Inkjet Printer Surface Pre-Heating for High-Speed Aqueous Ink Drying
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Inkjet printing with aqueous ink on web-shaped materials faces issues such as ink flow and color blurring due to insufficient drying at high speeds, particularly during multicolor printing, which limits the ability to increase printing speed.
Innovation Solution
An inkjet printer with a single-pass system and surface pre-heating using hot air, laser, or infrared heating to dry the surface of the web-shaped material before inkjet printing, combined with back surface heating to ensure thorough ink drying.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If printing speed is increased to about 15 m/min, then productivity is improved, but ink flow and color blurring occur due to insufficient drying
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary heating to the web-shaped printing base material before inkjet printing. The heating unit heats the material surface in advance to accelerate ink drying after deposition, preventing ink flow and color blurring even at high printing speeds of 15 m/min. This preliminary action ensures the material is ready to rapidly dry the ink without compromising print quality.
2Manufacturing precision
If back surface heating is used to dry ink, then drying effect is improved, but at high printing speeds ink flow and color blurring still occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent heats the web-shaped printing base material in advance before inkjet printing to prepare the material for rapid ink drying. This preliminary heating action ensures that even at high printing speeds, the ink dries quickly without flowing or blurring, resolving the contradiction between drying effect and printing speed.
3Productivity
If multicolor printing is performed without sufficient drying, then productivity is maintained, but color mixing occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary heating to the printing base material before multicolor inkjet printing. This heating action accelerates ink drying between color layers, preventing color mixing while maintaining continuous printing capability. The heated material surface enables rapid evaporation of aqueous ink, ensuring color accuracy is preserved during high-speed multicolor 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
Prevents ink flow and color blurring during multicolor printing, enabling high-speed printing without color mixing, even at speeds of 15 m/min, by ensuring the surface and back surfaces of the material are adequately heated.
Implementation Method 1
a surface pre-heating unit which is arranged on an upstream side of conveyance from the single-pass system inkjet head and heats at least a surface of the web-shaped printing base material... Heating by the surface pre-heating unit is preferably performed through use of hot air blowing means for applying hot air to the surface of the web-shaped printing base material
Implementation Method 2
the web-shaped printing base material can be heated by irradiation with a laser having a wavelength which is equal to an absorption wavelength of the web-shaped printing base material
Implementation Method 3
Heating by irradiation with infrared light is also conceivable
Data Source
AI summary
An inkjet printer for preventing ink flow, color blurring and color mixing during multicolor printing when image formation is performed with aqueous ink on a web-shaped printing base material, and an inkjet printing method using the inkjet printer. The inkjet printer is configured to perform image formation by discharging aqueous ink to a web-shaped printing base material, and includes: a conveyance mechanism configured to continuously convey the web-shaped printing base material; a single-pass system inkjet head configured to discharge the aqueous ink to a surface of the web-shaped printing base material conveyed by the conveyance mechanism; and a surface pre-heating unit arranged on an upstream side of conveyance from the single-pass system inkjet head and configured to heat at least the surface of the web-shaped printing base material. Image formation is performed on the web-shaped printing base material heated by the surface pre-heating unit.