Exchangeable Squeegee Screen Unit for Rapid Material Switching
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing screen printing devices require laborious cleaning to prevent material mixing during successive printing processes with different materials, making it time-consuming to switch between materials.
Innovation Solution
A screen unit with an exchangeable squeegee holding device that securely carries the squeegee with the printing screen, allowing for easy material changes and automated squeegee exchange, along with a screen magazine for organized storage and climate control to maintain printing screens, facilitating rapid operation and minimizing cleaning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the printing device and printing screen are cleaned between successive printing processes with different materials, then material mixing is prevented, but the cleaning process is laborious and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The squeegee is extracted from the printing device and integrated with the screen unit, allowing it to be removed together with the screen. This extraction enables both components to be discarded or replaced as a single unit, eliminating the need for time-consuming cleaning operations while ensuring complete removal of printing materials.
Solution Approach 2:
The screen unit with integrated squeegee is designed as a disposable component that can be easily replaced. Instead of cleaning and reusing expensive equipment, the invention employs inexpensive, replaceable screen units that are discarded after use, thereby eliminating cleaning time and ensuring no material mixing.
2Productivity
If the screen unit includes an integrated holding device for the squeegee, then squeegee exchange is automated and efficient, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The holding device for the squeegee is merged with the screen unit frame, creating an integrated assembly. This combination allows the squeegee to be automatically exchanged together with the screen unit, significantly improving productivity while the modular design keeps the added complexity manageable.
Solution Approach 2:
The holding device is designed with universal features that allow it to accommodate different squeegee types and facilitate automated exchange. The standardized interface enables multi-functionality, allowing the same holding device structure to work with various screen units and squeegee configurations, thereby improving productivity without proportionally increasing complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A screen unit for a printing device for printing three-dimensionally shaped structures, in particular on substrates, printed circuit boards, wafers, solar cells, carrier substrates, printing tables, carrier plates, sintering plates or the like, has a frame holding at least one printing screen and is designed to be accommodated in a screen receptacle of the printing device, to be filled with a printing compound and to be subjected to the action of a squeegee for carrying out a printing process. The screen unit has, in or on the frame, at least one holding device for the squeegee, which is in the form of an exchangeable squeegee.