3D Printed Varnishing Slabs with Digital Material Reserves
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for creating varnishing slabs for offset printing are limited by precision issues with complex geometries, require expensive and complex machinery, and generate material waste, especially when trying to achieve custom shapes and prevent delamination.
Innovation Solution
A process using 3D printing to create varnishing slabs with non-cross-linked elastomeric thermoplastic polymer materials, eliminating the need for adhesives and complex preparation steps, and incorporating a surface treatment and finishing process to achieve desired properties.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If manual notching or cutting plotter is used to create reserves, then simple geometries of relatively large dimensions can be processed, but precision issues occur for more complicated geometries and the possibilities of personalising the printed items are enormously limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual notching and cutting plotter mechanical systems with a 3D printing system that uses digital models to create reserves. This substitution enables precise fabrication of complex geometries through additive manufacturing, eliminating the precision limitations of manual methods while vastly expanding design versatility for personalisation.
2Adaptability or versatility
If special slabs with complex geometries are used, then complex graphics can be processed, but expensive and complex preparation machinery is required and the process is normally performed externally by specialised facilities
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces expensive specialized preparation machinery with a 3D printing system that uses digital modeling and additive manufacturing. This substitution eliminates the need for complex external preparation facilities while maintaining the capability to process complex graphics through digital design and precise material deposition.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the fundamental parameter of slab preparation from subtractive methods (cutting, notching) to additive manufacturing. This parameter change enables complex geometries to be created directly from digital models using 3D printing, eliminating the need for expensive specialized machinery while maintaining design flexibility.
3Stability of the object's composition
If adhesive is used between varnishing layer and support layer, then delamination can be prevented, but the adhesive must have adhesion properties in a rather restricted adhesion range and this represents an important risk factor and additional costs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the adhesive layer from the slab structure. By using 3D printing to create the varnishing layer directly on the support layer, the need for adhesive is removed entirely. This eliminates the restricted adhesion range requirements and associated risks while maintaining structural integrity through direct bonding of the printed layer.
4Loss of substance
If traditional methods are used to create reserves by removing material, then material waste is generated, but additive manufacturing techniques could avoid this waste while using materials not very suitable for printing and varnishing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material parameter by selecting thermoplastic materials specifically suitable for 3D printing that also meet the requirements for varnishing and ink transfer. This parameter change enables additive manufacturing to be used while maintaining material reliability, avoiding waste by building reserves additively rather than subtractively.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables the production of customizable varnishing slabs with improved precision, reduced material waste, and cost-effectiveness, while ensuring excellent varnishing performance and resistance to varnishes and solvents.
Implementation Method 1
a non cross-linked elastomeric thermoplastic polymer material is applied onto said support layer with an additive technology that physically reproduces the digital model of said varnishing layer
Implementation Method 2
They are usually applied using one or more special printing units (known as 'varnishing units') positioned as final elements of the machine and followed, if necessary, by ovens or lamps for the drying or cross-linking of the varnishes themselves
Data Source
Figure 1~3
Figure 4~5
AI summary
The invention reveals a process for realising a blanket or slab for overprint varnishing (1) at least comprising a support layer (2) and a varnishing layer (3), characterised in that a digital model of the varnishing layer (3) is created having areas of shortage of material (6) that modify in a localised way the thickness of said varnishing layer (3), and a non cross-linked elastomeric thermoplastic polymer material is applied onto said support layer (2) with an additive technology that physically reproduces the digital model of said varnishing layer (3).