Roll-to-roll printing apparatus

A roll-to-roll printing apparatus comprising:

• an unwinding unit that unwinds a base material,
• a printing unit that performs printing on the base material unwound from the unwinding unit,
• a winding unit that winds up the base material subjected to the printing by a printing portion provided in the printing unit,
• a drive roll that is disposed in a stage previous to the printing portion and supplies the base material to the printing portion;
• a drive roll actuator that rotates the drive roll;
• a plate cylinder that is disposed in the printing portion and performs printing on the base material,
• a dancer actuator disposed between the plate cylinder and another drive roll to vary a tension of the base material by changing a path line length of the base material;
• a tension detection device that is disposed in a stage previous to the printing portion and detects the tension of the base material;
• and
• a tension control device that controls the drive roll actuator and the dancer actuator in accordance with a result of the detection by the tension detection device to compensate for a variation in the tension of the base material in a stage previous to the printing portion, wherein,
• when compensating for the variation in the tension of the base material, the tension control device controls the drive roll actuator so that a tension variation in a predetermined low frequency band is inhibited, and controls the dancer actuator so that a tension variation in a predetermined high frequency band is inhibited,
• the roll-to-roll printing apparatus seamlessly performs printing on the base material using a roll-to-roll method.