A printing device including a conveyance rod which discharges and introduces a screen mask and a board support member; and a control section. The control section performs a mask exchange process including a mask discharge process of discharging the screen mask to be discharged and a mask introduction process of introducing the screen mask to be introduced by controlling a conveyance rod. In addition, the control section performs a support member exchange process including a support member discharge process of discharging the board support member to be discharged and a support member introduction process of introducing the support member to be introduced by controlling the conveyance rod.

Printing machine includes a guide; at least one printing station located along the guide; at least one supporting station for supporting a product to be printed by the printing station; at least a first and a second positioning units mounted along the guide, at least one of the positioning units being located at the printing station. The supporting station includes: a motor substantially integral with the supporting station for moving the supporting station along the guide; an acquisition device capable of acquiring an identification code from each of the positioning units when the supporting station is at each of the positioning units; a memory wherein reference codes corresponding to the identification codes and at least one reference distance corresponding to a distance between the first and second positioning units are stored; a processing unit configured to control the motor based on the acquired identification codes and on the reference codes and reference distance stored in the memory.

An alignment system for a workpiece printing machine comprises a stencil support and a workpiece support, and a planarity control mechanism having at least two actuators arranged to effect relative rotation of the stencil support and workpiece support about both the horizontal axes.

Screen printer 10 is for screen printing solder paste 13 loaded on an upper surface of stencil 12 onto board S using one of first and second squeegees 71 and 72. Screen printer 10 is provided with a stencil frame holding rail that holds stencil frame 12a of stencil 12, pair of board holding members 36 and 38 that hold board S, raising and lowering table 16 that raises and lowers board holding members 36 and 38, and pair of stencil supporting members 50 and 52 that support stencil 12 from below at a portion outside a printing region of stencil 12 used for screen printing. Stencil supporting members 50 and 52 are provided independently from raising and lowering table 16. Therefore, the load applied to raising and lowering table 16 is reduced. Also, there is increased design freedom with respect to members and the like loaded on raising and lowering table 16.

The present invention presents a solder printing apparatus comprising a clamping mechanism (100), and a position adjusting mechanism. The clamping mechanism (100) comprises a mounting base (130), a lead screw (142), one or more clamp base (110), and one or more adjustable height stopper (120) for locating and clamping. The position adjusting mechanism comprises an adjustment for X direction positioning (150), an adjustment for Y direction positioning (160), an adjustment for Z direction positioning (170), and an adjustment for rotation position about the Z axis (180), each having a turn knob with a micrometer scale, as well as, a position indicator (152, 162, 172).

The application relates to a printing device for printing onto substrates, in particular solar cells, wafers or printed circuit boards, including a squeegee means and including at least one printing table, wherein the squeegee means is arranged above the printing table, and including at least one conveying means, by means of which a substrate can be transported away in each case to a printing nest below the squeegee direction and away out of the printing nest after the printing process has taken place. It is provided that the printing table has several conveying means, which are arranged side by side and aligned parallel to one another and which each have at least one printing nest, and that the squeegee means has at least one squeegee, which can be moved over each printing nest in order to print successively onto the substrates, which are arranged in the printing nests.

A screen printer includes: a substrate holder that holds a substrate; a mask to be contacted with the substrate; an imaging device that images the substrate; an elevation mechanism that moves up the substrate holder at a below-mask-position below the mask based on a result of the imaging to contact the substrate with the mask; a horizontal moving mechanism that moves the substrate holder between the below-mask-position and a retreat position retreated in a horizontal direction from the below-mask-position; a printing head that moves on the mask contacted with the substrate and prints a paste on the substrate via the mask; and a mask cleaner that cleans a lower surface of the mask with the substrate separated from the mask by the elevation mechanism. The imaging of the substrate and the cleaning of the mask are performed with the substrate holder positioned at the retreat position.

An alignment method for screen printing process includes: attaching a transparent film on a to-be-printed substrate in such a manner that the transparent film covers at least a to-be-printed region of the to-be-printed substrate, forming a printed pattern including an alignment mark on the transparent film by using a screen printing plate to imprint printed material onto the transparent film, and comparing whether the alignment mark on the transparent film is aligned with an alignment mark on the to-be-printed substrate. When the alignment mark on the transparent film is aligned with the alignment mark on the to-be-printed substrate, it is determined that current positions of the screen printing plate and the to-be-printed substrate are final alignment positions. When the alignment mark on the transparent film is not aligned with the alignment mark on the to-be-printed substrate, the current position of the screen printing plate or the to-be-printed substrate is adjusted.

A printing device including a conveyance rod which discharges and introduces a screen mask and a board support member; and a control section. The control section performs a mask exchange process including a mask discharge process of discharging the screen mask to be discharged and a mask introduction process of introducing the screen mask to be introduced by controlling a conveyance rod. In addition, the control section performs a support member exchange process including a support member discharge process of discharging the board support member to be discharged and a support member introduction process of introducing the support member to be introduced by controlling the conveyance rod.

A method of screen printing positionally synchronizes a plurality of pallet assemblies on a first screen printing machine with a plurality of pallet assemblies on a second screen printing machine. A screen printed garment having a properly aligned first image received from the first screen printing machine is transferred on a portion of one of the pallet assemblies on the first screen printing machine to one of the plurality of pallet assemblies on the second printing machine. The properly aligned first image on the garment is in proper positional alignment with a screen printing head on the second screen printing machine such that a second image complimentary to the first image is printed on the garment in proper position on the garment relative to the first image without user intervention to positionally locate the first image relative to the screen printing head on the second machine.