Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Structurally defined web or sheet – Including grain – strips – or filamentary elements in...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-04
2003-09-23
Hess, Bruce H. (Department: 1774)
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Structurally defined web or sheet
Including grain, strips, or filamentary elements in...
C428S032250
Reexamination Certificate
active
06623831
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an ink jet printing method using an ink jet recording element containing a particular subbing layer.
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.
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
Exhibit the ability to 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.
Ink jet 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 typically contain colloidal particulates and have poorer image quality but exhibit superior dry times.
While a wide variety of different types of porous image-recording elements for use with ink jet printing are known, there are many unsolved problems in the art and many deficiencies in the known products which have severely limited their commercial usefulness. A major challenge in the design of a porous image-recording layer is to be able to obtain good quality, crack-free coatings with as little non-particulate matter as possible. If too much non-particulate matter is present, the image-recording layer will not be porous and will exhibit poor ink dry times.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,686 relates to a recording sheet for ink jet printing wherein boric acid or its derivative is used to cause gelling in a polymeric binder containing hydroxyl groups and a filler comprising particles. However, there is a problem with this element in that the amount of boric acid used does not provide an element which, when printed with an ink jet printer, will have a fast dry time without cracking.
It is an object of this invention to provide an ink jet printing method using an ink jet recording element that has a fast dry time when used in ink jet printing. It is another object of this invention to provide an ink jet printing method using a porous recording element that has good coating quality, especially reduced cracking. It is still another object of this invention to provide an ink jet printing method using an ink jet recording element that exhibits good image quality after printing.
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 ink jet recording element comprising a substrate having thereon:
a) a subbing layer comprising a polymeric binder and a borate or a borate derivative, the borate or borate derivative being present in an amount of from about 3 to about 50 g/m
2
, and the weight ratio of the polymeric binder to the borate or borate derivative is from about 0.2:1 to about 2:1; and
b) an image-receiving layer comprising particles and a cross-linkable polymer containing hydroxyl groups, the cross-linkable polymer being present in an amount of from about 20 to about 150 g/m
2
, and the weight ratio of the cross-linkable polymer to the particles is from about 10:90 to about 30:70;
C) loading the printer with an ink jet ink composition; and
D) printing on the ink jet recording element using the ink jet ink composition in response to the digital data signals.
By use of the invention, an ink jet recording element is obtained that has good coating and image quality and a fast dry time.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The polymeric binder in the subbing layer employed in the invention is preferably a water soluble or water dispersible polymer such as poly(vinyl alcohol), poly(vinyl pyrrolidone), gelatin, a cellulose ether, a poly(oxazoline), a poly(vinylacetamide), partially hydrolyzed poly(vinyl acetate/vinyl alcohol), poly(acrylic acid), poly(acrylamide), poly(alkylene oxide), a sulfonated or phosphated polyester or polystyrene, casein, zein, albumin, chitin, chitosan, dextran, pectin, a collagen derivative, collodian, agar-agar, arrowroot, guar, carrageenan, tragacanth, xanthan, rhamsan and the like; a latex such as poly(styrene-co-butadiene), a polyurethane latex, a polyester latex, or a poly(acrylate), poly(methacrylate), poly(acrylamide) or copolymers thereof. In a preferred embodiment, the polymeric binder is a sulfonated polyester dispersion, such as AQ29 ® (Eastman Chemical Co.), gelatin, a polyurethane or poly(vinyl pyrrolidone).
The polymeric binder for the subbing layer is preferably used in an amount of from about 1 to about 50 g/m
2
, preferably from about 1 to about 20 g/m
2
.
The borate or borate derivative employed in the subbing layer of the ink jet recording element employed in the invention may be, for example, borax, sodium tetraborate, boric acid, phenyl boronic acid, or butyl boronic acid. As noted above, the borate or borate derivative is used in an amount of from about 3 to about 50 g/m
2
, preferably from about 3 to about 10 g/m
2
. It is believed that upon coating, the borate or borate derivative in the subbing layer diffuses into the image-receiving layer to cross-link the cross-linkable binder in the image-receiving layer.
The particles employed in the image-receiving layer of the recording element employed in the process of the invention may be either inorganic or organic. Inorganic particles which may be used include, for example, comprise metal oxides, hydrated metal oxides, boehmite, clay, calcined clay, calcium carbonate, aluminosilicates, zeolites or barium sulfate. In a preferred embodiment, the metal oxide is silica, alumina, zirconia or titania.
Organic particles which may be used in the invention include polymeric particles such as, for example, particles made from acrylic resins, styrenic resins, or cellulose derivatives, such as cellulose acetate, cellulose acetate butyrate, cellulose propionate, cellulose acetate propionate, and ethyl cellulose; polyvinyl resins such as polyvinyl chloride, copolymers of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate and polyvinyl butyral, polyvinyl acetal, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers, ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymers, and ethylene-allyl copolymers such as ethylene-allyl alcohol copolymers, ethylene-allyl aceton
Bauer Charles L.
Missell Gregory E.
Cole Harold E.
Eastman Kodak Company
Grendzynski Michael E.
Hess Bruce H.
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