Effects of Blanket Roller Deformation on Printing Qualities in Gravure-Offset Printing Method

In this paper, the deformation of the blanket roller when using the gravure-offset printing method for printed electronics, as well as the effect of this deformation on the quality of the printing, is examined. The mechanical properties of the blanket roller, which is made of silicone rubber compounds, are measured using a rubber tester. Mooney-Rivlin material parameters are obtained for the nonlinear elastic properties by conducting uniaxial and biaxial tests. The commercial finite element method (FEM), which is a numerical tool for solving partial differential equations (PDEs), is used to analyze the deformation of the blanket roller. In the FEM model, we consider the large-scale deformation of rubber showing nonlinear elastic behavior, and introduce a contact condition between flexible and rigid bodies. The parametric study shows that in the gravure-offset printing process, the distortions of the printed pattern, as well as changes in gain and changes in the position of the patterns caused by nip deformation of the rubber blanket, is significantly affected by printing loading and friction. Moreover, non-uniform friction condition due to partly patterned zone also makes a local pattern distortion. (C) 2010 The Japan Society of Applied Physics