A printing apparatus of the present disclosure is for performing printing of a viscous fluid onto a print target using a screen mask, the printing apparatus including: a moving section configured to perform at least one of moving an exchangeable member to an exchange position or loading and unloading of the exchangeable member, for at least two types of the exchangeable member that, out of a cartridge configured to house the viscous fluid, a squeegee, a screen mask, a cleaning member used to clean the screen mask, and a support member configured to fix the print target, include at least one out of the cartridge, the squeegee, and the cleaning member; and an exchange control section configured to control the moving section to perform exchange processing of exchanging the exchangeable member.

A method for screen printing of a material on a substrate is provided. The method includes moving a process head assembly having at least one deposition device from a first position to a second position to perform a stroke, wherein the stroke includes at least a first phase for material processing of a material on a screen device using the at least one deposition device and a second phase for a material transfer from the screen device to the substrate. The at least one deposition device moves in a first direction in the first phase. At least one device moves in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction in the first phase. The at least one deposition device and the at least one device simultaneously move during at least a part of the first phase. The at least one device is selected from the group including the at least one deposition device, a material processing device, the screen device, and a substrate support.

A squeegee device for a printing press, which prints a printing material, at at least one printing point, in accordance with a screen printing process, comprises a screen printing screen, a squeegee which is one of set against the screen printing screen in a thrown-on position and can be set against the screen printing screen In a thrown-on position, a bearing device which makes a throwing-on and throwing-off movement possible between the thrown-on position of the squeegee and a thrown-off position, and a drive device, by the use of which, the squeegee can be set against the screen printing screen and can be set away from the latter during operation in a manner which is correlated to a press or printing material phase position. The drive device is set up to one of bring about and to make possible throwing-on and throwing-off of the squeegee in sequences which differ from one another in one of different positions and the phase lengths in relation to the length of the screen printing screen.

Precision screen printing is described that is capable of sub-micron uniformity of the metallization materials that are printed on green sheet ceramic. In some examples, puck is formed with electrical traces by screen printing a paste that contains metal on a ceramic green sheet in a pattern of electrical traces and processing the printed green sheet to form a puck of a workpiece carrier. In some example, the printing includes applying a squeegee of a screen printer to the printed green sheet in a squeegeeing direction while the green sheet is on a printer bed of the screen printer. The method further includes mapping the printer bed at multiple locations along the squeegeeing direction, identifying non-uniformities in the printer bed mapping, and modifying a printer controller of the screen printer to compensate for mapped non-uniformities in the printer bed.

Precision screen printing is described that is capable of sub-micron uniformity of the metallization materials that are printed on green sheet ceramic. In some examples, puck is formed with electrical traces by screen printing a paste that contains metal on a ceramic green sheet in a pattern of electrical traces and processing the printed green sheet to form a puck of a workpiece carrier. In some example, the printing includes applying a squeegee of a screen printer to the printed green sheet in a squeegeeing direction while the green sheet is on a printer bed of the screen printer. The method further includes mapping the printer bed at multiple locations along the squeegeeing direction, identifying non-uniformities in the printer bed mapping, and modifying a printer controller of the screen printer to compensate for mapped non-uniformities in the printer bed.

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 method of performing screen printing on a substrate used for the manufacture of a solar cell is provided. The method includes moving a print head over a screen by a first drive actuator to perform a printing stroke in a first direction. The method includes moving a material processing head in the first direction by a second drive actuator to perform a material processing stroke behind the print head. The print head is moved away from the material processing head by the first drive actuator during a distance increasing phase of the printing stroke to increase a separation distance between the print head and the material processing head.

A printing object surface has a cross-sectional shape curving along a printing advancing direction. The printing advancing direction is defined as a Y-axis, a direction orthogonal to the Y-axis and belonging to the cross-section is defined as a Z-axis, and a direction around an axis orthogonal to a Y-Z plane is defined as a -axis. A squeegee is disposed so as to be movable in the respective Y-, Z- and -axis directions. Information indicating a mutual relationship among respective Y-, Z- and -axis positions is obtained. The relationship is a relationship that enables performing printing while maintaining or substantially maintaining an angle formed by a direction tangent to a printing position in the printing object surface in the Y-Z plane and the squeegee. Printing is executed while the respective Y-, Z-, -axis positions of the squeegee relative to the printing object surface are controlled according to the obtained information.

A manufacturing system for applying a material to a workpiece comprising a blade unit having a blade element for selectively moving along first and second axes for applying the material to the workpiece. A reciprocating motor is coupled to the blade unit for reciprocating the blade element along the first axis concurrent with movement of the blade element along the second axis, and a vibration detector is coupled to the blade unit for detecting the vibrational movement of the blade element. The vibration detector generates an output signal corresponding to the vibrational movement of the blade element. A control unit is coupled to the vibration detector for generating an output signal in response to the vibration detector signal, and a regulating device adjusts a parameter of the reciprocating motor in response to the output signal of the control unit.

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.