Multilayered structure with water-impermeable substrate

Abstract

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a multi-layered structure includes:a) a water-impermeable substrate;b) a first layer on at least one surface of the substrate comprising a water-based tie-layer composition;c) a second layer formed over the first layer, wherein the second layer is a water-based ink-receptive composition includes:i) a multivalent metal salt; andii) a hydrophilic binder polymer;d) a third layer including at least one water-based ink composition deposited in a single pass by an inkjet printing process, wherein the water-based ink composition includes an anionically stabilized, water-dispersible pigment; ande) additional layers deposited over the one or more ink layers and exposed second layer, the additional layers selected from one or more of the following compositions:i) an opaque white layer;ii) a protective layer; andiii) an adhesive layer, further includes a continuous protective plastic or paper layer adhered thereto.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]Reference is made to commonly-assigned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket No. K001433US01RLO), filed herewith, entitled PRINTING ON WATER-IMPERMEABLE SUBSTRATES WITH WATER-BASED INKS, by Bugner et al.; the disclosure of which is incorporated herein.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to a method of depositing water-based inkjet inks on water-impermeable substrates and to multilayered structures and articles produced therefrom.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]High speed digital inkjet printing systems have recently found much success in competing with traditional analog printing presses in applications such as commercial printing and publishing. In particular inkjet printing systems which employ water-based pigment inks can rival the print quality and productivity of printing systems which are based on analog impact printing, such as lithography, gravure, and flexographic printing proce...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent text describes a way to make high-quality and durable prints on waterproof plastic using water-based inkjet ink. By applying surface treatments and water-based coatings, the method allows for high-speed printing without using any harmful chemicals or radiation. The technical effect of this process is the ability to create printed images and articles that are both visually appealing and long-lasting.

Problems solved by technology

However, decor and package printing, unlike commercial printing and publishing, commonly employ water-impermeable plastic substrates in addition to paper-based substrates.

Plastic substrates are particularly challenging for water-based inks due to the difficulty in getting the inks to wet and adhere to such substrates, which are typically designed and chosen to repel or otherwise present a barrier to water.

Although solvent-based and radiation curable (UV-curable) inkjet inks have been used with some success on plastic substrates, they are limited to certain types of inkjet printing systems, such as piezoelectric drop-on-demand systems, and come with health, safety, and environmental concerns compared to water-based inks.

When water-based inkjet inks useful for high speed digital inkjet printing, especially inks that comprise more than about 80 wt % water and less than about 10-15 wt % of organic co-solvents, are deposited on commonly available plastic substrates used for decor and packaging applications, the ink drops tend to either bead up or flow across the surface of the substrate, resulting in image quality artifacts known as mottle, coalescence, and intercolor bleeding.

In addition, water-based inks with levels of co-solvents greater than about 10-15 wt % are very difficult to completely dry, resulting in a sticky or tacky ink layer.

However, the water-containing inks disclosed in this publication are intended for flexographic or offset printing, and are not suitable for high speed inkjet printing due to their high viscosities.

There is no teaching as to how these types of inks can be modified for use in a high speed inkjet deposition system.

This imposes additional and expensive constraints on the overall printing system.

The temperatures required for the fusing step are problematic in that many water-impermeable plastic substrates useful for packaging and décor applications are prone to wrinkling or melting at temperatures as low as 50° C.

The inks further comprise “a silicone surfactant, an acetylene glycol surfactant, a pyrrolidone derivative, and a thermoplastic resin.” However, as the examples in this patent clearly demonstrate, when the inventive inks are deposited on a representative plastic film at ink coverages greater than about 60 to 70%, the “bleeding” between colors or the image non-uniformity of solid areas (“mottling”) is judged as “bad”.

This severely limits the applicability of this method for most packaging applications for which much higher ink coverages are desired.

With many water-impermeable plastic substrates, especially very thin flexible films used for packaging applications, the application of heat while printing can adversely affect the dimensional stability of the film, leading to poor color-to-color registration.

A key limitation of this method is that the ink drops are between 60 pL and 120 pL, which is much too large to meet the print quality and resolution requirements for many applications, and the viscosity of the ink is greater than 4 mPa-s, which further limits the rate at which ink drops are deposited.

There are several problems with this approach.

First, the fixing fluids useful in this printing system comprise boric acid, borax, or copper sulfate, which are problematic in certain food packaging applications.

Second, inks comprising the exemplified co-reactive polymer species are limited to those which comprise specific co-solvent humectants, and which require effective levels of the co-reactive polymer species, the combination of which results in inks with viscosities greater than about 10 mPa-s, making them disadvantaged for high speed inkjet depositions systems.

As noted above, UV-curable inks are undesirable for health and safety reasons, and latex inks require a secondary heating and fusing step which is problematic for thin, low-melting substrates.

An undesirable feature of this solution is that it is limited to polyolefin substrates to which an adhesion-promoting layer has been formed by either a co-extrusion or lamination process.

Further, the exemplified ink-receptive layers are each relatively thick, e.g., 10 micrometers, which can adversely affect the cost and performance of very thin film structures.

However, the present inventors have found that hydrophilic surface treatments, such as corona or plasma discharge are insufficient to control lateral ink spread on impermeable films when water-based inkjet inks are deposited thereon, especially in areas of high ink coverage, as will be illustrated and disclosed in more detail below.

However, as disclosed hereinafter, the use of high-boiling organic co-solvents is undesirable, and ink-receptive fixer layers comprising cationic polymers are not suitable for high speed printing with anionically stabilized water-based pigment inks.

However, even the step of applying a water-based layer comprising multivalent metal cations, such as those disclosed in U.S. Publication No. 2011 / 0279554 A1, to an impermeable plastic substrate can still be problematic due to the poor wetting and adhesion characteristics of most untreated plastic surfaces by water-based coating fluids.

A further problem that has been encountered is that non-volatile co-solvents known as humectants that are commonly added to inkjet inks cannot absorb into the impermeable substrates, which can lead to a prolonged sticky or tacky feel to the surface of the dried ink layers.

Yet another problem that is encountered is insufficient layer-to-layer adhesion or intra-layer cohesion when such printed films are further post-coated or laminated to produce the final multi-layered package or article.

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