Coating device, coating method, and scraping blade

Abstract

A coating device comprises a coating roller (1) that rotates when a coating material (4) is supplied to the outer peripheral surface thereof and that applies the coating material (4) to an object to be coated which faces at least one portion of the outer peripheral surface. A recess (11) corresponding to a coating pattern for the object to be coated is provided on the outer peripheral surface of the coating roller (1). A pair of protrusions (12) for determining the total width (W) of the coating pattern extending along the axial direction orthogonal to the rotation direction of the coating roller (1) are provided at both axial-direction ends on the outer peripheral surface of the coating roller (1). The coating device comprises a scraping blade (5) that faces at least one portion of the outer peripheral surface of the coating roller (1) and scrapes off paint overflowing from the recess (11) in a state of close proximity to the pair of protrusions (12).

Description

Coating Device, Coating Method, Doctor Blade

[0001] The present disclosure relates to coating devices and the like.

[0002] As a processing device that performs a predetermined process on a workpiece, for example, a coating device or coater that coats a sheet-like coated object or conveyed object (hereinafter also referred to as a substrate) with a paint is known. For example, in Patent Document 1, it is disclosed that the thickness of the coating (24) applied to both sides of the paper sheet (12) is adjusted by the distance and pressure between a roller (16) and a blade (18) that sandwich the paper sheet (12) as a substrate.

[0003] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-230819

[0004] In the coating device of Patent Document 1, it is necessary to control the thickness of the coating (24) applied to each surface of the paper sheet (12) under a delicate balance of the distance and pressure between the roller (16) and the blade (18). Therefore, if the control balance is disrupted even slightly, deterioration of the coating quality may occur, such as one side of the coating (24) becoming thick while the other side becomes thin. Thus, the conventional coating device has problems in terms of the stability of controlling the thickness of the coating and the overall coating quality.

[0005] The present disclosure has been made in view of such a situation, and an object thereof is to provide a coating device or the like that can stably apply a paint to a coated object.

[0006] In order to solve the above problems, a coating device according to an aspect of the present disclosure includes a coating roller that rotates with paint supplied to its outer peripheral surface and applies the paint to a coated object facing at least one location on the outer peripheral surface. Recesses corresponding to the coating pattern for the coated object are provided on the outer peripheral surface of the coating roller.

[0007] According to this aspect, the paint in the recesses can be stably applied to the coated object by the coating roller provided with the recesses corresponding to the desired coating pattern on its outer peripheral surface.

[0008] Another aspect of the present disclosure is a coating method. This method involves supplying paint to the outer surface of a coating roller having recesses corresponding to a coating pattern, rotating the coating roller, and applying the paint from the recesses to an object to be coated facing at least one location on the outer surface of the coating roller.

[0009] A further aspect of the present disclosure is a scraping blade. This scraping blade is positioned in close proximity to a protrusion that defines a recess provided on the outer circumferential surface of a coating roller, which is supplied with paint to its outer circumferential surface and rotates to apply the paint to an object to be coated, with the coating applied to at least one location on the outer circumferential surface of the coating roller, and scrapes off paint that has spilled out of a recess. The scraping blade comprises a convex opposing portion that is in close proximity to the protrusion of the coating roller and a concave opposing portion that is in close proximity to the recess of the coating roller, wherein the convex opposing portion is made of a harder material than the concave opposing portion, and both the convex opposing portion and the concave opposing portion are made of a softer material than the protrusion of the coating roller.

[0010] Furthermore, any combination of the above components, as well as any representations thereof converted into methods, apparatus, systems, recording media, computer programs, etc., are also included in this disclosure.

[0011] According to this disclosure, paint can be stably applied to the object to be coated.

[0012] A schematic diagram of a conveying device for transporting objects. A schematic diagram of the main parts of a coating device. A schematic diagram of a coating roller and a scraping blade. A schematic diagram of a modified scraping blade. A schematic diagram of the coating roller exemplified in Figures 2 to 4, unfolded in the rotational direction. A modified example of Figure 5 is shown.

[0013] The following describes in detail the forms for implementing this disclosure (hereinafter also referred to as embodiments) with reference to the drawings. In the description and / or drawings, identical or equivalent components, members, processes, etc., are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant descriptions are omitted. The scale and shape of the illustrated parts are set for convenience to simplify the description and are not to be interpreted restrictively unless otherwise specified. The embodiments are illustrative and do not limit the scope of this disclosure in any way. Not all features or combinations thereof presented in the embodiments are necessarily essential to this disclosure. For convenience, embodiments are presented by breaking them down into components for each function and / or group of functions that realize them. However, one component in an embodiment may actually be realized by a combination of multiple components as separate entities, and multiple components in an embodiment may actually be realized by a single component as a whole. Furthermore, multiple embodiments and modifications may be disclosed in parallel, and any components of each embodiment and / or modification may be combined in any manner as long as they do not interfere with each other's functions.

[0014] Figure 1 schematically shows a coating apparatus 2 as a conveying device that conveys the object to be coated 3. In this embodiment, a roll-to-roll coating apparatus 2 is described that conveys a planar substrate as the object to be coated 3 in the conveying direction (from the uppermost unwinding roll 25 to the lowermost winding roll 26). The coating apparatus 2 or coater applies a coating to the conveyed object to be coated 3.

[0015] The coating apparatus 2 includes a conveying section that conveys the object to be coated 3 in the conveying direction using a number of conveying rollers. The conveying rollers include a drive roller that is rotationally driven by a motor, a driven roller that sandwiches the object to be coated 3 between itself and the drive roller and rotates in conjunction with the drive roller, a number of guide rollers arranged on the conveying path of the object to be coated 3 to guide the object to be coated 3, dancer rollers that constitute a dancer 24, an unwinding roll 25 that is rotationally driven by a motor to unwind the object to be coated 3 along the conveying direction, and a winding roll 26 that is rotationally driven by a motor to wind up the object to be coated 3. Figure 1 shows a simplified example of the conveying roller configuration, and in the actual coating apparatus 2, any number and type of rollers can be provided in any arrangement on the conveying path between the unwinding roll 25 and the winding roll 26.

[0016] Each pair of rollers, consisting of a drive roller and a driven roller, transports the material to be coated 3, which is sandwiched between them, in the transport direction. Each drive roller is rotationally driven by its corresponding motor. Each driven roller rotates in conjunction with its corresponding drive roller, in the opposite direction to the drive roller, at substantially the same speed.

[0017] In the illustrated example, the paint supply roller 10, coating roller 1, and transport roller 30 are a group of rollers attached to a coating processing unit that applies a coating treatment to an object to be coated 3 moving in the transport direction. Details of the coating processing unit that applies a coating to the object to be coated 3 will be described later. By attaching a group of rollers driven by a motor to such a coating processing unit, the transport speed and other parameters when the object to be coated 3 is coated can be adjusted with high precision.

[0018] The dancer 24 is provided to apply appropriate tension to each part of the object to be coated 3. The dancer 24 includes a dancer roller positioned away from the transport path of the object to be coated 3. The dancer roller is biased or pressurized in a direction away from the transport path of the object to be coated 3 by a thrust-adding device (not shown), such as an air cylinder. When the thrust from the thrust-adding device is substantially constant, the dancer roller applies substantially constant tension to the object to be coated 3 corresponding to that thrust. Note that the thrust from the thrust-adding device may be variable, and the dancer roller may apply variable tension to the object to be coated 3 corresponding to that thrust.

[0019] An unwinding roll 25, located at the starting point of the object to be coated 3 and / or the coating device 2, unwinds the object to be coated 3 along the conveying direction. A winding roll 26, located at the ending point of the object to be coated 3 and / or the coating device 2, winds up the object to be coated 3.

[0020] In the coating apparatus 2 described above, each motor that rotates each roller is controlled so that the transport speed of the material to be coated 3 at the position of each roller (i.e., the rotational speed of each roller) is set to a predetermined value.

[0021] A transport control device or coating control device (not shown) controls the transport or coating operation of the coating device 2 as described above. For example, the coating control device adaptively controls the motors, dancers 24, etc. in each part of the coating device 2 based on various measurement data obtained through sensors that measure the rotation of each motor and each roller, and other arbitrary sensors, as well as various setting data (including preset default setting data, manual setting data set by the user, and automatic setting data set automatically by the computer).

[0022] Figure 2 schematically shows the main part (coating processing section) of a coating apparatus 2, which is an example of a processing apparatus that performs a predetermined process on a conveyed object or a coated object 3. Examples of the coated object 3 include paper, cloth, film, foil, rubber, flexible substrates, and sheet-like or planar materials such as base members and work-in-progress products of current collectors described later. In the example of this embodiment, in the manufacture of sheet-like, film-like, or foil-like current collectors or current collector foils used in batteries, etc., the base member or work-in-progress product (hereinafter collectively referred to as a current collector for convenience) with some constituent layers formed on the base member constitutes the sheet-like coated object 3 (substrate). This coated object 3 is conveyed along the conveying direction T, and paint 4 is applied to its surface by a coating roller 1 (described later).

[0023] When the object to be coated 3 is a current collector, the coating 4 is, for example, a metallic material that forms an electrode layer or electrode foil as a coating or coating film 41 on the surface of the object to be coated 3. The metallic material may also be included in the base member or work-in-progress (for example, one with other electrode layers already formed) of the current collector as the object to be coated 3. Thus, in the example of this embodiment, a metallic material is included in at least one of the coating 4 and the object to be coated 3. However, the coating apparatus according to this disclosure is effective regardless of the constituent materials of the coating 4 and / or the object to be coated 3. That is, the coating 4 and / or the object to be coated 3 may be composed of non-metallic materials.

[0024] The coating apparatus 2 comprises a coating roller 1, a paint supply roller 10, and a transport roller 30. These multiple rollers 1, 10, and 30 are each substantially cylindrical in shape (however, as will be described later, the coating roller 1 has a special shape) and are mounted to be rotatable around a rotation axis which is the central axis of each. The directions (axial directions) of the rotation axes of the multiple rollers 1, 10, and 30 are preferably substantially parallel to each other and horizontal.

[0025] Furthermore, the vertical positions of the central axes of the multiple rollers 1, 10, and 30 are, for example, substantially equal to each other. In this case, the multiple rollers 1, 10, and 30 are arranged in a substantially straight line along the horizontal direction (left-right direction in Figure 2), as schematically shown in Figure 2. However, the multiple rollers 1, 10, and 30 do not have to be arranged in a straight line; for example, the central axis of the conveying roller 30 may be located below or above the central axes of the coating roller 1 and the paint supply roller 10.

[0026] As schematically shown in Figure 2, the paint supply roller 10 and the coating roller 1 rotate in opposite directions, drawing the paint 4 downward through the gap G between the two rollers 10 and 1. In the example in Figure 2, the paint 4 is stored in a space partitioned by a pair of walls 42, one in the front and one in the back, between the upper right portion of the left paint supply roller 10 and the upper left portion of the right coating roller 1. This space has a funnel-shaped cross-section perpendicular to the axial direction, and a gap G, which is the outlet or discharge port for the paint 4, is formed at its narrowed lower end. Furthermore, the cross-sections of the pair of walls 42 perpendicular to the axial direction are also funnel-shaped to prevent the paint 4 from leaking out in front of or behind this paint reservoir (the space with a funnel-shaped cross-section).

[0027] In the example shown in Figure 2, the paint supply roller 10 is rotated clockwise by a rotational drive unit such as a motor (not shown) while maintaining liquid-tight contact with the lower left curved portion of a pair of walls 42 located at its front and rear ends. Similarly, the coating roller 1 in the example shown in Figure 2 is rotated counterclockwise by a rotational drive unit such as a motor (not shown) while maintaining liquid-tight contact with the lower right curved portion of a pair of walls 42 located at its front and rear ends. In this way, the paint 4 accumulated in the aforementioned funnel-shaped space is lowered by the pair of rollers 10 and 1 rotating downwards on both sides and drawn out downwards through the gap G located at the bottom of the space.

[0028] The paint 4 that exits downward from the gap G is held on the outer surface of the coating roller 1 and moves toward the point opposite to the transport roller 30. A sheet-like material to be coated 3 is wrapped around the outer surface of the transport roller 30, and the paint 4 is applied or transferred from the outer surface of the coating roller 1 to the surface or outer surface of the material to be coated 3 to form a coating film 41. In this way, the coating roller 1 rotates with the paint 4 supplied to its outer surface, and applies the paint 4 to the material to be coated 3 facing at least one point on the outer surface (the right end in Figure 2). When transferring the paint 4 to the material to be coated 3, it is preferable that the coating roller 1, which is the source of the transfer, and the transport roller 30, on which the material to be coated 3 is wrapped, rotate in opposite directions, as schematically shown in Figure 2. In the example in Figure 2, the coating roller 1 is driven to rotate counterclockwise, and the transport roller 30 is driven to rotate clockwise by a rotation drive unit such as a motor (not shown). In this case, the object to be coated 3, which is conveyed along the conveying direction T by the conveying roller 30, is conveyed in substantially the same direction as the coating roller 1 (upward in the example of Figure 2) at a location opposite the coating roller 1.

[0029] As described above, each roller 10, 1, and 30 can be rotationally driven, and their respective rotational speeds and torques can be set independently of each other as desired to achieve the desired coating process. For example, the rotational speed of coating roller 1 may be set to be greater than that of paint supply roller 10. By creating such a difference in rotational speed, the paint 4 is more likely to adhere to coating roller 1, which rotates relatively faster. Furthermore, to prevent the paint 4 coming out of the gap G from adhering to the outer surface of paint supply roller 10 (i.e., to make it relatively easier for it to adhere to the outer surface of coating roller 1), a material with relatively low adhesion to paint 4 may be selected for the surface of paint supply roller 10, or the paint supply roller 10 may be subjected to a surface treatment that prevents the paint 4 from adhering.

[0030] Furthermore, the balance between the relative speed or rotational speed of the coating roller 1 and the transport roller 30, which are directly involved in the transfer of the paint 4, can directly affect the thickness and width of the coating film 41 formed on the object to be coated 3. Therefore, in the past, precise control was required. In this embodiment, as will be described later, the thickness and width (and even the shape) of the coating film 41 can be controlled by the recesses 11 provided on the outer surface of the coating roller 1 according to the desired coating pattern. This reduces the risk that the speed control of the coating roller 1 and the transport roller 30 will become a quality bottleneck.

[0031] Similarly, the balance of rotational speeds between the paint supply roller 10 and the coating roller 1, as well as the size of the gap G, which are involved in the supply of paint 4, can affect the thickness of the paint 4 supplied onto the coating roller 1 and ultimately transferred onto the object to be coated 3 as a coating film 41. Therefore, in the past, precise control was required. In this embodiment, as will be described later, the thickness and amount of paint 4 on the outer surface of the coating roller 1 can be controlled by recesses 11 and / or scraping portions provided on the outer surface of the coating roller 1 according to the desired coating pattern. This reduces the risk that the speed control and gap control of the paint supply roller 10 and the coating roller 1 will become quality bottlenecks.

[0032] Thus, in this embodiment, since it is not necessary to strictly control the thickness and amount of paint 4 on the outer surface of the coating roller 1 through the relative speed of the paint supply roller 10 and the coating roller 1 or through the gap G, the paint supply roller 10 may be omitted. For example, instead of the paint supply roller 10 in Figure 2, a cylindrical member or other wall-like member that is fixed so as not to move may be provided. In this case, the paint 4 is accumulated between the wall-like member and the coating roller 1, and the paint 4 is drawn onto the coating roller 1 from the gap G located at the end of the paint accumulation. Alternatively, for example, a simple configuration in which the paint 4 is simply dripped or flowed down from above the coating roller 1 may be adopted.

[0033] Next, the details of the coating roller 1 and the scraping section will be described. Figure 3 schematically shows an example of a coating roller 1 and a scraping blade 5, which is an example of the scraping section. The left side of Figure 3 is a radial view of the coating roller 1 along the radial direction (the direction perpendicular to the axial direction of the central axis O), and the right side of Figure 3 is an axial view of the coating roller 1 along the axial direction.

[0034] The outer circumferential surface of the coating roller 1 is provided with recesses 11 corresponding to the coating pattern on the object to be coated 3. The outer circumferential surface of the coating roller 1 is provided with a pair of protrusions 12 at both ends in the axial direction, which define the total width W along the axial direction of the coating pattern. In the example shown in Figure 3, the recesses 11 of the coating roller 1 are provided over substantially the entire axial region sandwiched between the pair of protrusions 12.

[0035] The difference in height along the radial direction between the recess 11 and the protrusion 12 forms a roughly annular paint-containing space 13 around the recess 11. The radial height H (thickness or width of the annulus) of this paint-containing space 13 is equal to the difference between the relatively large radius R of the protrusion 12 and the relatively small radius r of the recess 11 (H = R - r). The axial width W of the paint-containing space 13 is equal to the axial distance between the pair of protrusions 12.

[0036] As described above, the paint 4 supplied by the paint supply roller 10 and / or coating roller 1, which serve as a paint supply mechanism, to the outer surface of the coating roller 1 mainly enters the paint containment space 13 or the recess 11. Some of the paint 4 supplied from the paint supply mechanism may overflow outside the paint containment space 13 or the recess 11, or it may adhere to the protrusion 12.

[0037] In order to scrape off the paint 4 that has spilled out of the paint containment space 13, a scraping blade 5 is provided on the outer circumference of the coating roller 1. The scraping blade 5 is a blade-shaped or plate-shaped member, and its tip or the like contacts or comes into close proximity to the coating roller 1 (more precisely, the convex portion 12 as described later) to be scraped off, thereby scraping off the excess paint 4 from the rotating coating roller 1. Such a scraping blade 5 may be made up of a doctor blade used in fields such as printing. It should be noted that the scraping part according to this disclosure is not limited to a blade-shaped or plate-shaped scraping blade 5, and its shape and configuration are arbitrary as long as the desired function can be achieved.

[0038] As schematically shown in Figure 2, a paint recovery unit 6 may be provided below the scraping blade 5 to collect the paint 4 scraped off by the scraping blade 5. The paint recovery unit 6 may be made up of an ink pan used in fields such as printing. The paint 4 collected in the paint recovery unit 6 may be recycled as needed and then returned to the aforementioned paint reservoir, which is partitioned by a pair of walls 42, for reuse.

[0039] The scraping blade 5 faces at least one location on the outer circumferential surface of the coating roller 1 and scrapes off the paint 4 that has overflowed from the recess 11 while in contact with or close proximity to a pair of protrusions 12. As a result, as schematically shown on the left side of Figure 3, the paint 4 in the paint containment space 13 is formed to a height H and a width W. The paint 4 thus formed is transferred to the object to be coated 3 to form a coating film 41. If the effects of shrinkage due to drying of the paint 4 are negligible, the height of the coating film 41 is approximately equal to the height H of the paint containment space 13, and the width of the coating film 41 is approximately equal to the width W of the paint containment space 13. In this way, the paint 4 in the paint containment space 13 or recess 11 is formed into the desired coating pattern by the paint containment space 13 having dimensions, shape, pattern, etc. according to the desired coating pattern, and the scraping blade 5.

[0040] The angle at which the scraping blade 5 contacts or approaches the coating roller 1 can be arbitrarily set to achieve a desired coating pattern. Preferably, as schematically shown on the right side of Figure 3, the scraping blade 5 is positioned to extend in the opposite direction to the rotational direction of the coating roller 1 (counterclockwise in the example of Figure 3), along approximately the same direction as the tangential direction of the circular coating roller 1 (more precisely, the convex portion 12).

[0041] As described above, the scraping blade 5 may come into contact with the protrusions 12 of the coating roller 1 at both ends. Since the coating roller 1 is generally made of a hard metal material such as iron or steel, the ends of the relatively soft scraping blade 5 that come into contact with it may wear down. If a general doctor blade made of a metal material such as iron or steel (but with a composition softer than the protrusions 12 of the coating roller 1) is used as the scraping blade 5, there is a possibility that the metal material scraped off by wear with the protrusions 12 may be mixed into the paint 4. This is undesirable for the object to be coated 3, which contains metal material, as in the current collector mentioned above, or for the object to be coated 3, for which electrical properties are important.

[0042] Therefore, it is preferable to use a scraping blade 5 made of a non-metallic material for such a workpiece 3. For example, it is preferable that at least both ends of the scraping blade 5 that face or are close to the pair of protrusions 12 of the coating roller 1 are made of a non-metallic material such as a resin material. In this case as well, although both ends of the scraping blade 5 may be scraped off by friction with the protrusions 12 of the coating roller 1 and mixed into the paint 4, the effect on the electrical properties of the workpiece 3, such as a current collector, is considered to be minor. It should be noted that substantially the entire scraping blade 5 may be made of a non-metallic material such as a substantially homogeneous or uniform resin material.

[0043] As described above, the scraping blade 5 is positioned as a consumable that contacts and wears against the convex portion 12 of the coating roller 1. Excessive wear of the scraping blade 5 can distort the shape of the paint storage space 13 and adversely affect the coating quality. Therefore, it is preferable to replace the scraping blade 5 before that. For example, an upper limit may be provided for the total usage time or continuous usage time of the scraping blade 5, or the degree of wear or abrasion of the scraping blade 5 may be monitored through sensors such as cameras that measure the shape of the scraping blade 5 itself, or sensors such as cameras that measure the quality of the finished coating film 41, etc.

[0044] Also, the wear rate of the scraping blade 5 made of a homogeneous non-metallic material or metallic material can vary greatly between the two end portions that can contact the hard convex portion 12 of the coating roller 1 and the intermediate portion between the two end portions that can contact the soft paint 4 within the paint storage space 13 or the recess 11. Such a difference in the wear rate between the two end portions and the intermediate portion of the scraping blade 5 acts in the direction of reducing the height H of the paint storage space 13.

[0045] To suppress such an undesirable effect, a scraping blade 5 having a configuration schematically shown in FIG. 4 may be used. In this scraping blade 5, the convex opposing portion 51 that contacts or is close to the convex portion 12 of the coating roller 1 is made of a material harder than the concave opposing portion 52 that faces the recess 11 or the paint 4. That is, the convex opposing portion 51 is made of a relatively hard material, and the concave opposing portion 52 is made of a relatively soft material. However, the relatively hard convex opposing portion 51 is also made of a material softer than the convex portion 12 of the coating roller 1 (for example, a non-metallic material such as a resin material).

[0046] As described above, by forming the convex opposing portion 51 that contacts or slides against the convex portion 12 of the coating roller 1 with a relatively hard material, the wear rate of the convex opposing portion 51 can be reduced. On the other hand, the concave opposing portion 52 made of a relatively soft material is gently worn at the same wear rate as the convex opposing portion 51 by the paint 4 in the paint storage space 13. Thus, by changing the hardness of each part of the scraping blade 5 (the convex opposing portion 51 and the concave opposing portion 52), the variation in the wear rate of the scraping blade 5 can be reduced and made uniform overall.

[0047] Even when there is no wear on the scraping blade 5, the shape of the coating film 41 (particularly, height and width) may deviate from the designed values of the height H and width L of the paint storage space 13 due to various factors. For example, the coating roller 1 may bend or deform due to its own weight or the like, and the shape of the paint storage space 13 may deviate slightly from the designed values. Considering such assumed deformation of the coating roller 1, the designed values of the paint storage space 13 may be finely adjusted. For example, by deliberately shifting the designed shape of the paint storage space 13 from the rectangular shape shown on the left side of FIG. 3 (for example, making the horizontal line defining the recess 11 in the left side of FIG. 3 into a curved shape or a curved line), the actual paint storage space 13 may be made to be substantially rectangular.

[0048] Further, when the paint 4 stored in the paint storage space 13 peels off from the coating roller 1 and is transferred to the object to be coated 3, a part of the paint 4 may remain in the paint storage space 13 (particularly, the corner or both ends which are the boundary portions between the recess 11 and the protrusion 12), and the shape of the paint 4 transferred to the object to be coated 3 may be distorted from the rectangular parallelepiped shape.

[0049] Considering such loss and deformation of the paint 4 assumed during transfer, the designed values of the paint storage space 13 may be finely adjusted. For example, by making the height H at the corner of the paint storage space 13 larger than other portions (that is, making the recess 11 deeper), the loss of the paint 4 during transfer at the corner may be compensated. Also, considering the deformation of the paint 4 during transfer, by deliberately shifting the designed shape of the paint storage space 13 from the rectangular shape shown on the left side of FIG. 3 (for example, making the horizontal line defining the recess 11 in the left side of FIG. 3 into a curved shape or a curved line), the shape of the paint 4 actually transferred to the object to be coated 3 (that is, the shape of the coating film 41) may be made to be substantially rectangular parallelepiped.

[0050] As described above, the shape (including the height H or depth at each position) and pattern of the recess 11 or paint containment space 13 can be arbitrarily designed according to the coating pattern on the object to be coated 3. Figure 5 is a schematic unfolded view of the coating roller 1 illustrated in Figures 2 to 4, unfolded in the rotational direction (circumferential direction). In this example, the recess 11 is formed in the entire strip-shaped region sandwiched by a pair of protrusions 12 that extend linearly and parallel to each other along the rotational direction at both the left and right ends. As described above, paint 4 is supplied into the paint containment space 13 formed by this recess 11 and finally transferred onto the object to be coated 3, thereby forming a coating film 41 that extends in a uniform strip along the rotational direction or the transport direction T (Figure 2).

[0051] Figure 6 shows a modified example of Figure 5. In this example, in addition to a pair of edge protrusions 12 located at both ends in the axial direction, patterning protrusions 121 are provided that divide the axial region between them into any number of recesses 11 of any shape. The patterning protrusions 121 may be formed in a grid or mesh pattern along the axial or rotational direction, for example, as shown in Figure 6. In this case, a large number of independent rectangular or cuboidal coating films 41 are arranged on the object to be coated 3 like stamps. The shape and pattern of the patterning protrusions 121 are arbitrary, and thereafter it is possible to form recesses 11 (i.e., stamp-shaped coating films 41) of any shape or pattern.

[0052] The present disclosure has been described above based on embodiments. Various modifications are possible for each component and each combination of processes in the exemplary embodiments, and it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that such modifications are included within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0053] The configuration, operation, and function of each device and method described in the embodiments can be realized by hardware resources or software resources, or by the cooperation of hardware resources and software resources. Hardware resources include, for example, processors, ROMs, RAMs, and various integrated circuits. Software resources include, for example, operating systems and application programs.

[0054] This disclosure relates to a coating apparatus, etc.

[0055] 1 Coating roller, 2 Coating device, 3 Object to be coated, 4 Paint, 5 Scraping blade, 6 Paint recovery section, 10 Paint supply roller, 11 Recess, 12 Protrusion, 13 Paint storage space, 30 Conveying roller, 41 Paint film, 51 Opposing protrusion, 52 Opposing concave section, 121 Patterning protrusion.

Claims

1. A coating apparatus comprising a coating roller on which paint is supplied to the outer surface and rotates, and which applies the paint to an object to be coated facing at least one location on the outer surface, wherein the outer surface of the coating roller is provided with recesses corresponding to the coating pattern on the object to be coated.

2. The coating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the outer circumferential surface of the coating roller is provided with a pair of protrusions at both ends in the axial direction perpendicular to the rotation direction of the coating roller, which define the total width of the coating pattern along the axial direction.

3. The coating apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the recess of the coating roller is provided over substantially the entire axial region sandwiched by the pair of protrusions.

4. The coating apparatus according to claim 2 or 3, further comprising a scraping portion that is positioned opposite to at least one location on the outer circumferential surface of the coating roller and in close proximity to the pair of protrusions, for scraping off paint that has spilled out of the recess.

5. The coating apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the scraping portion is a scraping blade and is made of a material softer than the pair of protrusions of the coating roller.

6. The coating apparatus according to claim 5, wherein in the scraping blade, the convex opposing portion adjacent to the pair of convex portions of the coating roller is made of a harder material than the concave opposing portion facing the concave portion, and the convex opposing portion and the concave opposing portion are made of a softer material than the pair of convex portions of the coating roller.

7. The coating apparatus according to claim 5, wherein at least one of the paint and the object to be coated includes a metallic material, and in the scraping blade, at least the opposing convex portion adjacent to the pair of convex portions of the coating roller is made of a non-metallic material.

8. The coating apparatus according to claim 4, wherein a paint recovery unit is provided below the scraping unit for recovering the paint scraped off by the scraping unit.

9. The coating apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a conveying unit for conveying the material to be coated.

10. The coating apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the object to be coated is conveyed in substantially the same direction as the coating roller at a location facing the coating roller.

11. A coating method comprising: supplying paint to the outer surface of a coating roller having recesses corresponding to a coating pattern; rotating the coating roller; and applying the paint in the recesses to an object to be coated facing at least one location on the outer surface of the coating roller.

12. A scraping blade for scraping off paint that has spilled out of a recess, while facing at least one location on the outer circumferential surface of a coating roller that is supplied with paint to its outer circumferential surface and rotates, and applies the paint to an object to be coated facing at least one location on the outer circumferential surface of the coating roller, and in close proximity to a protrusion that defines a recess provided on the outer circumferential surface of the coating roller according to the coating pattern for the object to be coated, the scraping blade comprising: a convex opposing portion that is close to the protrusion of the coating roller; and a concave opposing portion that is facing the recess of the coating roller, wherein the convex opposing portion is made of a material harder than the concave opposing portion, and the convex opposing portion and the concave opposing portion are made of a material softer than the protrusion of the coating roller.

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