Solid ink jet ink

Details Solid ink jet ink Solid ink jet ink

1996-12-19

1998-09-01

Jones, Deborah

Compositions: coating or plastic

Coating or plastic compositions

Marking

106 3132, 106 3135, 106 3141, 106 3161, 106 3162, 106 3167, 106 3173, C09D 1100

Patent

active

058006001

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to inks and more particularly to inks which are solid at room temperature and suitable for use in ink jet printing apparatus.


BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Inks are generally a carrier liquid with a dye dissolved in them. Inks are also known which comprise a carrier liquid and particles dispersed in the ink. The actual composition of machine inks as distinct from writing inks is determined by the type of application method for such inks.
There are two types of ink jet application techniques in use today. The first of these is known as continuous ink jet and the second is impulse ink jet.
In continuous ink jet systems, droplets of ink are produced as a result of hydrostatic pressure on a liquid ink forcing the ink through a nozzle. The nozzle can be stimulated, such as by piezo-electric vibration to cause the droplets to be ejected on a regular basis. At the point of formation, the droplets may be inductively charged and subsequently pass through electrodes which provide a constant electrostatic field causing these droplets to be deflected. Therefore the required droplets are controlled to a substrate and unwanted ones are removed. Due to the charging requirements it is necessary that the ink be conductive. Such an ink may be water or solvent based and the colorant may be a pigment or soluble dye.
In the impulse ink jet system, droplets are produced only as required by the generation of a pressure disturbance within the ink adjacent to a jet nozzle. The application of pressure may be by stimulation caused by a piezo-electric crystal or by thermal stimulation where a micro bubble is created by an electrically resistive heater. Typical inks are water based and use a dye for the colorant though the use of solvents and pigments are not precluded from this process. As there is no need for droplet charging there is no specific requirement concerning conductivity of the ink.
A further embodiment of the impulse system is hot melt ink jet technology. This process is similar to the piezo-electric drop on demand except that the ink is solid at room temperature but is maintained at an elevated temperature in the print head such that it is a liquid under operating conditions. Again therefore, there is no need for the ink's conductivity to be suited to some equipment performance standard.
An example of a hot melt ink is given in U.S. Pat. No. 3,653,350 in the name of Berry and assigned to Teletype . This patent disclosure involves a hot melt ink that comprises a dye dissolved in diesters of sebacic ester. The resultant inks are somewhat insulative as they have resistivities in the range of 10.sup.8 to 10.sup.11 Ohm.cm. They do not contain particulate materials and more importantly do not contain chemical agents to specifically modify the charge characteristics of the ink. Therefore, the controlled flight of these ink droplets is accomplished by applying a very substantial 10,000 volts to a backing plate located behind a paper substrate.
Another example of a hot melt ink is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,235,932 in the name of Lin and assigned to Dataproducts. This patent disclosure involves a hot melt ink which includes a conductive pigment that produces a volume resistivity in the range of 10.sup.2 to 10.sup.4 Ohm.cm.
Another example of a hot melt ink is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,288 in the name of Tobias and assigned to General Electric Co. The hot melt ink of this patent disclosure is designed to be conductive so that it is suited for use with continuous ink jet technology. the conductivity must be greater than 100 microsiemens/cm which is equivalent to a volume resistivity of no more than 10.sup.4 Ohm.cm.
Yet another example of a hot melt ink is given in U.S. Pat. No. 4,684,956 in the name of Ball and assigned to Willet. The prime thrust of this patent disclosure concerns a formulation of thermally stable hot melt ink that is used in drop on demand ink jet operation. It is also stated that it is necessary for the composition to be able to accept an electric charge and this

REFERENCES:
patent: 3653932 (1972-04-01), Berry et al.
patent: 4684956 (1987-08-01), Ball
patent: 4741930 (1988-05-01), Howard et al.
patent: 4820346 (1989-04-01), Nowak
patent: 4878946 (1989-11-01), Tabayashi et al.
patent: 5221335 (1993-06-01), Williams et al.
patent: 5235932 (1993-08-01), Reich
patent: 5286288 (1994-02-01), Tobias et al.
patent: 5624483 (1997-04-01), Fujioka
Derwent Abstract of Japanese Patent Document JA! 102970 dated Mar. 20, 1978 .

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