Magnetic orienting and printing

Abstract

The invention discloses a device and a process for producing indicia comprising magnetically oriented magnetic or magnetizable particles in an ink or coating composition on a sheet of substrate material. The device comprises a flat-bed screen-printing unit having a flat printing screen and a printing platen for receiving said sheet, the printing platen having an upper surface facing the printing screen and a first direction along its upper surface along which said sheet is unloadable, and a magnetic orienting unit comprising multiple magnet assemblies. The magnetic orienting unit is disposed below the upper surface of the printing platen, said multiple magnet assemblies are disposed along said first direction, and all of said magnet assemblies are concomitantly movable from a first position away from the upper surface of the printing platen to a second position close to the upper surface of the printing platen. The magnetic orienting unit comprising one or more magnet assemblies can also be used as a stand-alone flat-bed magnetization device, subsequent to the printing process, e.g. as an additional process station following a conventional flat-bed or rotary screen printing unit. Processes of producing printed documents using the disclosed devices are shown as well.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.