Glossy Ink Head Dot Merging for High Gloss Print
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Solution Overview
Problem
Glossy inks, such as metallic inks, often fail to achieve desired glossiness in printed materials due to variability in ink dot intervals and solvent evaporation rates, leading to poor fixation and scattering of light.
Innovation Solution
A printing device and method that adjusts ink dot intervals to allow for contact between ink dots, ensuring adequate solvent evaporation time for orderly pigment fixation, using a glossy ink head with a nozzle array to discharge ink droplets of specific volumes that merge into larger dots, promoting high glossiness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If ink dots are spaced at large intervals, then printing speed and productivity are improved, but glossiness deteriorates due to insufficient pigment fixation and light scattering
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges adjacent ink dots by controlling their spacing to be within a specific range (0.05-0.5mm) so that they contact and coalesce on the medium surface. This merging creates larger continuous pigment areas that enhance glossiness while maintaining printing efficiency, as the dots are discharged at normal intervals but spread to overlap during the printing process
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the spatial parameter of ink dot spacing to a specific range (0.05-0.5mm) that enables contact between dots. This parameter optimization allows the system to achieve both productive printing speeds and high glossiness by finding the optimal balance point where dots are close enough to merge for gloss but not so close as to require excessive printing passes
2Manufacturing precision
If solvent evaporation time is extended, then pigment fixation quality and glossiness are improved, but printing productivity deteriorates due to longer drying time
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-positioning multiple ink dots in close proximity (within 0.05-0.5mm spacing) before they fully dry. The dots are discharged and land on the medium in a configuration that promotes natural merging and extended evaporation contact time, achieving high fixation quality without requiring additional drying passes or extended waiting time between printing operations
3Manufacturing precision
If ink dot spacing is reduced to enable contact, then glossiness is improved through orderly pigment fixation, but ink consumption and printing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes the ink dot spacing parameter to a specific range (0.05-0.5mm) that enables contact and merging for high glossiness while avoiding excessive ink consumption. This parameter setting ensures dots are close enough to merge for gloss effect but not so dense as to require significantly higher ink volumes, achieving cost-effective high-gloss printing
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution achieves excellent glossiness by ensuring pigment fixation is orderly and complete, reducing light scattering and enhancing the glossy appearance of printed materials.
Implementation Method 1
a pigment contained in an ink is fixated to a medium by evaporating a solvent contained in the ink (for example, organic solvent)
Implementation Method 2
the ink droplets discharged from the glossy ink head each have a volume constituting a size that allows for contact on the medium between any ones of the ink dots formed in each one of the main scans
Data Source
AI summary
A printing device prints an object on a medium by inkjet printing. The printing device includes: a glossy ink head that discharges ink droplets of a glossy ink having a glossy color; and a main scan driver that prompts the glossy ink head to perform main scans in which the glossy ink head discharges the ink droplets while moving in a predetermined main scanning direction. The glossy ink contains a glossy pigment. In the main scans, the glossy ink head discharges the ink droplets plural times while moving in the main scanning direction to form ink dots at positions on the medium aligned in the main scanning direction. The ink droplets discharged from the glossy ink head each have a volume constituting a size that allows for contact on the medium between any ones of dots formed in each one of the main scans.