Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Medium and processing means
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-30
2003-04-29
Hess, Bruce H. (Department: 1774)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Medium and processing means
C428S195100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06554419
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an inkjet printing method. More particularly, this invention relates to an ink jet printing method using an ink jet recording element containing porous polymeric particles.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In a typical ink jet recording or printing system, ink droplets are ejected from a nozzle at high speed towards a recording element or medium to produce an image on the medium. The ink droplets, or recording liquid, generally comprise a recording agent, such as a dye or pigment, and a large amount of solvent. The solvent, or carrier liquid, typically is made up of water, an organic material such as a monohydric alcohol, a polyhydric alcohol or mixtures thereof.
An ink jet recording element typically comprises a support having on at least one surface thereof an ink-receiving or image-forming layer, and includes those intended for reflection viewing, which have an opaque support, and those intended for viewing by transmitted light, which have a transparent support.
While a wide variety of different types of image-recording elements for use with ink jet devices have been proposed heretofore, there are many unsolved problems in the art and many deficiencies in the known products which have limited their commercial usefulness.
It is well known that in order to achieve and maintain photographic-quality images on such an image-recording element, an ink jet recording element must:
Be readily wetted so there is no puddling, i.e., coalescence of adjacent ink dots, which leads to non-uniform density
Exhibit no image bleeding
Absorb high concentrations of ink and dry quickly to avoid elements blocking together when stacked against subsequent prints or other surfaces
Exhibit no discontinuities or defects due to interactions between the support and/or layer(s), such as cracking, repellencies, comb lines and the like
Not allow unabsorbed dyes to aggregate at the free surface causing dye crystallization, which results in bloom or bronzing effects in the imaged areas
Have an optimized image fastness to avoid fade from contact with water or radiation by daylight, tungsten light, or fluorescent light
An ink jet recording element that simultaneously provides an almost instantaneous ink dry time and good image quality is desirable. However, given the wide range of ink compositions and ink volumes that a recording element needs to accommodate, these requirements of ink jet recording media are difficult to achieve simultaneously.
Inkjet recording elements are known that employ porous or non-porous single layer or multilayer coatings that act as suitable image-receiving layers on one or both sides of a porous or non-porous support. Recording elements that use non-porous coatings typically have good image quality but exhibit poor ink dry time. Recording elements that use porous coatings exhibit superior dry times, but typically have poorer image quality and are prone to cracking and flaking.
Japanese Kokai Hei 7[1995]-137433 relates to an ink jet recording paper containing polyester-based hollow porous resin particles containing cationic groups. However, it would be desirable to provide porous resin particles containing cationic groups which are not limited to polyester resins.
Japanese Kokai Hei 11[1999]-8569 relates to an ink jet recording sheet comprising porous organic particles which may be made cationic by adsorbing a cationic surfactant. However, there is a problem with these particles in that the cationic functionality is not part of the polymeric structure and is only adsorbed to the surface, not chemically bound, so that it could be desorbed from the particle surface during manufacture, storage or imaging.
It is an object of this invention to provide an ink jet printing method using an ink jet recording element that has a fast ink dry time. It is another object of this invention to provide an ink jet printing method using an ink jet recording element containing porous particles which have an ionic functionality which will bind ink jet inks thereto, thereby providing a porous receiver that has good water fastness. It is another object of this invention to provide an ink jet printing method using an ink jet recording element that has superior coating quality with acceptable cracking and flaking with low particle agglomeration.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These and other objects are achieved in accordance with the invention which comprises an ink jet printing method, comprising the steps of:
A) providing an ink jet printer that is responsive to digital data signals;
B) loading the printer with an inkjet recording element comprising a support having thereon an image-receiving layer comprising porous polymeric particles in a polymeric binder, the porous polymeric particles having the formula:
wherein:
A represents units of an addition polymerizable monomer containing at least two ethylenically unsaturated groups;
B represents units of a copolymerizable, &agr;, &bgr;-ethylenically unsaturated monomer;
C represents styrenic or acrylic repeating units containing an ionic functionality;
x is from about 27 to about 99 mole %;
y is from 0 to about 72 mole %; and
z is from about 1 to about 73 mole %;
C) loading the printer with an inkjet ink composition; and
D) printing on the image-receiving layer using the ink jet ink composition in response to the digital data signals.
By use of the invention, an ink jet printing method is obtained using an ink jet recording element which has better dry time, water fastness and coating quality (cracking and flaking) than prior art elements while providing good image quality.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, x is from about 55 to about 99 mole %; y is from 0 to about 44 mole %; and z is from about 1 to about 45 mole %.
The support used in the inkjet recording element employed in the invention may be opaque, translucent or transparent. There may be used, for example, plain papers, resin-coated papers, plastics including a polyester resin such as poly(ethylene terephthalate), poly(ethylene naphthalate) and poly(ester diacetate), a polycarbonate resin, a fluorine resin such as poly(tetra-fluoro ethylene), metal foil, various glass materials, various voided or filled opaque plastics and the like. In a preferred embodiment, the support is paper or a voided plastic material. The thickness of the support employed in the invention can be from about 12 to about 500 &mgr;m, preferably from about 75 to about 300 &mgr;m.
The porous polymeric particles which are used in the invention are in the form of porous beads, porous irregularly shaped particles, or are aggregates of emulsion particles and contain an ionic functionality.
Suitable addition polymerizable monomers which can be used as Unit A above contain at least two ethylenically unsaturated groups, and may include, for example, the following monomers and their mixtures: esters of unsaturated monohydric alcohols with unsaturated monocarboxylic acids, such as allyl methacrylate, allyl acrylate, butenyl acrylate, undecenyl acrylate, undecenyl methacrylate, vinyl acrylate, and vinyl methacrylate; dienes such as butadiene and isoprene; esters of saturated glycols or diols with unsaturated monocarboxylic acids, such as, ethylene glycol diacrylate, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, triethylene glycol dimethacrylate, 1,4-butanediol dimethacrylate, 1,3-butanediol dimethacrylate, pentaerythritol tetraacrylate, trimethylol propane trimethacrylate and polyfunctional aromatic compounds such as divinylbenzene divinylnaphthalene or derivatives thereof or other divinyl compound such as divinyl sulfide or divinyl sulfone compound, and the like. Preferably, A includes ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, ethylene glycol diacrylate, 1,4-butanediol dimethylacrylate or divinylbenzene. Most preferably, A is divinylbenzene or ethylene glycol dimethacrylate.
Suitable copolymerizable, &agr;, &bgr;-ethylenically unsaturated monomers which can be used as Unit B above include, for example, the following monomers and their mixtures: acrylic monomer
Kaeding Jeanne E.
Kapusniak Richard J.
Missell Gregory E.
Smith Dennis E.
Cole Harold E.
Eastman Kodak Company
Grendzynski Michael E.
Hess Bruce H.
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