Abstract
In this study, a new film peeling method to peel the film from the sheet of heat transfer printing and attached on the fixture of the heat transfer printing is invented. As the demand of automation for heat-transfer printing process, the new film peeling method is invented by the process of cutting the edge of heat-transfer sheets to reduce the difficulty of film-peeling. By applying the new film-peeling method, this study develops an automatic film-peeling-and-film-attaching platform which fits the processes of current heat-transfer printing process. The automatic film-peeling-and-film-attaching platform is divided into 4 sub-systems: the sheet-feeding and protective-layer-separating sub-system, the sheet-transferring sub-system, the edge-of-sheet-cutting sub-system, the film-peeling-and-film-attaching sub-system. The sheet-feeding and protective-layer-separating sub-system feeds sheets by rollers and separates protective layer of sheets by a fan and the difference of feeding velocity between rollers; the sheet-transferring sub-system transfers sheets among sub-systems by rollers; the edge-of-sheet cutting sub-system strips the edge of heat-transfer films at a certain clearance; the film-peeling-and-film-attaching sub-system combines a designed gripper on the fixture and a robotic gripper with sheet-transferring sub-system to peel the film and attach it to the ready-to-print object. The 4 sub-systems are integrated by a controller and several sensors. Through the development of this platform, the heat-transfer printing process is improved and thus can be fully automatized.