Inkjet Primer Adjustment for Substrate Wetting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Ink jet printing faces challenges in achieving consistent print quality across various substrates due to differences in ink wetting behavior, leading to issues like gaps between ink droplets, loss of edge definition, and poor adhesion, especially with single-pass printers and non-coated substrates.
Innovation Solution
A process and apparatus that apply a primer to the substrate, adjust its composition based on evaluated print quality characteristics, and use ink jet printing to optimize the primer for the substrate and print job, reducing the need for multiple ink families and allowing printing on a wide range of substrates with minimal ink changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a single family of ink jet inks is used for multiple substrates, then device complexity and ink storage requirements are reduced, but print quality consistency deteriorates due to varying ink wetting behavior on different substrates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a primer as an intermediary layer between the ink jet ink and the substrate. This primer modifies the substrate surface properties to achieve consistent ink wetting behavior across different substrate types. The primer acts as a mediator that creates a uniform interface for ink deposition, eliminating the need for substrate-specific ink formulations while maintaining print quality consistency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the surface energy parameters of the substrate by applying a primer treatment. This modifies the wetting characteristics of the substrate surface, allowing a single ink family to perform consistently across diverse substrates. The primer alters key surface parameters such as surface energy and porosity to create optimal conditions for ink jet printing.
2Quantity of substance
If ink jet printing is performed on non-porous substrates with low surface energy, then substrate cost and availability are improved, but ink wetting and adhesion deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The primer serves as an intermediary that bridges the incompatibility between low-surface-energy non-porous substrates and ink jet inks. It modifies the substrate surface to provide adequate wetting and adhesion properties without requiring changes to the bulk substrate material, thus maintaining cost-effectiveness while improving reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The primer is applied in advance to the substrate before ink jet printing. This preliminary treatment prepares the substrate surface by modifying its wetting characteristics, ensuring that subsequent ink deposition achieves reliable adhesion on non-porous, low-surface-energy materials without requiring ink formulation changes.
3Manufacturing precision
If corona or plasma pre-treatment is applied to improve ink wetting and adhesion, then print quality is improved, but process complexity and treatment time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The primer acts as a chemical intermediary that achieves surface modification without requiring complex physical treatment equipment like corona or plasma generators. Instead of using high-energy physical treatments, the primer provides chemical modification of the substrate surface through a simple coating process, reducing device complexity while maintaining adhesion improvement.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces mechanical/physical surface treatment methods (corona discharge, plasma generation) with a chemical approach using primer coating. This substitution eliminates the need for complex electrical discharge equipment and reduces process complexity while achieving similar or superior wetting and adhesion results through chemical surface modification.
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 enables consistent high-quality printing on diverse substrates by optimizing the primer composition in real-time, improving wetting behavior and adhesion, and reducing the need for extensive ink changes, making the process more efficient and flexible.
Implementation Method 1
The ink jet system is of a type which is capable of jetting droplets of liquid onto a substrate
Implementation Method 2
the degree to which the droplets of ink spread upon the substrate surface and coalesce with neighbouring droplets
Data Source
AI summary
A process of ink jet printing on a variety of substrates and an apparatus for performing that process. In which process: a primer is applied to a substrate material; ink is ink jet printed onto the primed substrate; a characteristic relating to print quality is evaluated; the composition of the primer is adjusted in dependence on the evaluated characteristic relating to print quality; and the adjusted primer composition is applied to the substrate material and ink is ink jet printed onto the primed substrate material to give a printed product.