Printing device for curved surfaces and method thereof
AssigneeTubeWriter LLC
InventorNagasatish Rao
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A device and method for printing on cylindrical curved surfaces. In the preferred embodiment, the device is an inkjet printer including a printing rack that holds a plurality of cylindrical objects like test tubes or pipes, a printing unit including a UV light source and a removable ink cartridge. The ink cartridge includes a plurality of ink nozzles and ink reservoir. In the preferred embodiment, the printing rack moves the printing objects relative to the printing unit. The printing unit preheats the printing objects prior through the use of the UV light source, and after printing the UV light source is used to cure the ink on the surface to produce a high quality print result.
Claims8
A device for printing on cylindrical curved surfaces, comprising:
- a. a printing unit applying UV curable ink to said curved surfaces;
- b. a curved surface pre-heating and ink curing UV-light source unit;
- c. a moving printing platform;
- d. a removable printing rack, configured to support a plurality of cylindrical shaped objects, adapted to be attached to said moving printing platform;
- e. a base unit, wherein said printing unit and said UV light source unit are mounted to the base unit, and wherein said moving printing platform is mounted below said printing unit and said UV-light source unit such that the removable printing rack travels in a two-dimensional horizontal plane underneath the UV-light source unit and the printing unit wherein said cylindrical surfaces are both pre-heated before printing via said UV-light unit source and, following printing, said ink is cured by said UV-light source unit.
A method of printing on cylindrical curved surfaces comprising:
- a. loading a plurality of cylindrical objects onto a printing rack;
- b. mounting the printing rack onto a printing platform;
- c. moving the cylindrical objects underneath a UV-light source unit to preheat the surfaces of the cylindrical objects;
- d. moving the cylindrical objects underneath a printing unit to print and dispense ink onto the surfaces of the cylindrical objects;
- e. moving the cylindrical objects underneath said UV-light source unit once again to cure the ink;
- f. retrieving the printing rack from the printing platform to retrieve the printed cylindrical objects.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.