Printing apparatus, printing system, and printed material manufacturing method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016009107-A1
Application number	US-201514793943-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 8, 2015
Priority date	Jul 10, 2014
Publication date	Jan 14, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A printing apparatus includes: a plasma processing unit that performs plasma processing on a processing target surface side of a processing object; a recording unit that ejects ink on the processing target surface side of the processing object; an acquiring unit that acquires setting information, in which an adjustment target area for adjusting surface roughness and surface roughness of the adjustment target area on a surface of an ink layer formed with the ink are set; and a plasma control unit that controls the plasma processing unit to perform plasma processing on a processing area corresponding to the adjustment target area, on the processing target surface side of the processing object, with an amount of plasma energy for obtaining the set surface roughness on the surface of the ink layer formed on the processing area.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A printing apparatus comprising:
a plasma processing unit that performs plasma processing on a processing target surface side of a processing object; a recording unit that ejects ink on the processing target surface side of the processing object; an acquiring unit that acquires setting information, in which an adjustment target area for adjusting surface roughness and surface roughness of the adjustment target area on a surface of an ink layer formed with the ink are set; and a plasma control unit that controls the plasma processing unit to perform plasma processing on a processing area corresponding to the adjustment target area, on the processing target surface side of the processing object, with an amount of plasma energy for obtaining the set surface roughness on the surface of the ink layer formed on the processing area.

2 . The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the acquiring unit acquires the setting information, in which a plurality of adjustment target areas and surface roughness of each of the adjustment target areas on the surface of the ink layer are set, and the plasma control unit controls the plasma processing unit to perform plasma processing on each of the processing areas corresponding to each of the adjustment target areas, on the processing target surface side of the processing object, with an amount of plasma energy for obtaining set surface roughness on the surface of the ink layer formed on each of the processing areas.

3 . The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the plasma control unit controls the plasma processing unit to perform plasma processing on the processing area on the surface of the processing object, with the amount of plasma energy for obtaining the specified surface roughness on the surface of the ink layer formed on the processing area.

4 . The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein when the recording unit laminates a plurality of ink layers on the processing target surface side of the processing object, the plasma control unit controls the plasma processing unit to perform plasma processing on the processing area corresponding to the adjustment target area, on at least one of a surface of the processing object and one or more layers located closer to the processing object than an adjustment target layer that is an ink layer as a target of surface roughness adjustment among the ink layers, with an amount of plasma energy for obtaining the set surface roughness on a surface of the adjustment target layer formed on the processing area.

5 . The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a calculating unit that calculates an amount of plasma energy for obtaining the set surface roughness on the surface of the ink layer formed on the processing area corresponding to the adjustment target area, on the processing target surface side of the processing object, in accordance with one of a type of the processing object, an amount of ink applied to the processing area, and a type of the ink applied to the processing area, wherein the plasma control unit controls the plasma processing unit to perform plasma processing on the processing area corresponding to the adjustment target area, on the processing target surface side of the processing object, with the calculated amount of plasma energy corresponding to the adjustment target area.

6 . The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the amount of the plasma energy is an amount of energy of plasma for causing pigment contained in the ink layer to aggregate such that the surface roughness set in the setting information is obtained.

7 . A printing system comprising:
an image processing apparatus; and a printing apparatus capable of communicating with the image processing apparatus, wherein the image processing apparatus includes:
a receiving unit that receives setting information containing an adjustment target area for adjusting surface roughness and surface roughness of the adjustment target area on a surface of an ink layer formed on a processing target surface side of a processing object; and
a generating unit that generates print data containing the setting information and image data of an image formed with ink, and
the printing apparatus includes:
a plasma processing unit that performs plasma processing on the processing target surface side of the processing object;
a recording unit that ejects ink to the processing target surface side of the processing object based on the image data;
an acquiring unit that acquires the setting information; and
a plasma control unit that controls the plasma processing unit to perform plasma processing on a processing area corresponding to the adjustment target area, on the processing target surface side of the processing object, with an amount of plasma energy for obtaining the set surface roughness on the surface of the ink layer formed on the processing area.

8 . A printed material manufacturing method performed by a printing apparatus including a plasma processing unit that performs plasma processing on a processing target surface side of a processing object, and a recording unit that ejects ink to the processing target surface side of the processing object, the printed material manufacturing method comprising:
acquiring setting information, in which an adjustment target area for adjusting surface roughness and surface roughness of the adjustment target area on a surface of an ink layer formed with the ink are set; and controlling the plasma processing unit to perform plasma processing on a processing area corresponding to the adjustment target area, on the processing target surface side of the processing object, with an amount of plasma energy for obtaining the set surface roughness on the surface of the ink layer formed on the processing area.

Assignees

• Nakai Junji
• Matsumoto Hiroyoshi
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Nakai Junji
• Matsumoto Hiroyoshi

Classifications

• H05H1/2406

  using dielectric barrier discharges, i.e. with a dielectric interposed between the electrodes · CPC title

• B41J11/0015 Primary

  for treating before, during or after printing or for uniform coating or laminating the copy material before or after printing (selective coating B41J2/2114) · CPC title

• B41M5/0064

  on plastics, horn, rubber, or other organic polymers · CPC title

• B41M5/0047

  by ink-jet printing · CPC title

• B41M5/0011

  Pre-treatment or treatment during printing of the recording material, e.g. heating, irradiating (after-treatment of prints B41M7/00; printers for treating or overcoating copy materials before, during or after printing B41J11/0015) · CPC title