Transfer Your Ideas to Glass
Laser Transfer Printing for Automotive & Transportation and Printed Electronics
Automotive and Transportation
Original certified screen-printing pastes are modified to be compatible with the LTP process in the LPKF Application Center and can then be printed and fired. The result has the same properties as when screen printed.
Printed Electronics
Adjusting the laser power level enables the transferred layer thickness and thus the conductivity to be varied quickly and easily. Original screen-printing pastes can be used here too, making it unnecessary to crush particles.
Laser Transfer Printing for Automotive and Transportation
From Screen Printing to Laser Transfer Printing
Historically, automotive glass has been adhered to the body of cars since the 1980s. The purpose of printing black ink onto the edges of the glass is to protect the adhesive from UV radiation. In addition, the printed edges look attractive from the outside. In the transportation sector, this printing fulfills the same purpose in trucks, buses, and trains.
Screen printing is still the established process for applying inks onto glass substrates today, however, it involves certain restrictions. The image resolution is limited, and the layer thickness depends on the screen mesh size. One screen is needed for each glass model, and it is not possible to adapt the data from one glass to another.
LTP is not subject to these restrictions. The printing data are in digital form and can be quickly replaced, changed, or adapted at any time. The glass size and shape are irrelevant for LTP. It is possible to print very small structures with very good contours. The layer thickness can also be adapted with ease from substrate to substrate.
Characteristics of Laser Transfer Printing
The layer thickness on the continuous belt can be varied almost infinitely. So too, can the layer thickness on the glass and thus the optical density.
The laser power determines the quantity of ink transferred and therefore has a direct influence on the transferred layer thickness and thus the optical density.
LTP is a contactless printing process, making wet-on-wet printing possible as many times as required. This multiple printing can also be used to increase the layer thickness.
The laser allows for high printing resolution, enabling complex small structures to be printed with very sharp borders.
Digital printing combined with high printing resolution makes it possible to serialize the glasses in unparalleled printing quality.
Laser Transfer Printing for Printed Electronics
From Screen Printing to Laser Transfer Printing
Large pigments such as those found in silver pastes pose a major problem for other digital processes. LTP, however, can print in silver using the original pigment sizes. Narrow lines of 100 µm in width with very steep flanks and straight edges can be printed with almost any thickness. The conductivity of the silver lines can be quickly and easily adjusted and changed by adjusting the level of laser power.
Multiple printing can be done wet-on-wet, however, better results are achieved with intermediate drying.
Other conductive pastes such as aluminum can also be adapted to be compatible with the LTP process and printed.
