Large cuboid shaped object inkjet printing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016185128-A1
Application number	US-201414911740-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 1, 2014
Priority date	Sep 12, 2013
Publication date	Jun 30, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method of UV curable inkjet printing on a cuboid shaped object includes the steps of jetting and UV curing an image of one or more UV curable inks on at least one vertical panel of the cuboid shaped object, and measuring the perpendicular distance from an active distance controller to the vertical plane, wherein the cuboid shaped object is selected from intermodal freight containers, crates, trucks, trailers, semi-trailers and boxcars.

First claim

1 - 15 . (canceled)

16 . A method of UV curable inkjet printing on a vertical panel of an intermodal freight container, the method comprising the steps of:
jetting an image with a set of UV curable inks using an inkjet printing device including a base, an inkjet head, a first linear movement device, a second linear movement device, and an active distance controller, by moving the inkjet head in a first direction with the first linear movement device and moving the inkjet head in a second direction, perpendicular to the first direction, with the second linear movement device; measuring a perpendicular distance from the active distance controller to a vertical panel; and aligning a printing plane, defined by the first direction and the second direction, and the vertical panel to be parallel based on a result of the step of measuring; wherein the jetting of the image includes multi-pass printing.

17 . The method of UV curable inkjet printing according to claim 16 , further comprising the step of:
top coating the image to provide protection against sea-water.

18 . The method of UV curable inkjet printing according to claim 16 , wherein the step of multi-pass printing step includes using a print mask to prevent dripping of the UV curable inks from the vertical panel.

19 . The method of UV curable inkjet printing according to claim 16 , wherein the vertical panel is a corrugated panel, and the method further comprises the step of:
compensating for an anamorphic distortion of the image while rendering the image.

20 . The method of UV curable inkjet printing according to claim 16 , wherein the first direction is a vertical direction so that the inkjet head moves from bottom to top.

21 . The method of UV curable inkjet printing according to claim 16 , further comprising the step of:
curing the UV curable inks by exposing the UV curable inks to ultraviolet radiation with UV LEDs that move in combination with the inkjet head.

22 . The method of UV curable inkjet printing according to claim 16 , wherein one or more of the UV curable inks of the set of UV curable inks includes a white ink.

23 . The method of UV curable inkjet printing according to claim 16 , further comprising the step of mixing the set of UV curable inks in an ink mixing station, wherein at least one of the UV curable inks of the set of UV curable inks is a spot colour having a colour selected from the group consisting of RAL 1033, RAL 2000, RAL 2002, RAL 2004, RAL 3003, RAL 3005, RAL 3009, RAL 5003, RAL 5010, RAL 5013, RAL 5015, RAL 6002, RAL 6005, RAL 6013, RAL 6017, RAL 6018, RAL 7000, RAL 7031, RAL 7035, RAL 7037, RAL 7038, RAL 8004, RAL 8012, and RAL 9010.

24 . The method of UV curable inkjet printing according to claim 16 , further comprising the step of:
eliminating static on the vertical panel before jetting the image with the set of UV curable inks.

25 . The method of UV curable inkjet printing according to claim 16 , further comprising the step of:
creating a laminar flow of pressured air parallel with the printing plane using an air knife.

26 . The method of UV curable inkjet printing according to claim 16 , wherein the inkjet head includes a valve-jet print head.

Assignees

• Agfa Graphics Nv

Inventors

• Cloots Tom
• Vander Aa Joseph
• Bouwens Luc

Classifications

• B41J2/04505

  aiming at correcting alignment · CPC title

• B41J3/4073 Primary

  Printing on three-dimensional objects not being in sheet or web form, e.g. spherical or cubic objects (B41J3/283, B41J3/286 take precedence; building up a 3D object using individual droplets from jetting heads B29C64/112) · CPC title

• B41J2/04586

  controlling heads of a type not covered by groups B41J2/04575 - B41J2/04585, or of an undefined type · CPC title