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AnonymousInactivehttp://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8948
Xerox: Gel ink will be the future
There may come a day when we’re buying a tube of ink gel for our printers.
Xerox
on Thursday said it is previewing what it calls a “cured gel ink
technology” that prints on plastic and foil. Xerox’s plan is to take
digital printers to the packaging market initially.For now, this ink
gel is restricted to commercial printing–brochures, catalogs, cardboard
packaging and plastic films–but once the research is turned into a
product it could get into the consumer market.Xerox is showcasing the new ink at drupa, a print industry confab. Xerox said in a statement:
The
new cured gel ink holds its shape on nearly any surface because it is
not water-based like traditional inkjet technologies. The gel ink has
the consistency of peanut butter after it is jetted through the print
heads and turns rock hard when exposed to a pulse of ultraviolet light.
The result is a crisp, vivid, and long lasting image. Unlike current
water or solvent-based inkjet systems, the gel ink won’t bleed-through
or require dryers and vapor recovery systems, thereby increase print
speeds and making the system more environmentally friendly. Developed
by scientists at the Xerox Research Centre Canada, the cured gel inks
are based on Xerox’s proprietary solid ink technology.Xerox emphasized
that the new ink technology is still in the research phase, but “it is
clearly an innovation that will take inkjet beyond the products and
applications available today.”Xerox’s presentation at drupa will be
Webcast in a few minutes. During that Webcast Steve Hoover, vice
president and center manager of the Xerox Research Center Webster, gave
an overview. Here are some of his relevant prepared remarks:The
key challenges of current inkjet technologies is the fundamental
incompatibility of the requirement of first squirting the ink thru a
small nozzle – the nozzle opening is about 10 microns or 1/10th the
thickness of a human hair – with the second requirment that the ink
bond to the surface of the paper or other substrate WITHOUT soaking
thru the paper or spreading in the paper which causes poor image
quality. These two requirements – ink thin enough to jet thru an nozzlebut
thick enough to not soak thru the paper cannot both be met by current
inkjet technologies.This is because to squeeze a drop out of an inkjet
nozzle the liquid must be about the consistency of water.Compare
that to the consistency of lithographic or flexographic inks which are
more like toothpaste. So, current inkjet inks are very watery and
eject fine from nozzles but when they hit the paper they are still very
thin and so they soak thru the paper or spread along the paper fibers
causing poor image quality – unless you use very expensive special
papers. Again compare this to lithography or flexography – which allow
you to use any paper, film or foil you want. This is because those
inks are very thick when printed and give outstanding image quality on
a broad range of surfaces. Xerography which uses a toner that is
mostly plastic which melts in a fusing step has similar performance to
lithographic inks and is compatible with a broad range of media for the
same reason – it doesn’t soak thru or move around a lot on the paper.
In addition to the image quality and media compatability issues caused
by current inkjet inks being over 90% liquid –often water–that liquid
also must be removed from the paper after printing. This leads to
large complex and high energy drying sytems and if solvent inks are
used, expensive vapor recovery systems. The environmental impact of
all of that energy consumption to remove the water or other liquid must
be considered and should be avoided if possible.All of this
created the innovation imperative for the Xerox Research labs: could
we develop an inkjet technology that had the benefits we all want from
inkjet of simplicity, productivity, low cost and reliability but
combine those with the broad media latitude of xerography, lithography
and flexography? Could we create an ink that has the consistency of
water when ejected from an inkjet nozzle but the consistency of
toothpaste when it hits the paper and sticks permanently to any
substrate – papers, metal foils and plastic films? If we can create
this we have created a truly disruptive innovation – one that will make
a real difference to our customers business. The answer we believe is
YES. In our labs we have created such an ink, a compatible long life
and robust scalable print head and the print process necessary to put
it all together. Now again, this is truly a look inside our research
labs and we are still at the technology development stage but we are so
excited that we wanted to share this breakthrough with you.This is a
microscopic image of our solid ink on paper. Notice the well formed
dots – no bleed through – no dot spreading. Notice the bright vibrant
colors. This has given our solid inks great performance in the
office. On standard office papers we have no showthrough, vibrant
colors and no dot spread and noise.But, our current solid ink
technology has clear limitations for production. For applications that
demand low run cost on thin, plain or recycled papers such as
transactional/promotional documents solid ink will be advantaged due to
the low cost and superior image quality over standard water based
inkjet. However, on the broader paper range that production customers
desire – a wide variety of coated papers and even metal foils and
plastic films – a new breakthrough is required. Our solid inks can
print on coated papers but only on specially designed papers with a
unique coating. For all of the reasons I have discussed none of water,
solvent based or our solid inks will meet the total requirements of
production to print on a wide range of papers, foils and films. A real
breakthrough is needed to take the industry where it wants to go with
inkjet technology.That breakthrough is our cured gel ink. This ink is
a liquid with a consistency near water at an elevated temperature –
near 100 degrees centrigrade – but that has the consistency of
toothpaste when it comes in contact with paper or nearly any other
substrate – including not only coated papers, but also metal foils and
plastic films. So when it contacts the paper it does not soak through
to the back or spread out unevenly creating poor image quality. No,
instead it sticks right where it lands giving precise and consistent
dot formation and bright and vibrant colors and noise free images.Here
you see these drops of ink hitting the substrate and turning into a gel
when they hit the paper. They hit and stick, forming precise dots
reliably and repeatedly. But that still isn’t enough. Not only must
the drops stick there when they lands but the final image must be
robust. It must be able to undergo the rough handling and abuse and
elevated temperatures that finished documents such as automobile
manuals subject to over 70 degrees centrigrade in a automobile glove
box, or packaging materials shipped long distances or mail transported
across a desert in the back of a truck. So, we add one final step. We
expose the ink on the paper to UV light which initiates a chemical
curing process that hardens the ink into a thin robust film able to
undergo significant abuse and not peel, scratch or rub off even at
elevated temperatures.Together these steps of heating the ink to be
thin enough to jet, having the ink turn into a gel the consistency of
toothpaste on contact with the surface and then curing the ink to get a
robust and permanent image mean we can print on nearly any surface.
Here you see images from our test fixture showing printing not only on
paper, but on clear plastic film and metal foil. Our cured gel ink
technology set breaks previous tension between getting an ink thin
enough to squeeze through an inkjet nozzle and an ink thick enough to
act like lithographic and flexographic inks on paper so that you get
the image quality you need. And the curing process gives you that
image quality permanently providing a very robust image able to survive
standard handling practices in your finishing equipment as well as in
shipping and use. And it does this without the complex and energy
intensive drying or solvent recovery steps other inkjet technologies
require. -
AuthorJune 4, 2008 at 12:34 PM
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