of the ceramic, and the distortion that causes the deformation is removed. Therefore, in the subsequent printing process, the deformation of the pad due to the distortion can be suppressed, and the pattern can be correctly printed on the spherical surface of the ceramic.

Further, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention, since the pad is rotated by the stepping motor in a pattern corresponding to the spherical shape of the ceramic, the rotational direction, rotational speed, or rotational angle of the pad during the break-in rotation can be arbitrarily set. The above method can be generally applied to various shapes of ceramics and successfully implemented.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 and 2 show an embodiment in which the present invention is embodied in a multicolor printing machine.
A circular work table 2 is rotatably provided on the top,
On the outer circumference of the table 2, a plurality of ceramics W having a spherical surface such as a bowl is supported by a work supporting member 3 so as to be freely rotatable around an inclined axis. Further, on the base 1, a plurality of printing devices 4 are installed at equal angles around the work table 2 so that each ceramic W can be sequentially printed in multiple colors in different colors or patterns.

Each printing device 4 is provided with the table 2 in common, and a pad arrangement is provided in which a doughnut-shaped pad 5 made of a flexible material such as silicon rubber is arranged at a position where it is pressed against the original plate 6 and a position where it is pressed against the ceramics W. The mechanism 7 is provided. The pad arrangement mechanism 7 is mounted on the base 8 and the work table 2
The sliding body 9 is slidable in the diametrical direction, and the lifting body 10 is supported by the sliding body 9 so as to be vertically movable.
A drive shaft 11 is inserted through the lifting body 10, and the pad 5 is attached to the lower end of the drive shaft 11. A paint supply unit 12 including a tank and a doctor for supplying paint to the original plate 6 is provided on the upper surface of the base 8.

A stepping motor 13 for rotating the pad 5 is installed on the sliding body 9, and the motor 13 and the drive shaft 1 are installed.
A belt transmission mechanism 14 is interposed between the belt 1 and the belt 1. The control board 15 mounted on the base 8 has a built-in control circuit 16 for controlling the stepping motor 13 in a pattern corresponding to the spherical shape of the ceramic W. As shown in FIG. 3, the control circuit 16 includes a CPU 1 that controls the entire printing apparatus 4.
7. A rotation pattern input unit 18 for a worker to input the rotation pattern of the pad 5 according to the spherical shape of the ceramic W, a rotation pattern storage unit 19 for storing the input data, and a stepping motor 13 based on the stored data. The motor drive circuit 20 is provided.

Next, a spherical printing method carried out by the multicolor printing machine having the above construction will be described. The printing method of this embodiment includes a first step of transferring the paint on the original plate 6 to the pad 5,
The second step is to transfer the paint on the pad 5 to the spherical surface of the ceramic W. In the first step, as in the conventional case, as shown in FIG.
As shown in (b), the pad 5 is pressed against the original plate 6, and the paint P on the original plate 6 is transferred to a part of the end surface of the pad 5.
Here, according to the printing apparatus 4 of the present embodiment, the pressure contact position of the pad 5 with respect to the original plate 6 can be easily changed each time by controlling the rotation angle of the stepping motor 13, so that local wear of the pad 5 is effective. The life can be significantly improved as compared with the conventional case.

In the second step, the stepping motor 13 is controlled by the control circuit 16 in accordance with a pre-input pattern, and first, as shown in FIG. 4 (a), the pad 5 is in a portion where the paint P is not attached. It is indexed so as to face the ceramics W, and is pressed against the spherical surface of the ceramics W at the indexed position. Next, as shown in (b) and (c), the pad 5 is rotated in the forward and reverse directions within a predetermined angle range without printing. This angle range corresponds to the break-in rotation of the pad 5,
During the period, the pad 5 is fitted to the spherical surface of the ceramic ware W, and the distortion that causes the deformation during printing is removed.

Subsequently, as shown in (d) to (f), the pad 5 is fully rotated so that the paint P on the pad 5 is porcelain W.
Is transferred to the spherical surface of. In this printing process, since the distortion that causes the deformation is removed in advance, the pad 5 due to the distortion is removed.
It is possible to suppress the deformation of the pattern and correctly print the pattern on the spherical surface of the ceramic W. After that, the ceramics W is sent to the next printing device 4 as the work table 2 is rotated, and is printed there by overlapping different colors or patterns by the same method as described above. Even in this multicolor printing, since the pad 5 is rotationally controlled by the stepping motor 13 in a predetermined pattern, there is no risk of color or pattern deviation.
Highly accurate multicolor printing can be easily performed.

When the type of the ceramic ware W is changed from, for example, a chazuke tea bowl to a sencha tea bowl, the rotation pattern of the pad 5 according to the spherical shape of the ceramic ware W is the control panel 15.
Entered in. In this way, the rotation direction, rotation speed, or rotation angle of the pad 5 during the break-in can be arbitrarily changed and set.
It can be implemented universally and successfully.

The present invention is not limited to multi-color printing, but can be applied to single-color printing by one printing device 4. In addition, the shapes of the respective parts are within the scope of the present invention. In addition, the configuration can be changed and embodied appropriately.

[0017]

As described above in detail, according to the first aspect of the invention, since the method of acclimating and rotating the pad in the angular range not accompanied by printing is adopted, the deformation of the pad in the printing process is suppressed. , The excellent effect that the pattern can be printed correctly on the spherical surface of the ceramics.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the pad is rotated by the stepping motor in a pattern corresponding to the spherical shape of the ceramic, the rotation direction, the rotation speed, or the rotation of the pad during the break-in rotation. There is an effect that the angle can be set arbitrarily and the method can be applied to various shapes of ceramics.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a multicolor printing machine equipped with a plurality of printing apparatuses of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a control circuit of the printing apparatus of FIG.

4 is an explanatory diagram showing a spherical surface printing method by the printing apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 ... Work table, 3 ... Work support member, 4 ...
Printing device, 5 ... Pad, 6 ... Original plate, 7 ... Pad arrangement mechanism, 12 ... Paint supply unit, 13 ... Stepping motor, 16 ... Control circuit, P ... Paint, W ... Ceramics.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A step of pressing a donut-shaped pad made of a flexible material to an original plate to transfer the paint on the original plate to a part of the pad, and a step of pressing the pad to a spherical surface of the ceramic in a portion where the paint is not attached. Then, the step of rotating the pad from the press contact position in a predetermined pattern by a stepping motor to transfer the paint on the pad to the spherical surface of the ceramic, the spherical surface printing method of the ceramic. 2. A work table for rotatably supporting a ceramic having a spherical surface, a pad arranging mechanism for arranging a doughnut-shaped pad made of a flexible material at a position where it is pressed against the original plate and a position where it is pressed against the ceramic, and a pad. A spherical surface printing apparatus for ceramics, which comprises a rotating stepping motor and a control circuit for controlling the stepping motor in a pattern corresponding to the spherical shape of the ceramic.