Methods, apparatus, and systems for UV gel ink spreading

Abstract

The invention relates to a UV curable gel ink spreading method and system includes setting an ink re-flow drum temperature, jetting UV gel ink onto a substrate using a print head, heating a back side of the substrate to cause re-flow using the re-flow drum, and curing the UV gel ink image using a UV source to produce a cured image. At least one of drawback and line spread may be measured in-line to determine whether to modify a drum temperature, a UV source location, and/or a print process speed to optimize drawback and/or line spread. Acceptable or optimized temperatures and/or UV source locations may be saved as a set point that corresponds to a substrate type.

Description

technical field [0001] The present disclosure relates to methods, devices and systems for ultraviolet (UV) curable gel ink extension. In particular, the present disclosure relates to methods, apparatus, and systems for setting backside reflow temperature, UV source position, and process speed in UV gel ink digital printing processes. Background technique [0002] UV curable inks are preferred over conventional liquid inks at least because they tend to form droplets with less mobility than droplets formed with conventional inks. When UV gel ink is jetted onto a substrate to form an image, the ink droplets are liquid. The droplet is rapidly quenched to the gel state upon contact with the substrate on which the image is formed, and thus has limited mobility. [0003] Conventional inks tend to form moving droplets when in contact with a substrate. As such, the substrate is typically coated and / or treated to prevent coalescence of, for example, moving liquid ink droplets. For...

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Problems solved by technology

This coating or treatment requires special handling to apply to the media and additional costs associated with its use

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