Inkjet Head Electrostatic Droplet Control for Non-Absorptive Media
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing inkjet recording technologies face issues with beading and color bleeding on non-absorptive recording media, limiting ink types and resulting in unnatural gloss and insufficient abrasion properties due to restricted ink formulations.
Innovation Solution
An inkjet recording apparatus with an inkjet head that ejects ink droplets while charging them, allowing a second droplet to overlap with the first before its discharge is complete, and utilizing a radiation device to cure the ink, ensuring a repulsive force between droplets to prevent attraction and bleeding, with nozzles spaced at least 170 μm apart to maintain accurate ejection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If ink is ejected onto non-absorptive recording media, then the recording can be made on various media types, but beading and color bleeding occur deteriorating image quality
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary anti-action by charging ink droplets with electrostatic charge before ejection. This pre-applied electrostatic repulsion counteracts the tendency of ink droplets to attract and merge on non-absorptive surfaces, preventing beading and color bleeding before they can occur. The charged droplets maintain separation as they land on the recording medium, enabling high-quality imaging on various media types including plastics and coated papers that would otherwise cause ink spreading.
2Manufacturing precision
If hot-melt type ink is used to prevent beading, then image quality improves, but the ink droplet projects from the surface causing unnatural gloss and poor abrasion
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical and chemical parameters of the ink by incorporating electrostatically charged particles or conductive additives into the ink formulation. This allows the ink to maintain liquid state upon ejection while acquiring electrostatic repulsion properties. The charged ink droplets can be precisely controlled and prevented from merging, achieving sharp images without requiring hot-melt formulations that project from the surface and cause gloss and abrasion problems.
3Manufacturing precision
If curable components are added to ink to prevent bleeding, then image quality improves, but the selection of chemical compounds is limited by safety concerns
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces chemical curing mechanisms with electrostatic repulsion mechanisms. Instead of relying on UV polymerization or other chemical reactions that require specific safe-but-limited compounds, the invention uses electrostatic charge to prevent ink droplet merging. This mechanical/electrostatic approach substitutes for chemical curing, allowing much greater flexibility in ink formulation while achieving the same goal of preventing color bleeding and maintaining image quality.
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
This approach prevents beading and color bleeding, achieving high image quality without ink or medium limitations, ensuring natural gloss and improved abrasion resistance across various recording media.
Implementation Method 1
there have been suggested various methods of preventing the occurrence of the beading and color bleeding. One method is that a hot-melt type ink composition based on a solid wax at room temperature is heated to melt and ejected so that the hot-melt type ink droplet lands on the recording medium and solidified by cooling
Implementation Method 2
a method to use aqueous ink containing ultraviolet polymerization monomer is suggested. In the above method, the ink droplet can be cured immediately after landing by being irradiated by an ultraviolet ray, whereby diffusion is prevented irrespective of the kind of the recording medium
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is an inkjet recording apparatus capable of recording a high quality image without limiting the kinds of ink or recording media, including an inkjet head having a plurality of nozzles to eject ink droplets, wherein the ink droplets ejected from the plurality of the nozzles is charged by applying voltage between the inkjet head and the recording medium, and land on the recoding medium so as to record the image on the recording medium, wherein after a first ink droplet lands on the recording medium, a second ink droplet lands on the recording medium so as to overlap with the first ink droplet before discharging of the first ink droplet is completed.