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.

A stencil printer is configured to print an assembly material on an electronic substrate. The stencil printer includes a frame, a stencil coupled to the frame, a support assembly coupled to the frame, and a print head gantry coupled to the frame. The print head gantry includes an elongate beam that rides along rails provided on the frame and a print head assembly supported by the print head gantry in such a manner that the print head assembly is configured to traverse the stencil during print strokes. The print head assembly includes a print head having a squeegee blade assembly configured to roll solder paste along the stencil. The stencil printer further includes a solder paste bead recovery system configured to remove a bead of solder paste from a top surface of the stencil and to deposit the bead of solder paste onto a new replacement stencil.

A printing device includes a storage that stores allowable time for which use of solder supplied to a screen mask can be allowed, a timer that measures time for which the solder is supplied to the screen mask, a determination unit that determines whether or not the solder supplied to the screen mask has exceeded the allowable time based on time measured by the timer, and a notifier that notifies a worker in a case where the determination unit determines that the solder supplied to the screen mask has exceeded the allowable time. The timer measures time by weighting a measurement interval of time for which the solder is moved on the screen mask by a squeegee so as to become greater than a measurement interval of time for which the solder does not move on the screen mask.

A screen-printing unit in a printing machine comprises a screen cylinder which carries a screen-printing stencil and in which a squeegee is moved, from the inside, into contact with, and away from the screen-printing stencil. The screen cylinder is moved into contact with an impression cylinder, such that a printing position is formed, and is moved away therefrom, such that a gap is formed. The screen cylinder is moved away from the impression cylinder, in a first phase, when the squeegee is in a non-contacting position. In a second phase, at least one sheet of printing material is passed through the printing position when the squeegee continues to be in a non-contacting position and the screen cylinder is at least temporarily in a contacting position. For subsequent sheets of printing material, in a third phase, the screen-printing unit is operated with the squeegee one of permanently and cyclically, such as at least once for each sheet of printing material, in a contacting position.

The present invention relates to a curved surface screen printing apparatus performing printing on a surface to be printed of a base material having a curved surface, including: a screen plate formed with a pattern and arranged above the base material; a squeegee which is disposed above the screen plate and applies an ink to the surface to be printed of the base material through the screen plate; and a base material moving mechanism which moves the base material along a vertical plane and is capable of swinging the base material with respect to an axis orthogonal to the vertical plane.

Provided is a printing plate, containing: a screen plate having an opening pattern; and, a frame body to which the screen plate is fixed, in which the screen plate includes at least one curved part and is relatively movably fixed to the frame body.

A solder paste printer for which a pressing force of squeegee 62 towards a stencil when spreading solder paste 110, that is, a printing pressure, is smaller than a printing pressure when performing solder paste printing. The force with which the solder paste is pressed downwards by the squeegee is weak, and instead of solder paste being pressed down, it spreads along the squeegee. Also, the moving speed of the squeegee when spreading the solder paste is faster than the moving speed of the squeegee when printing solder paste. Thus, because the squeegee is moving fast, before the solder paste is pressed down sufficiently to be printed, the solder paste spreads out along the squeegee. Accordingly, it is possible to appropriately spread the solder paste along the direction in which the squeegee extends.

Provided is a printing plate, containing: a screen plate having an opening pattern; and, a frame body to which the screen plate is fixed, in which the screen plate includes at least one curved part and is relatively movably fixed to the frame body.

A screen-printing unit in a printing machine comprises a screen cylinder which carries a screen-printing stencil and in which a squeegee is moved, from the inside, into contact with, and away from the screen-printing stencil. The screen cylinder is moved into contact with an impression cylinder, such that a printing position is formed, and is moved away therefrom, such that a gap is formed. The screen cylinder is moved away from the impression cylinder, in a first phase, when the squeegee is in a non-contacting position. In a second phase, at least one sheet of printing material is passed through the printing position when the squeegee continues to be in a non-contacting position and the screen cylinder is at least temporarily in a contacting position. For subsequent sheets of printing material, in a third phase, the screen-printing unit is operated with the squeegee one of permanently and cyclically, such as at least once for each sheet of printing material, in a contacting position.

A printing apparatus including: a squeegee fixing section configured to switch to and from a fixed state in which a squeegee used to print a viscous fluid onto a print target is fixed and a released state in which the squeegee is not fixed; and a squeegee moving section configured to move the squeegee fixed by the squeegee fixing section above a screen mask during printing by moving the squeegee fixing section.