Water-Based Ink Phase Angle Control for Ejection Stability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional water-based inks for ink-jet recording suffer from inadequate ejection stability, despite efforts to control rheologic properties, as evidenced by loss tangent (tan δ) measurements indicating insufficient phase (δ) values after drying.
Innovation Solution
A water-based ink composition is developed with a phase (δ) of 45 degrees or more at a strain amount of 0.1% to 100% after drying, achieved by controlling the drying conditions and composition, ensuring a higher loss elastic modulus than storage elastic modulus, thereby enhancing fluidity and stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional water-based ink composition is used with standard rheologic control, then the ink can be manufactured with basic components, but the ejection stability is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the rheologic parameters of the water-based ink by controlling the phase angle (δ) to be 45 degrees or more at strain amounts of 0.1% to 100%. This parameter change ensures that the loss elastic modulus is higher than the storage elastic modulus, which significantly improves ejection stability while maintaining basic ink components and manufacturing processes.
2Reliability
If the phase angle is increased to 45 degrees or more, then ejection stability is improved, but the ink composition control becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent establishes a feedback mechanism where the phase angle (δ) is measured and used to adjust the ink composition. By controlling the phase angle to be 45 degrees or more through systematic adjustment of components like water-soluble organic solvents and coloring agents, the invention achieves both improved ejection stability and manageable composition control through iterative optimization.
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 ink exhibits improved ejection stability, particularly when used in ink-jet recording apparatuses with line-type heads, ensuring efficient and fast recording without ink delay, even under varying conditions.
Implementation Method 1
The water-based ink is required to be good in ejection stability. In order to improve the ejection stability, control of rheologic properties of a water-based ink is proposed. The water-based ink is composed of the same components as a rheology measurement ink whose loss tangent (tan δ) measured in a condition, in which an angular frequency is 3 rad/sec and strain is 10%, is 2.5 or more.
Data Source
AI summary
A water-based ink for ink-jet recording includes a coloring agent, water, and a water-soluble organic solvent. In the water-based ink after drying, a phase (δ) obtained by a tan δ measured at about 25° C. is constantly about 45 degrees or more. In other words, the phase (δ) never becomes less than about 45 degrees at a strain amount of about 0.1% to about 100%.