INK, INKJET PRINTER, AND METHOD FOR PRINTING

• US 20120075394A1
• Filed: 12/02/2011
• Published: 03/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mimaki Engineering Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Mimaki Engineering Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: OHNISHI, Masaru
• Granted Patent: US 8,529,054 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 347/102
• 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 11/00214 using UV radiation
• CPC Class Codes: B41M 5/0023 Digital printing methods characterised by the inks used inks per se C09D11/00
• CPC Class Codes: C09D 11/101 Inks specially adapted for printing processes involving curing by wave energy or particle radiation, e.g. with UV-curing following the printing
• CPC Class Codes: C09D 11/322 Pigment inks

Abstract

An ink includes a volatile organic solvent and a UV curable ink. The ink has a viscosity greater than or equal to 3 mPa·sec and less than or equal to 18 mPa·sec (at 25° C.). The UV curable ink has a viscosity of greater than or equal to 20 mPa·sec (at 25° C.). The UV curable ink comprises a pigment, an ultraviolet curable resin curable by an ultraviolet light, and a photopolymerization initiator.

Claims

1. An ink comprising:

a viscosity greater than or equal to 3 mPa·

sec and less than or equal to 18 mPa·

sec (at 25°

C.);

a volatile organic solvent; and

a UV curable ink having a viscosity of greater than or equal to 20 mPa·

sec (at 25°

C.), the UV curable ink comprising;

a pigment;

an ultraviolet curable resin curable by an ultraviolet light; and

a photopolymerization initiator.

2. The ink according to claim 1, wherein a content of the volatile organic solvent is greater than or equal to 30 wt % and less than or equal to 90 wt %.

3. The ink according to claim 1, wherein the volatile organic solvent is n-hexane.

4. An inkjet printer comprising:

a supporting body to support a printing medium;

an inkjet head to spray the ink according to claim 1 from a plurality of discharge ports to a surface of the printing medium to deposit ink droplets on the surface of the printing medium;

a heater arranged on at least one of a back side and a font side of the printing medium and provided to apply heat to the ink droplets deposited on the surface of the printing medium to remove the volatile organic solvent present in the ink droplets by volatilization; and

a UV irradiation device to irradiate the ink droplets on the surface of the printing medium from which the volatile organic solvent has been removed by volatilization with a UV light to cure the ink droplets.

5. A method for printing an image comprising an array of a plurality of ink droplets on a surface of a printing medium, the method comprising:

spraying the ink according to claim 1 from a plurality of discharge ports of an inkjet head to deposit the ink droplets on the surface of the printing medium;

applying heat to the ink droplets deposited on the surface of the printing medium with a heater arranged on at least one of a back side and a front side of the printing medium to remove the volatile organic solvent present in the ink by volatilization; and

irradiating the ink droplets with an ultraviolet light using a UV irradiation device to cure and fix the ink droplets on the surface of the printing medium.