JP2000040264A - Draw type optical disk and printer capable of partial printing - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a DRAW type optical disk, as well as a printer suitable for this disk, capable of efficiently displaying both common design and individual title on a label without impairing the function possessed by the DRAW type optical disk. SOLUTION: The DRAW type optical disk is provided with a design print part 1 arbitrarily selected on the label surface of an optical disk, a part 2 with an ink composition printed that accepts the printing ink of an ink-jet printer, and a marking part 3 which is in a specific positional relation with the design print part 1 and which is detectable by a sensor, and also, the ink-jet printer is provided with a part for holding the optical disk, a sensor for detecting the marking part, a controller that synchronizes with the signal of the sensor and that controls the rotation of the holding part, and a printing part for printing on the part with the ink composition printed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a write-once optical disc capable of partially printing on a label surface and a printing apparatus therefor, and more particularly, to a write-once optical disc having a mark portion for position detection, and The present invention relates to a printing device having a function of detecting the mark portion.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Write-once optical disks (hereinafter abbreviated as optical disks) such as CD-Rs and DVD-Rs have a large information recording capacity, and there is no danger of erasing recorded information by mistake. Due to its characteristics, it is widely used as an external recording medium for computers.

[0003] When information is recorded on the optical disk, it is necessary that the content can be recognized by a recorder or a third party after recording. Of course, the above recording disk is read (reproduced)
Anyway, the contents can be recognized, but usually the title, headline, abstract, recording date, etc. relating to the recorded information are generally displayed on the label surface of the optical disk.

Further, as seen on the label surface of a read-only compact disc (CD-ROM), an arbitrary design (for example, a company logo mark) is often printed on the label surface. When the write-once optical disc is used as a medium for selling information, the appearance including the above design is also important. Therefore, the label surface of the write-once optical disc is required to display a character title whose content is often different from one disc to another, and to display an arbitrary design which is usually the same for several tens or several hundreds or more.

[0005] As a method of displaying on the label surface,
1). How to print on the label surface with a writing instrument such as a felt pen 2). A method of printing on a paper adhesive sticker with a writing tool and attaching the printed seal to the label surface 3). A method of printing on the above-mentioned coated surface with a dedicated ink jet printer using a disk having a label surface coated with a printer ink receiving composition called a printable disk 4). There is a method in which a printing plate is prepared and printed on a label surface by a dedicated screen printing machine or offset printing machine.

[0006]

The above-mentioned method 1) is a simple method, and is an effective method generally used.
The appearance is poor because it is handwritten, and there is a problem when a write-once optical disc is used as a medium for selling the recorded information to a third party. The above methods 2 to 4 have no problem in the appearance of printing, but when the sticker of 2) is attached, the weight of the write-once optical disc is unbalanced, and the possibility that reproduction failure occurs when reproducing recorded information cannot be denied. The method 3) has little risk of reproduction failure and has no problem in the appearance of printing, but it is not appropriate because, for example, when printing a design such as a photograph in color, it takes a long time to print. The method 4) does not have the above-mentioned problem, but when the title printing is different for each sheet, it is necessary to prepare each plate, which is not practical considering the cost and labor.

Further, it is conceivable to combine the above methods 3) and 4). That is, there is a method of printing a design that is not different for each sheet on a printable disc by a method such as screen printing or offset printing, and printing different title information for each sheet on the printed printable disc with a dedicated inkjet printer. Conceivable.

According to this method, both a common design and an individual title can be displayed with good appearance, but the display positional relationship between the design and the title may be shifted. That is, currently available inkjet printers for optical disks employ a method of placing a disk to be printed on a dedicated disk tray. When printing on a non-printing disc where the design is not printed, there is no restriction on the direction in which the disc is placed, but if the design has been printed in advance, there is no way to align this design with the position of the newly printed title. As a result, a displacement occurs.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a write-once optical disc capable of efficiently displaying both a common design and an individual title on a label surface without impairing the functions inherent in the write-once optical disc, and a printing apparatus used therefor. It is intended for.

[0010]

Means for Solving the Problems The present inventors have made intensive studies in view of the above problems, and as a result, 1). A write-once optical disc, wherein a design printing portion arbitrarily selected on a label surface of the optical disc and a portion printed with an ink composition for receiving a printing ink of an ink jet printer and a fixed positional relationship with the design printing portion; Write-once optical disc, characterized by having a mark portion that can be detected according to (2). The write-once optical disc according to the above 1), wherein the light reflectance and / or light transmittance of the mark portion is larger or smaller than the light reflectance and / or light transmittance of the portion other than the mark portion. 3). 3. The write-once optical disc according to 1 or 2, wherein the trajectory drawn by the mark portion does not overlap the trajectory drawn by the design print portion when the write-once optical disc is rotated 360 degrees. 4. The write-once optical disc according to any one of the above items 1 to 3, which is within 30 mm from the outer edge of the optical disc. An inkjet printer for printing on a write-once optical disc, holding the write-once optical disc,
A holding unit for rotating, a sensor unit for detecting the mark unit according to any of the above 1 to 4, a control unit for controlling rotation of the holding unit in synchronization with a signal from the sensor unit, and a movement for moving the write-once optical disc. An inkjet printer characterized by having a transport section for transporting a write-once optical disc and a write-once optical disc is found to be effective in solving the above problem, and has completed the present invention.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The details of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an example schematically showing a label surface of a write-once optical disc according to the present invention. The write-once optical disc in the present invention is an optical disc called a CD-R and / or a DVD-R, which includes a transparent substrate, a recording layer, a metal reflective layer, and a protective layer.

In the present invention, an arbitrary design is printed on the label surface of the write-once optical disc. The arbitrary design is a design that can be arbitrarily selected by a user or a manufacturer of the write-once optical disc, and examples thereof include a company logo mark and a general title of information recorded on the disc.

Although the method for printing the above-mentioned design is not particularly limited, it can be used for ordinary CDs and DVs.
The method used for label printing of D is preferably used,
In particular, silk screen printing, offset printing and the like are particularly preferably used because of their productivity, availability of a printing machine, and the like.

The range in which the above-mentioned arbitrary design is printed is not particularly limited as long as it is within the label surface of the disk, that is, the surface on which the protective layer is formed.
As described in claim 3 of the present invention, a write-once optical disc is
It is desirable that the trajectory drawn by the mark portion described later when rotated by 60 degrees is kept within a range that does not overlap the trajectory drawn by an arbitrary design. The reason is that when the trajectory of the mark portion and the trajectory of an arbitrary design overlap, a function of identifying the two types of trajectories is required as a sensor function. Of course,
The trajectory identification is possible with currently commercially available sensors, but the cost of the sensor is obviously high.

The label surface of the write-once optical disc is formed with a portion printed with an ink composition for receiving a printing ink of an ink jet printer, in addition to the above-described optional design.

An ink composition for receiving a printing ink of an ink-jet printer is a printing layer formed when the composition is printed and / or dried and / or cured, absorbing or / and fixing the ink of the ink-jet printer. There is no particular limitation as long as the ink has a property of causing the ink to be printed, and those generally available as printable inks can be used.
No. 28, the composition for an ink receiving layer and the like can also be suitably used.

In the present invention, the printing range of the ink composition for receiving the printing ink of the ink jet printer is not particularly limited as in the printing range of the above-mentioned arbitrary design, and the user prints with the ink jet printer. It can be appropriately selected according to the content and range, but when the printing layer of the ink composition is opaque, it is desirable in terms of design not to overlap with any design.

Conversely, when the printing layer of the ink composition is transparent and / or translucent, a method of forming the printing layer of the ink composition on the entire disc label surface regardless of the arrangement of an arbitrary design is also available. It is valid.

In the present invention, a printed portion of any design,
A write-once optical disc having a printed layer of an ink composition that accepts printing by an ink-jet printer must further form a mark portion which has a fixed positional relationship with an arbitrary design print portion and can be detected by a sensor.

In the present invention, a mark that can be detected by a sensor is a mark whose size, shape, and method of forming the mark can be recognized if the presence of the mark can be recognized by utilizing current sensor technology. Although not limited, the light reflectance and / or light transmission of the mark portion is considered as described in claim 2 of the present invention in consideration of the ease of forming the mark, the price of the sensor used for detection, and the like. It is effective to form a mark portion whose rate is larger or smaller than the light reflectance and / or light transmittance other than the mark portion.

That is, as shown in FIG. 1, when a rectangular mark is printed on the protective layer of a write-once optical disc using, for example, black ink for a CD label, the light reflectance of the mark portion becomes smaller than that of the portion other than the mark. Therefore, the mark portion can be easily detected using a commercially available optical sensor.

In addition, if a magnetic material is contained in the ink used to form the mark portion, detection can be performed by a magnetic sensor. If the ink contains a fluorescent component, detection by the fluorescent sensor can be performed. it can.

As described above, the method of forming the mark portion in the present invention is not limited. However, the mark portion can be detected by a sensor and the position of the mark portion can be determined for any design. Must be in a certain positional relationship.

That is, in the present invention, an ink composition which receives a printing ink of an ink-jet printer by using an ink-jet printer by recognizing the direction of an arbitrary design drawn on a circular write-once optical disc by detecting a mark portion by a sensor. It is possible to print at a specific position on an arbitrary design in a portion where an object is printed.

Further, in the present invention, the mark portion detectable by the sensor is located at a distance of 30 from the outer edge of the write-once optical disc.
mm or less, preferably 20 mm or less, more preferably 10 mm
It is desirable to be located within. The reason is that, when the mark portion is detected while rotating the write-once optical disc, the trajectory drawn by the mark when the disc makes one revolution becomes longer as the mark is located at the outer edge, and as a result, the mark of the same size is generated. This is because the position accuracy is improved when used.

Further, the present invention relates to an ink jet printer for printing on a write-once optical disc, a holding section for holding and rotating the write-once optical disc, and a holding section according to any one of claims 1 to 4. A sensor unit for detecting the mark unit, a control unit for controlling the rotation of the holding unit in synchronization with a signal of the sensor unit, a transport unit for transporting the write-once optical disc, and receiving print ink of an inkjet printer formed on the write-once optical disc. The present invention also includes an ink jet printer having a printing portion for printing on a portion where the ink composition is printed.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the ink jet printer. In FIG. 2, the write-once optical disc according to the present invention is placed on a holding unit with the label surface facing the head of the ink jet printer. After confirming that the write-once optical disc is set,
Rotate. At this time, the optical sensor detects the passage of the mark portion by detecting the passage of the mark portion by reducing the amount of light incident on the sensor when the mark portion formed on the write-once optical disc of the present invention is rotated immediately below the sensor. A signal to stop the rotation is transmitted to the control unit. By these series of operations, the write-once optical disc according to the present invention is held by the holding unit so that an arbitrary design thereof is in a fixed direction, and further conveyed to the printing unit of the inkjet printer by the conveying unit while keeping the direction constant. In accordance with the printing instruction, printing is performed at a specific and fixed position on an arbitrary design by an ink jet printer.

The above-described ink jet printer shown in FIG. 2 is an example of the ink jet printer of the present invention, and the ink jet printer of the present invention is not limited thereto.

That is, in FIG. 2, the write-once optical disk is held under the head of the printer, but if the disk is held by a method such as vacuum suction, the label surface of the write-once optical disk is turned down. The printer head can be positioned below the disk.

Further, in FIG. 2, the holding unit, the sensor unit, and the printing unit are located at different positions. However, if the holding unit and the sensor unit are located in the printing unit, the transfer unit is not required. The effects of the present invention can be obtained.

[0031]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described below in more detail with reference to examples, but embodiments of the present invention are not limited thereto.

Example 1 Using 100 CD-R discs, a disc having a design as shown in FIG. 1 was printed using a CD screen printer. That is, the first stage of the screen printing machine is shown in FIG.
A screen depicting the design of the ink receiving part shown in FIG. 1 was installed on the second stage, and a printable ink manufactured by Teikoku Ink was used on the second stage. Print and 3rd
A screen depicting the design of the mark portion in FIG. 1 was set on the stage, and printing was performed using black ink. By adjusting the positions of the three screens, 100 CD-R discs printed as shown in FIG. 1 were obtained.

Example 2 Using 100 CD-R discs, a disc having the design shown in FIG. 1 was printed using a screen printing machine for CDs. That is, the first stage of the screen printing machine is shown in FIG.
A screen with a design in which the arbitrary design and the design of the mark part are arranged so as to be in a fixed position is installed, printing is performed using black ink, and the design of the ink receiving part of FIG. 1 is drawn on the second stage. Screen,
Printing was performed using printable ink manufactured by Teikoku Ink. By aligning the positions of these two screens, 100 CD-R discs printed as shown in FIG. 1 were obtained.

COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 1 Printing was performed on 100 CD-R discs in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the mark portion of the third stage was not printed, and the CD-R printed as shown in FIG. Disc 1
00 sheets were obtained.

COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 2 Printing was performed on 100 CD-R discs in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the ink receiving portion of the second stage was not printed, and the printed CD-R as shown in FIG. 100 discs were obtained.

Example 3 CDs obtained in Examples 1 and 2 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2
Characters were printed on each of the five R disks using the inkjet printer according to the present invention shown in FIG. As a result, as shown in FIG. 5, printing could be performed on all five sheets of the disks obtained in Examples 1 and 2 at the center of the ink receiving section. In the discs printed on the two sheets, bending of the printed characters as shown in FIG. 6 was recognized on two of the five sheets.

When the disk of Comparative Example 2 was used,
Although the printing position did not shift, the ink discharged from the printer was repelled on the disk surface and could not be identified as characters.

Example 4 The position of the mark portion was measured from the outer edge of the disk to 5 mm to 1 mm.
C in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the C
Printing was performed on 100 D-R discs, and five of them were printed as shown in FIG. 7 using the inkjet printer according to the present invention in the same manner as in Example 3. Printing was performed at the center of the ink receiving unit as in the disks of the first and second embodiments, but the average value of the deviation of the five prints was 65% of that of the disks of the first and second embodiments. confirmed.

[0039]

As is clear from the results of the above Examples and Comparative Examples, according to the present invention, an arbitrary design is printed on a write-once optical disk, and at the same time, desired information is printed on each of the optical disks. Printing can be performed by a printer, and it is possible to add value to a write-once optical disk and information recorded on the disk.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an example of a label surface of a write-once optical disc obtained by the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an example of the ink jet printer of the present invention, and is a diagram showing a main part thereof.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a label surface of a write-once optical disc obtained in Comparative Example 1.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a label surface of a write-once optical disc obtained by Comparative Example 2.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing printing characteristics obtained on the disks of Examples 1 and 2 in Example 3.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing printing characteristics obtained on the disk of Comparative Example 1 in Example 3.

FIG. 7 is a view showing printing characteristics obtained in Example 4.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Part on which arbitrary designs were printed 2 ... Ink receiving part of ink jet printer 3 ... Mark part detectable by sensor 4 ... Write-once optical disk stock part 5 ... Sensor part 6. ..Holding unit 7 ... Control unit 8 ... Conveying unit 9 ... Printing unit

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A write-once optical disc, wherein a design printing portion arbitrarily selected on a label surface of the optical disc, a portion printed with an ink composition for receiving a printing ink of an ink jet printer, and a fixed position with the design printing portion A write-once optical disc having a relationship and having a mark portion detectable by a sensor. 2. The write-once optical disc according to claim 1, wherein the light reflectance and / or light transmittance of the mark portion is larger or smaller than the light reflectance and / or light transmittance of the portion other than the mark portion. 3. The write-once optical disc according to claim 1, wherein, when the write-once optical disc is rotated 360 degrees, the locus drawn by the mark portion does not overlap the locus drawn by the design print portion. 4. The write-once optical disc according to claim 1, wherein the mark portion is located within 30 mm from the outer edge of the write-once optical disc. 5. An ink jet printer for printing on a write-once optical disc, comprising: a holding section for holding and rotating the write-once optical disc; and detecting a mark section according to claim 1. The control unit controls the rotation of the holding unit in synchronization with the signal of the sensor unit and the transport unit that transports the write-once optical disk and prints the ink composition that receives the ink of the inkjet printer formed on the write-once optical disk. An ink jet printer, comprising: a printing unit for printing on a selected portion.