Ink jet printer ink for printing on ceramics or glass

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106 20D, C09D 1100

Patent

active

054074746

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BRIEF SUMMARY
This application is a PCT application. This application claims the priority date of Feb. 27, 1991 for Great Britain Patent No. GB 9104171.5.
This invention concerns improvements in or relating to inks and particularly but not exclusively pigmented inks for use in ink jet printing.
Modern trends in printing are towards non-contact systems using computer generated and/or computer controlled designs. Such a system is Ink Jet Printing which is used widely through out the textile, paper and food industries. Ink Jet Printing offers major advantages as outlined below: contact with the substrate and since only the drops of ink are projected onto the surface then the print design can be applied to any plane surface and to uneven and delicate surfaces. The technique is already used to print onto delicate foodstuffs e.g. eggs, cakes etc. Also printing distances can be anything from 1-20 mm depending on the quality required. The usual is from 1-5 mm so surfaces such as corrugated cardboard present no problems. controlled. This means that designs can be changed rapidly and can be manipulated, magnified or reduced as desired. With such a system it is possible carry out short runs or to change from design to design rapidly, as no down time is required including the ink properties and the quality required but typical speeds are between 0.25 and 6 meters/see. that can be used providing one has a computer powerful enough to control the jets. Recent developments have produced 100 nozzle systems generating over 6 million drops/sec. all being controlled by a computer. inherently reliable. At present there are systems which are working continuously for 100 h/week without any down time. only ink used is on the design.
Up to now, the inks used in these ink jet printers have been based on soluble organic dyes usually in an organic medium. The reason for this is that the ink jet printing nozzle is very small usually between 10 and 100 microns and it has not been technically feasible to consider the use of highly pigmented inks in these systems, as the solid particles rapidly block the system and prevent flow.
The soluble dye inks work well in ink jet printing but suffer from the major drawbacks of non-permanency (fading in daylight) after application. They tend to fade rapidly and after a time virtually disappear.
There is a need, therefore, for permanent inks and one way to achieve this is to use pigmented inks, where the pigment is usually a light stable, inorganic or organic colour.
In certain applications the need to use pigmented inks is paramount. For example in the decoration of ceramics and glass, pigmented inks are essential. In most other printing applications once the design has been printed, the decoration process is complete. However, in ceramics and glass decoration, printing is followed by a high temperature firing after which only the pigment and flux remains to form the permanent decoration, all media and organics are burnt off.
In certain other applications e.g. computing and banking a `magnetic` ink is required usually comprising of a ferromagnetic pigment in a medium which is capable of being read rapidly by a magnetic sensor.
Other applications require resistance to fading (Permanency). For example legal documents, household textiles and artifacts e.g. wallpaper etc. In all these applications a high degree of permanency is required and this can only be achieved by the use of pigmented inks.
Still further, certain colours e.g. opaque can only be achieved by the use of pigments.
Typical ranges of physical parameters required of an ink for it to be suitable for ink jet printing are shown below.


______________________________________ Viscosity 1-100 mPas Yield Value 0-10 Pa Conductivity 150-16000 .mu.mhos/cm Surface Tension 20-70 dynes/cm pH 4-11 ______________________________________
As can be seen, the viscosity generally has to be low, to ensure that the ink will flow easily through the nozzle without having to apply excessive pressure which can cause splash back or `splatter` from the workpiece. T

REFERENCES:
patent: 4365035 (1982-12-01), Zabiak
patent: 4597794 (1986-07-01), Ohta et al.
patent: 4680058 (1987-07-01), Shimizu et al.
patent: 4863517 (1989-09-01), Hang et al.

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