A can body printing device includes: a support part supports a can body, on which printing of identification information and neck treatment by the manufacturer-side printing device have been performed, with respect to a diameter decreased portion that is a predetermined portion; and a printing device performs printing including digital printing onto a barrel portion of the can body supported by the support part.

A method of operating a direct-to-object printer adjusts a pixel density of a portion of contone image data for an image to be printed on a surface of a tapered object. The contone image data is also filtered with a stochastic halftone filer to produce binary image data for the image to be printed on the tapered object. The adjustment in the pixel density for the portion of the image to be printed on the portion of the object having a circumference that is different than another portion of the surface at the uppermost portion of the image produces a more uniform appearance in the resulting printed image.

A method is disclosed to provide a DTS machine that is simple to operate and can through human operator control provide economic and competitive throughput speeds as compared to more complex DTS machines utilizing multiple printing tunnels and material handlers. The present method repositions a print carriage and a reconfigures an inkjet printhead bank to accommodate different sizes and shapes of media. The allows for the printing of a single piece of media in a single each printing event, but maintains a printing throughput similar to DTS machines having the capability to print media in parallel printing events. Media is moved from a media loading area on the machine by a single operator into a printing tunnel and then the operator adjusts the angle of the media relative to a reconfigurable array of ink-heads to meet inkjet expression distance requirements.

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.

A process is disclosed for creating a print profile to control the operation of a direct-to-shape printing system for applying images on the exterior of an axially symmetrical media object that has a contoured, varying exterior surface, such as occurs on curved wine bottles and sports equipment like bats. The process takes a media recipe holding media geometry information and an image intended to be printed and processes that information to control a motion control subsystem and a print engine subsystem. The geometry information is manipulated to generate a CAM table suitable for the motion control subsystem, and the image file is processed to create a raster image file suitable for ink head expression. Various setup values are included in the process to prepare the direct-to-shape printing system for use of the media recipe.

An apparatus is disclosed for printing images on generally cylindrical objects. The apparatus comprises an impression station that includes a movable imaging surface for bearing an ink image; and a transport mechanism for advancing the objects through the impression station, comprising a drive member rotatably connected to a plurality of rotatable mandrels, each for mounting a respective one of the objects, the transport mechanism being configured to cause each object to rotate during passage through the impression station such that, within a nip region of the impression station, the surface of the object makes rolling contact with the imaging surface, thereby causing the ink image to be impressed on the object. An impression platen is provided opposite the imaging surface within the nip region, the impression platen being configured to apply a force, directly or indirectly, to the objects to ensure rolling contact between the objects and the imaging surface.

Provided is a print system including: a moving body supporting a can body and moving; an annular moving route that is an annular-shaped moving route, along which the moving body moves, including at least one of a linear moving route extending from an upper side toward a lower side and is formed linearly, and a linear moving route extending from the lower side toward the upper side and is formed linearly; and an image forming unit performing image formation onto the can body supported by the moving body.

A machine for drying inks of the UV type, the machine including a supporting frame, which forms at least one exposure chamber, which can be accessed from the outside and accommodates at least one UV ray emission source. On the supporting frame, there is at least one carriage which supports rotatably at least one pan for supporting at least one object to be processed which is provided, on its surface, with at least one print provided by UV inks. Elements are furthermore provided for the rotational actuation of the pan; the carriage is movable in order to move the pan from an exposure position to at least one respective access position, in which the pan is arranged outside of the exposure chamber, in order to allow the loading or unloading of the object on or from the pan.

A method for printing on at least partially transparent containers, wherein, in a first printing step, a first printing image is printed onto the container by the application of at least one printing ink, and wherein, in a second printing step, a second printing image is printed onto the container by the application of at least one printing ink, wherein the printing images are printed at least partially covering one another, and specifically in such a way that ink layers are applied in a temporal offset sequence onto the container, wherein a first ink layer is allocated to the first printing image and a second ink layer is allocated to the second printing image, and that between the first and second printing image a reflection layer is at least partially provided, by means of which the printing images are at least partially optically separated from one another.

The invention relates to a device (10) for imprinting or labelling containers (12). The device (10) comprises a planar drive system (14) having a base element (16), a first movement device (18) and a second movement device (20). The first movement device (18) has a container holder (22) for holding a container (12). The second movement device (20) has a fitting device (24) for imprinting or labelling the container (12). The device (10) can improve a flexibility and a working quality during the imprinting and labelling of the containers (12).