Compositions: coating or plastic – Coating or plastic compositions – Marking
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-21
2002-09-24
Klemanski, Helene (Department: 1755)
Compositions: coating or plastic
Coating or plastic compositions
Marking
C106S031590, C106S031860, C106S031890
Reexamination Certificate
active
06454846
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink composition suitable for use in ink jet recording.
2. Background Art
Ink jet recording is a printing method wherein droplets of an ink composition are ejected and deposited on recording media, such as paper, to print, for example, letters or figures. The method have the advantage of realizing images, having high quality with high resolution at a high speed by means of a relatively inexpensive apparatus.
Examples of ink jet recording methods which have been developed and put to practical use include: a method wherein an electric signal is converted to a mechanical signal using an electrostrictive element to intermittently eject an ink reservoired in a nozzle head section, thereby recording letters or symbols on the surface of a recording medium; and a method wherein an ink, reservoired in a nozzle head section, in its portion very close to the ejection portion is rapidly heated to create a bubble and the ink is intermittently ejected by volume expansion created by the bubble to record letters or symbols on the surface of a recording medium.
Various properties required of ink compositions for an ink jet recording method are such that the drying property of the print is good, no significant feathering is created in printed images, uniform printing can be realized on the surface of conventional recording media, and, in the case of multi-color printing, mixing between adjacent colors does not occur. In particular, it is important for the ink compositions for ink jet printing to realize good images having no feathering or bleeding attributable to paper fibers of paper as a recording medium.
In conventional inks, particularly pigment-based inks, a technique has been proposed wherein the penetration of ink is mainly suppressed to suppress wetting of the surface of paper by the ink and consequently to allow ink droplets to stay near the surface of paper, whereby print quality is ensured.
On the other hand, an attempt has also been made to increase the penetration of the ink composition into paper to suppress feathering or bleeding. For example, the use of an additive for lowering the surface tension of the ink composition to increase the penetration speed of the ink composition into paper and thus to reduce feathering or bleeding has been proposed. More specifically, the use of diethylene glycol monobutyl ether (U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,675) or Surfynol 465 (manufactured by Air Products and Chemicals Inc., U.S.A.) (U.S. Pat. No. 5,183,502) as an acetylene glycol surfactant or the combined use of diethylene glycol monobutyl ether and Surfynol 465 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,196,056) has been proposed. Further, an ink composition has been proposed which contains, as a wetting agent, polyglycerin (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 152170/1991), polyglycerin with an ethyleneoxy group added thereto (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 328644/1997), or glycerin with an ethyleneoxy group added thereto (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 18465/1992).
Further, the addition of a glycol ether compound to an ink composition has been proposed from the viewpoint of improving the penetration of the ink composition into paper. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 147861/1981 describes the addition of triethylene glycol monomethyl ether to a pigment-containing ink composition, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 111165/1997 describes an example of a combination of a water-soluble dye with ethers of ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, or triethylene glycol.
For the above-described conventional ink compositions, however, there is still room for improvement, for example, in the effect of preventing feathering or bleeding, storage stability, and fixation of prints.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present inventors have now found that the addition of a compound having a combination of an acetylene structure with ethyleneoxy or propyleneoxy groups can realize ink compositions having various excellent properties, excellent drying properties and excellent storage stability and thus that the ink composition can yield images having no significant feathering or bleeding on various recording media, particularly on plain papers and recycled papers. The present inventors have further found that these ink compositions have various excellent properties, for example, ejection stability, required of ink compositions for ink jet recording. The present invention has been made based on such finding.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an ink composition which has various excellent properties, especially an ink composition which can yield prints having excellent drying properties and has excellent storage stability, and can realize images having no significant feathering or bleeding on various recording media, particularly on plain papers and recycled papers.
It is another object of the prevent invention to provide an ink composition having various excellent properties, for example, ejection stability, required of ink compositions for ink jet recording.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink composition comprising at least a colorant, water, and a compound represented by formula (I).
RO[&Parenopenst;EO&Parenclosest;
n
&Parenopenst;PO&Parenclosest;
m
]M (I)
wherein
R represents a group represented by formula;
R
1
represents an alkyl, cycloalkyl, or aryl group;
EO represents an ethyleneoxy group;
PO represents a propyleneoxy group;
m and n each are independently 0 (zero) or a natural number of not less than 1, provided that m+n>1;
EO and PO may be arranged, regardless of order in the parentheses of formula (I), randomly or as blocks joined together;
R
2
and R
3
each independently represent a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group; and
M is a group attached to the terminal oxygen atom within the parentheses.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Ink composition
The ink composition according to the present invention may be used in recording methods using an ink composition. Recording methods using an ink composition include, for example, an ink jet recording method, a recording method using writing utensils, such as pens, and other various recording methods. In particular, the ink composition according to the present invention is preferably used in an ink jet recording method.
Compound represented by formula (I)
In formula (I), R represents a group represented by formula (II), and the total number of carbon atoms of R is preferably 4 to 50, more preferably 4 to 30, from the viewpoint of the penetration of the ink composition and the solubility of the compound represented by formula (I) in water. When the total number of carbon atoms of R exceeds 30, the hydrophobicity of the compound is enhanced. Therefore, in some cases, the number of ethyleneoxy groups or propyleneoxy groups may be increased to ensure the water solubility of the compound. Further, according to finding of the present inventors, a compound, wherein the total number of carbon atoms of R exceeds 30, is likely to cause foaming. Therefore, when such a compound is used, care may be taken so as to avoid the occurrence of the unfavorable foaming phenomenon.
In formula (II), R
1
represents an alkyl group (preferably C
3-20
alkyl, more preferably C
5-10
alkyl), a cycloalkyl group (preferably C
3-20
cycloalkyl, more preferably C
5-10
cycloalkyl), an aryl group (preferably phenyl, naphtyl, biphenyl, tolyl, xylyl, or cumyl).
In formula (I), EO represents an ethyleneoxy group, PO represents a propyleneoxy group, and n and m each indenpendently are a number of 0 (zero) or 1 or more.
In the present invention, the compound represented by formula (I) is a single compound selected from the group consisting of compounds represented by formula (I), or alternatively is a mixture of at least two compounds selected from the group consisting of compounds represented by formula (I). When the single compound is used as the compound represented by formula (I), this single compound may be obtained by separation from a mixtur
Faison Veronica F.
Klemanski Helene
Ladas & Parry
Seiko Epson Corporation
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