Machine for producing 3D screen-printed articles
The invention relates to a system for producing three-dimensional screen-printed articles, comprising a press bed with a printing screen, by means of which at least one printing exploit can be printed multiple times, wherein after each completed printing, the lift-off can be increased by the application thickness of the previous printing.
1 . A system for the production of three-dimensional screen-printed articles, comprising:
a press bed comprising a plate having one or more printing exploits; and
a printing screen, by means of which at least one printing exploit is printable several times;
wherein after each printing layer a value of a lift-off is increased by a value of an application thickness of a previous printing; and
wherein the system further comprises an automatic device for detecting a number of printing layers that have been printed on the at least one printing exploit;
a lifting device configured to raise or lower an upper printing mechanism or a lowering device for the press bed;
a control device configured to control a press bed position and/or upper printing mechanism position; and
a control device configured to control a lift-off position and lift amount.
2 . The system for the production of three-dimensional screen-printed articles according to claim 1 , wherein the plate with the one or more printing exploits is movable into a curing system.
3 . The system for the production of three-dimensional screen-printed articles according to claim 2 , wherein the system has at least two curing systems from which the press bed can be loaded with the plates with one or more printing exploits.
4 . The system for the production of three-dimensional screen-printed articles according to claim 1 , wherein the press bed is adapted to be lowered by the value of the application thickness.
5 . The system for the production of three-dimensional screen-printed articles according to claim 1 , wherein after printing of a press bed with one or more exploits, or on a plurality of press beds, each with one or more exploits, the value of the lift-off is increased between 0.2 μm and 250 μm before a subsequent printing of the next height-building printing layer is carried out.
6 . The system for the production of three-dimensional screen-printed articles according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a printing station comprising one or more holders for printing screens, one or more doctor blade holders, one or more flood bar holders, and at least two systems to detect, analyze, and control registration marks, and
an upper printing mechanism, which carries out the printing, adapted to be aligned, displaced, rotated, or replaced, with respect to a position of an object located on the press bed, by a second or more upper printing mechanism(s) before and during printing, so that in addition to one material and one layout orientation, also several materials in one or more layout orientations, or alternatively counter to the previous printing, can be printed in an offset, rotated, or displaced manner.
7 . The system for the production of three-dimensional screen-printed articles according to claim 1 , further comprising a press bed drive, a printing station, an upper printing mechanism, a curing system, a control system, a measurement and control device configured to measure and control the screen position, and control devices for configured to control the curing parameters and cycle time optimization, on one or more press beds in one or more exploits per press bed.
8 . The system for the production of three-dimensional screen-printed articles according to claim 1 , wherein the press bed is constructed from two parts and has opposing vacuum grooves or centrally arranged vacuum channels.
9 . The system for the production of three-dimensional screen-printed articles according to claim 1 , wherein the plate with the one or more printing exploits, after printing of all exploits of a plane layer, is fully transportable under a curing system, where the curing system is adapted to cure the printing layer at the same time, wherein the curing system is adapted to adjust a distance between the curing system and a building-up height of an object to be printed.
10 . The system for the production of three-dimensional screen-printed articles according to claim 1 , the press bed comprises an upper printing mechanism comprising a screen holder, adjustable in all axial points, and adapted to orient the print screen contained therein plane parallel or parallel with correction values with respect to the print bed or a body surface, the screen holder further comprising more than one screen positioning element by which the screen may be oriented, and the upper printing mechanism further comprises one or more cameras and illumination devices for measurement of the position of the screen.
11 . The system for the production of three-dimensional screen-printed articles according to claim 1 , further comprising a doctor blade mechanism comprising a printing doctor blade mechanism, a flood bar mechanism, and a mass dosing mechanism in the movable axes and bearings comprising a bearing combination of fixed bearing-fixed bearing.
12 . The system for the production of three-dimensional screen-printed articles according to claim 1 , further comprising a print flood bar configured to shift between open and closed positions, and a printing doctor blade, wherein the printing doctor blade and the print flood bar are arranged such that a lower edge of the printing doctor blade is placed plane-parallel onto the printing screen at a presettable position on a left or right side at the same time, the doctor blade edge presses the printing screen onto a print substrate or onto already printed layers of an object, the doctor blade orientation at an application point on the screen mesh and the application region on the print substrate or the already printed layers as well as the proof during the printing process are always parallel, without screen tension differences, layout density differences, mass friction resistances, or other subordinate influential parameters allowing a change in position of the printing doctor blade edge and optionally the flood bar.
13 . The system for the production of three-dimensional screen-printed articles according to claim 1 , wherein the system is adapted to cycle with respect to an exploit in a multiple exploit printing process at a rate that is at least 10% shorter than in a screen printing system with one exploit.
14 . The system for the production of three-dimensional screen-printed articles according to claim 1 , wherein the system is adapted to print objects from one of more of ceramic, metal, glass, plastic, biological materials, or mixtures thereof.
15 . The system for production of three-dimensional screen-printed articles of claim 1 , wherein the system is adapted to increase the value of the lift-off by the value of the application thickness of a performed printing before a subsequent printing process that raises a body of the respective exploit is carried out.