The present invention relates to a surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material having a liquid such as paint or ink adhering to a surface thereof, and a printing apparatus and a printing method using the surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material.
As seen in the use of aqueous ink on a sheet-like non-permeable base material, a drying system based on evaporation of a solvent is a technology which has recently drawn attention in fields of, for example, one-pass (single-pass) aqueous ink jet printing, transfer of liquid toner and aqueous ink jet, and aqueous gravure printing.
In drying of the sheet-like non-permeable base material by evaporation, drying energy is large, and hence measures have been taken from various aspects. There are given, for example, a device of a type dependent on an anchor coat of a base material and the improvement of condensation viscosity of a material, a device of a type dependent on the circulation recovery of a special solvent, and a device of a type dependent on the increase in length of a drying device and the improvement of power. A device for efficient evaporation drying of a solvent on a non-permeable base material, which is not dependent on a material or a solvent, is required.
In evaporation drying, it is important to increase the temperature of a material by local heating and remove an evaporated solvent on the periphery of the material. Further, unlike a uniform coated material, a printed matter and the like have a problem in that a solvent, a coloring agent, and the like contained in ink are not uniformly distributed on a printed surface, and hence drying is not uniformly performed.
In Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, as examples of the increase in temperature by local heating, there have been proposed examples using a microwave and an IR heating system. Further, in Patent Document 3, there has been proposed an example using drying through a horizontal air stream in an ink jet printing apparatus. In Patent Document 4, there has been proposed an example of solving the problem of non-uniformity of printed ink through use of infrared electromagnetic energy and a convective air flow. However, those proposals are insufficient in terms of energy to be used and compactness from the viewpoint of efficient drying for a non-permeable base material.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the related art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material with enhanced drying efficiency on a surface of a sheet-like non-permeable base material having a liquid adhering to a surface thereof, and a printing apparatus and a printing method using the surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material.
In order to solve the problems described above, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material, including: a loading port for loading a sheet-like non-permeable base material with a liquid adhering surface having a liquid adhering to a surface thereof; an air nozzle configured to spray high-temperature air onto the liquid adhering surface of the loaded sheet-like non-permeable base material; an unloading port for unloading the sheet-like non-permeable base material; an air shield zone forming portion, which is formed between the loading port and the unloading port, and is configured to form a heat-insulating air shield so as to cover the liquid adhering surface of the sheet-like non-permeable base material; and a retained air exhaust portion, which is formed in the air shield zone forming portion, and is configured to exhaust retained air retained on the liquid adhering surface of the sheet-like non-permeable base material to outside of the air shield zone forming portion through use of a Coanda effect, to thereby replace liquid adhering surface air on the liquid adhering surface of the sheet-like non-permeable base material.
It is preferred that the surface drying device further includes a warming mechanism configured to warm the sheet-like non-permeable base material from a back surface side of the sheet-like non-permeable base material.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus, including the said surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material so as to dry an ink adhering surface of a sheet-like non-permeable base material having ink adhering thereto.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing method, including a step of drying an ink adhering surface of a sheet-like non-permeable base material having ink adhering thereto by the said surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printed matter, which is printed by the said printing method, and in which an ink adhering surface of a sheet-like non-permeable base material having ink adhering thereto is dried.
According to the present invention, there can be attained a significant effect of being capable of providing a surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material with enhanced drying efficiency on a surface of a sheet-like non-permeable base material having a liquid adhering to a surface thereof, and a printing apparatus and a printing method using the surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material.
Now, embodiments of the present invention are described. However, the embodiments are described only for illustrative purposes, and needless to say, the embodiments can be modified without departing from the technical concept of the present invention. Like members are denoted by like reference symbols.
A surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material according to the present invention is suitably used in a transfer system, a printing system, and the like, which are required to have a relatively high speed, for example, one-pass (single-pass) aqueous ink jet printing, transfer of liquid toner and aqueous ink jet, aqueous flexographic printing, and aqueous gravure printing in the sheet-like non-permeable base material. The surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material according to the present invention is a drying device in which radiation, convection, and conduction of heat are combined, and in which an air shield with respect to a dry medium is used. In this surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material, a solvent retained in the vicinity of a surface boundary of the dry medium is efficiently discharged and replaced through use of a Coanda effect in the air shield, to thereby enhance drying efficiency.
In the surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material according to the present invention, there is proposed a device configured to perform efficient evaporation drying of a solvent in a non-permeable base material without depending on a material for a liquid such as paint or ink and a solvent which are caused to adhere to a surface.
Further, in order to incorporate the surface drying device into a one-pass ink jet apparatus, the device is required to be small. Further, in order to reduce the influence of heat on an ink jet head, it is also required that the surface drying device and the ink jet head be separated from each other. In the case of assuming printing, it is also required to take measures against non-uniform drying caused by non-uniform localization of ink. Still further, in order to take measures against thermal deformation of the sheet-like non-permeable base material, it is also required to be able to freely control a temperature increase in accordance with the speed of a line. The surface drying device according to the embodiment of the present invention is a device that fulfills all the above-mentioned requirements.
One embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in
As is well illustrated in
As the temperature of the high-temperature air sprayed from the air nozzle 20 onto the liquid adhering surface 14 of the sheet-like non-permeable base material 16, a temperature of from 50° C. to 150° C. is preferred. Further, there is illustrated an example in which the air nozzles 20 are provided at two positions, which are a first air nozzle 20a and a second air nozzle 20b, respectively. A plurality of air nozzles 20 may be provided, and there is no particular limitation on the number of the air nozzles 20 to be installed. As the liquid such as paint or ink, a liquid, for example, aqueous paint or ink is preferred. The liquid such as paint or ink may contain a solvent medium.
There are illustrated a rotary cylinder 36 and a feed roll 38. The rotary cylinder 36 includes a warming mechanism. As an example of the warming mechanism provided in the rotary cylinder, there is given, for example, a warming mechanism having a configuration illustrated in
The first air nozzle 20a and the second air nozzle 20b are mounted on an air jetting device 40, and are configured to spray the high-temperature air at a temperature of, for example, from about 50° C. to about 150° C. onto the liquid adhering surface 14 of the loaded sheet-like non-permeable base material 16. In the illustrated example, in a region defined by the air jetting device 40 and the rotary cylinder 36, a portion on a most upstream side forms the loading port 18. In the air jetting device 40, a temperature control device for air to be sprayed is provided.
Further, the retained air exhaust portion 34 is mounted on an air suction device 42. The retained air 30 retained on the liquid adhering surface 14 of the sheet-like non-permeable base material 16 is exhausted to outside of the air shield zone forming portion 26 through the Coanda effect. In the illustrated example, in a region defined by the air suction device 42 and the rotary cylinder 36, a portion on a most downstream side forms the unloading port 22.
A region between the loading port 18 and the unloading port 22 serves as the air shield zone forming portion 26 configured to form the heat-insulating air shield 24 so as to cover the liquid adhering surface 14 of the sheet-like non-permeable base material 16. In the illustrated example, a region defined by the air jetting device 40, the air suction device 42, and the rotary cylinder 36 serves as the air shield zone forming portion 26 configured to form the heat-insulating air shield 24.
In
The surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material according to the present invention includes an air shield, which is heat-insulated, in order to make drying efficient and reduce the influence of heat on other portions. Further, in order to take measures against non-uniform drying caused by non-uniform localization of a liquid such as ink caused to adhere to a surface, a conduction and convection portion using a high-temperature air nozzle is provided. Further, a heating portion using an electromagnetic wave may be provided in order to perform a local high-speed temperature increase. Further, in order to efficiently perform removal and replacement of a solvent that is evaporated and convected to a final portion, an exhaust portion configured to perform exhaust through use of the Coanda effect is provided. The three constituent portions such as the conduction and convection portion, the heating portion, and the exhaust portion in the air shield can optimally keep a dried state by independently controlling each temperature and air volume, an electromagnetic output, and an exhaust air volume.
Through use of the surface drying device 10A for a sheet-like non-permeable base material having the above-mentioned configuration, the drying efficiency on the surface of the sheet-like non-permeable base material 16 having a liquid such as paint or ink adhering to the surface 12 can be enhanced.
Next, an embodiment in which there are provided a plurality of surface drying devices 10A illustrated in
As illustrated in
When the surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material according to the present invention described above is provided in a printing apparatus, the printing apparatus is imparted with significantly satisfactory drying efficiency on an ink adhering surface of a sheet-like non-permeable base material having ink adhering thereto.
Further, when printing is performed in various manners, the surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material is provided, and the step of drying the ink adhering surface of the sheet-like non-permeable base material having ink adhering thereto is performed. With this, a printing method is imparted with significantly satisfactory drying efficiency on the ink adhering surface of the sheet-like non-permeable base material having ink adhering thereto. A printed matter printed by such printing method becomes a printed matter in which the ink adhering surface of the sheet-like non-permeable base material having ink adhering thereto is dried significantly efficiently.
In
As is well illustrated in
The radiative heating portion 28 configured to irradiate the liquid adhering surface 14 of the sheet-like non-permeable base material 16 with radiation heat is mounted on a radiative heating device 44. As an example of the radiative heating portion 28 of the radiative heating device 44, an example of infrared heating through use of a halogen lamp light source is illustrated. Any heating means can be used as the radiative heating portion 28 as long as it is possible to perform radiative heating. Besides infrared heating through use of a lamp other than the halogen lamp, heating means such as electromagnetic heating, for example, microwave heating can also be used. Further, a temperature control device configured to regulate the temperature of the radiative heating portion 28 is provided in the radiative heating device 44.
Next, an embodiment in which there are provided a plurality of surface drying devices 10C illustrated in
As illustrated in
It is preferred that the surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material according to the present invention further include a warming mechanism configured to warm the sheet-like non-permeable base material 16 from a back surface side of the sheet-like non-permeable base material 16. This is because drying efficiency is enhanced.
In
Now, the present invention is more specifically described by way of Examples, but it is needless to say that Examples are only illustrative and should not be interpreted as limiting the present invention.
A surface drying device for a sheet-like non-permeable base material as illustrated in
Cylinder: A stainless cylinder having a surface length of 600 mm and a diameter of 300 mm and being adaptable to hot-water circulation was used.
Air nozzle: An air nozzle made of metal having a width of 550 mm in a longitudinal direction of the cylinder and a nozzle width of 3 mm was used, with a first air nozzle having an air irradiation angle of 45 degrees with respect to a cylinder circumferential surface and a second air nozzle having an air irradiation angle of 90 degrees with respect to the cylinder circumferential surface.
Coanda discharge portion: A Coanda discharge portion made of metal having a width of 550 mm in the longitudinal direction of the cylinder and a slit width of 2 mm was used.
Ink: Aqueous ink containing a high-boiling-point solvent medium disclosed in JP 2016-210959 A was used.
Base material: A polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin film (manufactured by Futamura Chemical Co., Ltd.) having a thickness of 25 μm was used.
Condition of each portion: A cylinder hot water was controlled within a range of from 55° C. to 60° C.; the intake air volume of each air nozzle was set to 3 m3/min and the air outlet temperature thereof was set to 130° C.; and the discharge air volume of the Coanda discharge portion was set to 1 m3/min. As the ink, white ink, which was considered to have a large usage area and to be difficult to be dried, was used. The ejection amount of the ink was set to 20 pl of 600 dpi and evaluated through whole solid printing. Drying was evaluated based on whether or not transfer to a turn roller made of metal located within 500 mm in a back portion of the dried part occurred. This method has been used by those skilled in the printing field as a method most suitable for actual application, and hence this method was adopted.
A linear speed was increased by 1 m/min under the above-mentioned condition, and an optimum value of the discharge air volume of the Coanda portion related to drying ability was determined.
The maximum drying linear speed was 7 m/min in the absence of a Coanda discharge air volume, but the maximum drying linear speed was 10 m/min in the case of the discharge air volume of 1 m3/min under the above-mentioned condition. Thus, the drying ability was enhanced by about 40%. The drying ability was not enhanced even when the discharge air volume was increased or decreased more.
The ink adhering surface was set to be dried by a roll-to-roll process under the same condition as that of Example 1 except that three surface drying devices as illustrated in
10A, 10B, 10C, 10D: surface drying device for sheet-like non-permeable base material, 12: surface, 14: liquid adhering surface, 16: sheet-like non-permeable base material, 18: loading port, 20: air nozzle, 20a: first air nozzle, 20b: second air nozzle, 22: unloading port, 24: heat-insulating air shield, 26: air shield zone forming portion, 28: radiative heating portion, 30: retained air, 32: liquid adhering surface air, 34: retained air exhaust portion, 36: rotary cylinder, 38: feed roll, 40: air jetting device, 42: air suction device, 44: radiative heating device, 46: back surface side of sheet-like non-permeable base material, 48, 49: warming mechanism, 50: hot-water circulating type cylinder, 52: cylinder body, 54: hot water, 56: hot-water flow passage, 58: inflow port, 60: outflow port.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2017-010819 | Jan 2017 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/JP2018/000237 | 1/10/2018 | WO | 00 |