Printing – Stenciling – Traveling-inker machines
Patent
1998-03-25
2000-10-24
Funk, Stephen R.
Printing
Stenciling
Traveling-inker machines
101129, 427313, 118413, B41F 1542
Patent
active
061350249
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a printing method and a printing apparatus for filling a printing material into openings of a printing face of a body to be printed, and more particularly, to a printing method and a printing apparatus for applying paste, and to an apparatus for manufacturing circuit boards for electronic devices, etc.
BACKGROUND ART
Recently, circuit boards have been changed from single-face boards having circuits formed on one face, to double-face boards and multilayer circuit boards so as to achieve compact and high-performance apparatuses. Many of the boards adopted at present are advanced multilayered ones. In the meantime, a printing technique using a filling head, i.e., a squeegee is employed in order to press and fill a paste into openings such as via holes or through holes in these circuit boards, or to press and fill the paste into openings of a metal mask to form circuits on the board. A lot of conditions are involved in the printing technique, for instance, hardness of the squeegee, angle of the squeegee to a printing face, pressure of the squeegee to the printing face, filling speed of the squeegee to the openings of the printing face, etc. Even a slight error in setting of the conditions adversely influences the quality of printing films, and therefore the set conditions are adjusted based on experiences on the production line, thereby improving yields in the paste filling process and quality of products.
Some adaptations are also made to the aforementioned squeegee in the filling process. For example, the squeegee is improved in shape to have a flat, a sharp, or a curved contact face as the printing face. In one arrangement, a heater is built in the squeegee to heat the squeegee itself to a fixed temperature, thereby lowering a viscosity of the paste and increasing filling efficiency for the paste to the openings of the printing face.
The viscosity of the paste increases in proportion to an operating time of the squeegee. For stabilizing the viscosity, therefore, the paste is exchanged at a fixed time interval, or an organic solvent is added to the paste to adjust the viscosity.
Meanwhile, the amount of the paste filled into the openings, e.g., via holes and through holes, etc. or the openings of the metal mask is controlled and stabilized by filling the paste up to a surface of the openings.
An example of the conventional circuit board-manufacturing method will be described with reference to FIGS. 13A, 13B.
FIGS. 13A, 13B respectively represent examples of a manufacturing method and a manufacturing apparatus for circuit boards in the filling process according to the conventional art.
In FIGS. 13A, 13B, 300 denotes a metal mask placed on a base material 301. 303 and 305 denote squeegees which move on the metal mask 300 while keeping touch with the metal mask 300. 304 denotes a paste, and 302 denotes a stage. The base material 301 is disposed in touch with on the stage 302. The metal mask 300 is arranged with a slight space above the base material 301, onto which the paste 304 is supplied. The squeegees 303, 305 located above the metal mask 300 can move in an up/down direction and in a printing direction of the squeegees 303, 305.
The paste is filled in the thus-constructed apparatus in a process described herein. The base material 301 is first set at a predetermined position on the stage 302. A through hole 301a formed in the base material 301 is registered with a hole 300a formed in the metal mask 300, and the metal mask 300 is set above the base material 301. The paste 304 is supplied onto the metal mask 300. The squeegees 303, 305 are lowered to hold the base material 301 by pressing a predetermined pressure on to the material 301. Thereafter, the squeegees 303, 305 are moved in the printing direction to move the paste 304 on the metal mask 300, thereby printing onto the base material 301. The paste 304 is pressed and filled in the through holes 301a formed in the base material 301 in this manner.
In the above paste filling process in the conventional a
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Proceeding of the 1985 ISHM Symposium, pp. 52-57 to D.E. Riemer and entitled "Ink Hydrodynamics of Screen Printing".
Higashida Takaaki
Iwaki Takahiko
Otani Hiroyuki
Funk Stephen R.
Matsushita Electric - Industrial Co., Ltd.
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