TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention is related to a device for applying gilding on a container surface, particularly a vitreous surface, preferably a bottle surface and a method for preparation of a container surface in order for gilding to be applied thereon and gilding application using said device.

PRIOR ART

Prints applied on bottles that are vitreous or that are glass or similar to glass, are significant in terms of marketability and in terms of being distinguished in the market.

Serigraphy machines for bottle printing are used frequently in the prior art. Serigraphy machines are structures that comprise printing heads positioned serially on a line. Each printing head therein is responsible for the application of only a single colour on a bottle.

As the number of heads increase in serigraphy machines, the largeness of the system also increases proportionally. Due to this reason, the number of printing heads needs to be limited at some point. Most of the printing machines used in the market comprise four heads and this situation restricts the number of colours applied on the bottles and therefore the designers are also restricted.

Besides this, the regulations of countries, has made it mandatory to have various warnings and signs on bottles, especially those containing alcoholic beverages. For example, the signs used in Turkey comprise three colours. Following to application of a sign only single head remains and therefore the design on the bottle can only have a single colour.

In the documents with the publication number CN208216241 U and CN108454224A, an automatic serigraphy printing machine comprising a feed device, a conveying line and a discharge device has been illustrated in order to perform printing on bottles. Besides this, gilding applications, particularly gold and silver gilding have been used in order to increase the appeal of the bottle.

In order for the gilding to be applied, surface primer adhesives must be applied onto the surface that is suitable to the desired gilding form, and following this, a gilding foil is pressed onto the foil surface and as a result a gilding image is enabled to be obtained on the areas where primer adhesives are applied, preferably at certain temperatures. Primers that are also called adhesion promoters or chemical bridges, function as a binding layer between surfaces and the adhesive and they improve adhesion. An adhesive layer is formed that is used in applications such as on surfaces that are generally difficult to be adhered or applications that necessitate higher resistance against humidity or heat.

A head of the serigraphy machines can be separated in order to apply a primer adhesive suitably on a surface in order to provide the usage of a gilding foil, however this selection limits the colour range that is already limited for a design. In such a case, other gilding application machines can be used. In the document with the publication number FR2691671A1 , a device and a process has been described, that has been combined with serigraphy and hot stamping branding in order to provide gilding on flat or cylindrical glass objects such as bottles. In the document with the publication number CN207044903U, similarly the serigraphy printing machine and the gilding hot stamping machine has been installed on the same system via a conveyor band.

As a result all of the solutions mentioned above have made it necessary to provide a novelty in the related field.

AIM OF THE INVENTION

The present invention aims to eliminate the problems mentioned above and to provide a technical novelty in the related field.

The main aim of the invention is to enable the application of multi coloured printing and gilding applications, by setting forth a digital inkjet printer that has been configures to apply primer binding onto the surface of a container, particularly a vitreous surface, preferably onto the surface of a bottle. Another aim of the invention is to provide a printing system structure that is directed to performing printing and gilding applications with a much smaller system.

Another aim of the invention is to describe a much faster printing device and method in comparison to known serigraphy machines.

Another aim of the invention is to set forth bottle structures that are more marketable by presenting a method for providing bottle designs having multi colours.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention mentioned above which has been provided to reach the aims that can be construed from the detailed description is an inkjet digital printer. Accordingly, it comprises at least an ink chamber that is used to prepare the surface of an object used as a container for gilding application; at least a printer head that is provided with a plurality of nozzles thereon for applying said ink from the ink chamber onto said vitreous surface and at least a primer adhesive chamber that is arranged to provide a primer blinder to the printing head.

A preferred embodiment of the invention comprises at least 4 different ink chambers.

In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the ink chamber and the primer adhesive chamber have been arranged to feed the same printing head.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the ink chamber and the primer adhesive chamber have been arranged to feed different printing heads.

In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the ink chamber and the primer adhesive chamber have been arranged to feed the same nozzles.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the ink chamber and the primer adhesive chamber have been arranged to feed different nozzles.

In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the diameter of the nozzles fed by the primer adhesive chamber is larger than the nozzles fed by the ink chamber.

A preferred embodiment of the invention comprises a UV dryer.

Another embodiment of the invention comprises a manipulator that is arranged to rotate the object around its own axis. The present invention mentioned above which has been provided to reach the aims that can be construed from the detailed description is a printing method that enables to print ink and gilding on the surface of an object that is used as a container. Accordingly, the method comprises the steps of,

a) Applying ink on an object by means of an inkjet digital printer according to any of the claims 1 -19;

b) Applying a primer adhesive on an object by means of an inkjet digital printer according to any of the claims 1 -19;

c) Hot stamping a gilding foil on the surface of the object.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, ink is applied onto the surface before the primer adhesive.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, ink is applied onto the surface after the primer adhesive.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the applied ink is dried with a UV light source.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the applied primer is dried with a UV light source.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In this detailed description, the invention has been described with non-limiting illustrations in order to better explain the subject matter.

The invention is related to a device for applying gilding on a container surface, particularly a vitreous surface, preferably a bottle surface.

Said digital ink spraying printers are also known as“inkjet” printers.

Said inkjet printers can be of continuous, drop-on or thermal type. In the thermal type, mutually all of them comprise an ink chamber and a printing head onto which ink is transferred from said chamber. Printing heads comprise nozzles through which ink is discharged. The ink that is located inside ink chambers are enabled to be discharged at suitable time periods from suitable nozzles, in compliance with the pattern that has been input to the memory unit. The digital inkjet printer, preferably comprises four different ink chambers. These are cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Ink chambers that are suitable for a six coloured system can also be provided according to the area of usage.

The digital printer subject to the invention, also comprises an adhesive chamber that contains a certain amount of the primer adhesive. The primer adhesive chamber, has been suitably mounted to the printer head and has been arranged to deliver the primer adhesive to said printer head and nozzles.

The aforementioned digital printer, applies the primer adhesive suitably to the object via the nozzles according to the pattern that is predetermined at the memory.

The primer adhesive chamber and the ink chamber mentioned herein, can be arranged to feed the same printing head and nozzles. Besides this, feeding on different nozzles on the same head can also be provided. While the primer chamber feeds different nozzles, the ink chamber is attached to different nozzles.

In the case that different nozzles are fed, an advantage is set forth in that the nozzles fed by the primer adhesive chamber are provided to be larger than the other nozzles.

According to another embodiment of the invention, the ink chamber feeds a printing head, whereas the primer adhesive chamber can be arranged to feed another printing head. Providing the nozzles of the printing head that is fed by the primer adhesive chamber to be larger than the nozzles of the printing head fed by the ink chamber is advantageous.

Tow heads have been positioned herein such that they can operate together. Not only can both printing heads can be selected to be of the same type, but it is also possible to use heads that have been arranged according to different operation methods. For example while one head is a structure that functions with a piezoelectric method, the other can be selected as a structure that uses another pressure valve method.

The structure subject to the invention can comprise a UV dryer and as a result it is enabled for the ink applied from the nozzles to be dried.

The object is held in a fixed state while applying the ink and the primer and the printing head or heads are moveable. In another embodiment the structure subject to the invention can comprise a manipulator in order to move the object onto which printing is to be applied. The manipulator can be used in order rotate the object to provide printing onto the other surface of the object to be applied with a print during printing and/or after printing and/or to carry the object to/from the printing area.

The subject matter of the invention is a method that utilizes the device mentioned above and the claims below for applying gilding onto a surface and for preparing the surface of an object that is used as a container, onto which gilding is to be applied.

Accordingly, the method basically comprises the steps of;

a) Applying ink on an object by means of an inkjet digital printer according to any of the claims 1 -9;

b) Applying a primer adhesive on an object by means of an inkjet digital printer according to any of the claims 1 -9;

c) Hot Stamping a gilding foil on the surface of the object.

In the method subject to the invention, a coloured ink is applied, according to a predetermined design, onto the surface of said object via nozzles that have been provided at the ink chamber of the digital inkjet printer.

Following this, ink is applied, according to a predetermined gilding design, onto the surface of said object via nozzles that have been provided at the primer adhesive chamber of the digital inkjet printer.

The primer adhesive mentioned herein and the application order of the ink can be changed. The primer adhesive can not only be applied first but the primer adhesive and the ink can also be applied at the same time by the digital inkjet printer.

Besides this, the drying/curing of the ink can be provided by means of a UV dryer.

In further steps the gilding foil is pressed onto the surface of the object and is then removed. The foil adheres onto the sections having the primer adhesive and gilding is provided on the related object.

During the application and following the application, heat can be applied onto the surface where gilding is applied. The protection scope of the invention has been defined in the attached claims and the invention cannot be limited to the illustrative embodiments mentioned in the brief and detailed description. It is obvious that a person skilled in the art can convey similar embodiments under the light of the descriptions made above without deviating from the main scope of the invention.