Method and apparatus for ink jet printing on textiles

• US 20010038408A1
• Filed: 03/30/2001
• Published: 11/08/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: L&P Property Management Company (Leggett & Platt Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: L&P Property Management Company (Leggett & Platt Incorporated)
• Inventors: Collan, William W., Codos, Richard N., Quattrociocchi, Angelo, Comerford, Robert B., Badovinac, Milan
• Granted Patent: US 6,467,898 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 347/102
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/0015 for treating before, during or after printing or for uniform coating or laminating the copy material before or after printing selective coating B41J2/2114
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/002 Curing or drying the ink on the copy materials, e.g. by heating or irradiating
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/0021 using irradiation
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/00214 using UV radiation
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/0022 using convection means, e.g. by using a fan for blowing or sucking air
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/0024 using conduction means, e.g. by using a heated platen
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/01 Ink jet
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/16585 for paper-width or non-reciprocating print heads
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 3/4078 Printing on textile
• CPC Class Codes: B41M 5/0047 by ink-jet printing
• CPC Class Codes: B41M 5/0064 on plastics, horn, rubber, or other organic polymers
• CPC Class Codes: B41M 7/0081 using electromagnetic radiation or waves, e.g. ultraviolet radiation, electron beams
• CPC Class Codes: B41M 7/009 using thermal means, e.g. infrared radiation, heat
• CPC Class Codes: D05B 11/00 Machines for sewing quilts or mattresses control of workpiece-holding frames, or of sewing machines, in order to obtain particular seam configuration D05B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: D05B 33/00 Devices incorporated in sewing machines for supplying or removing the work
• CPC Class Codes: D05D 2305/12 transversally
• CPC Class Codes: D05D 2305/22 Physico-chemical treatments
• CPC Class Codes: D06P 5/2005 Treatments with alpha, beta, gamma or other rays, e.g. stimulated rays
• CPC Class Codes: D06P 5/30 Ink jet printing

Abstract

Ink jet printing is provided onto fabric using ultraviolet (UV) light curable ink. The ink is first partially cured with UV light and then is subjected to heating to more completely cure the ink and to remove by evaporation or otherwise, the uncured monomers and producing a printed image of ink having an amount of unpolymerized monomers and polymerization reactants and byproducts that is less than a food industry packaging standard of 100 PPM, and as low as 10 PPM. The printing is provided in a quilting machine having a quilting station and a printing station located upstream of the quilting station. Preferably, at the printing station, only a top layer of fabric is printed with a multi-colored design under the control of a programmed controller. UV curable ink is jetted onto the fabric with a dot volume of about 75 picoliters. A conveyor moves the printed fabric from the printing station through a UV curing station where a UV curing light head moves either with the print head or independent of the print head to expose the deposited drops of UV ink with a beam of about 300 watts per linear inch of energy, at a rate that applies about 1 joule per square centimeter. The conveyor then conveys the fabric through a heated drying station or oven where the fabric is heated to about 300° F. for from about 30 seconds up to about three minutes. Forced hot air is preferably used to apply the heat in the oven, but other heating methods such as infrared or other radiant heaters may be used. Before, or preferably after, the heat curing, the fabric is combined with other material layers and a quilted pattern is applied in program controlled coordination with the printed pattern.

Claims

1. A printing method useful for printing on large area substrates comprising:

printing onto a substrate a curable ink that is stable until contacted with a curing medium;

initiating the curing of the ink on the substrate by applying a curing medium thereto;

then

heating ink on the substrate to reduce uncured components thereof on the substrate.

2. The method of

claim 1

wherein the initiating of the curing includes applying curative energy to the ink on the substrate in registration therewith.

3. The method of

claim 2

further comprising heating the fabric further comprises contacting the substrate with a heated plate to raise the temperature of the ink thereon.

4. The method of

claim 1

further comprising one or more of the featrues set forth in the specification.

5. A method of printing on fabric comprising the steps of:

jetting an ink composition containing a UV curable ink component and a dye component onto a fabric to form a printed pattern on the fabric;

then

substantially curing at least the UV curable jetted ink component on the fabric by exposing the UV curable ink component to UV light, the curing resulting in a substantially cured UV ink component on the fabric containing uncured monomers of the UV curable ink;

then

heating the fabric having the substantially cured UV cured ink component thereon and thereby reducing the level of the uncured monomers of the UV curable ink component on the fabric.

6. A textile printing apparatus comprising:

a substrate support;

a bridge extending across the support;

an ink jet print head moveable across the bridge and positioned to deposit a dot pattern of ink onto a substrate on the support;

a computer controlled linear servo motor positioned to move the printhead across the bridge.

7. A method of operating the apparatus of

claim 6

comprising:

printing while the linear servo is accelerating or decelerating on the bridge and controlling the timing of the printing in accordance with the motion of the print head.