Inkjet Print Quality Research Articles

Influence of Binders on Inkjet Print Quality

With surface sizing process, the paper surface can be tailored in order to achieve excellent print quality. Present study reports paper surface modifications carried out by surface sizing treatment with formulations composed by different polymer binders systems and subsequent evaluation of inkjet print quality of the produced papers. Binders as cationic starch (used on surface sizing in paper mill) and polyvinyl alcohol (used as binder in coating process) had been used in order to improve the inkjet print quality. These binders systems provide papers with different structure and physical-chemical properties and as consequence differentiated print quality. Parameters, such as, line width, blur, raggedness, inter-color bleed, circularity and dot gain, gamut area and optical printing densities were measured and correlated with the structural and physical-chemistry features of the paper samples. The results revealed higher performance of the paper surface sized with only polyvinyl alcohol. Multivariate analysis demonstrates that hydrophilicity and roughness are properties particularly detrimental for gamut area. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.20.1.1998

Dynamic Interactions of Pigment-Based Inks on Chemically Modified Papers and Their Influence on Inkjet Print Quality

Research on paper surface modification, paper properties, paper–ink interactions, and their influence on inkjet print quality are currently subjects of great interest. In this study, dynamic interactions between aqueous pigment black ink and modified paper and their effect on print quality are discussed. Formulations of starch and blends of starch and poly(diallyldimethylammonium) chloride or polyoxyethylene (100) stearyl ether were used on base paper. Modified papers were printed on two printers. The paper performance is discussed in terms of surface energy, dispersive and polar components, and air permeability given the ink spreading and absorption. Results showed that paper modified with a blend of starch and poly(diallyldimethylammonium) chloride improves inkjet print quality. This modified paper showed higher black print density and lower line width, raggedness, intercolor bleed, and dot gain because of the spreading–absorption balance arising from the low surface energy and polar component.

Tuning liquid absorption and ink spreading by polyelectrolyte multilayering on substrates with different levels of internal sizing

The effect of base paper hydrophobicity and polyelectrolyte multilayer surface treatment on the subsequent liquid absorption and ink–substrate interaction was studied. It was found that the internal sizing degree affects the inkjet print quality, but that it is dependent on deposited polyelectrolyte layer chemistry and composition. A rather different ink absorption and spreading behavior was seen with dyes than with pigment-based inks.

Atomic and molecular layer deposition for surface modification

Atomic and molecular layer deposition (ALD and MLD, respectively) techniques are based on repeated cycles of gas–solid surface reactions. A partial monolayer of atoms or molecules is deposited to the surface during a single deposition cycle, enabling tailored film composition in principle down to molecular resolution on ideal surfaces. Typically ALD/MLD has been used for applications where uniform and pinhole free thin film is a necessity even on 3D surfaces.However, thin – even non-uniform – atomic and molecular deposited layers can also be used to tailor the surface characteristics of different non-ideal substrates. For example, print quality of inkjet printing on polymer films and penetration of water into porous nonwovens can be adjusted with low-temperature deposited metal oxide. In addition, adhesion of extrusion coated biopolymer to inorganic oxides can be improved with a hybrid layer based on lactic acid.

Influence of Ink Performance on Ink-Jet Printing Quality

The era of environmental protection and personalization has become increasingly prominent, and people not only focus on the beauty of the design, but also pay more attention to the quality of the clothing. For inkjet printing, the viscosity and surface tension of ink are major factors that affect the quality of ink-jet printing. In order to obtain a better print quality, the samples of five different viscosity and surface tension of ink were prepared respectively by changing the content of the resin and the surface active agent. Using these samples to print on the fabric by Epson printer, and to discuss the influence of the ink in different viscosity and surface tension on the ink-jet printing quality, such as apparent color depth (K / S), color parameters (L, C), permeability, clarity. The results showed that: with the increase of the ink viscosity, the apparent depth of color yield increased gradually and became darker in color. L value decreased gradually and had a increasing trend, and tends to be stable. C value increased and vividness of the color was improved. And it also had a certain impact on the infiltration resistance and clarity. Surface tension also had a significant impact on the depth of the apparent color, vividness of the color and directly affected the ink permeability and clarity.

Interactions of ink colourants with chemically modified paper surfaces concerning inkjet print improvement

This study reports the modification of the paper surface by the application of different chemicals and its effect on the paper structural and surface properties and inkjet print quality parameters. 3-(N,N-dimethylmyristylammonio)propanesulphonate and hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide, as zwitterionic and cationic surfactants, respectively, and a cationic polymer, poly(diallyldimethylammonium) chloride (PD) were used for the surface treatments. It was found that, in general, the surface treatments have a negligible effect on the paper structural properties. However, a significant effect was found on the surface energy parameters, and surface chemical composition as accessed by XPS. The modified papers and the base paper were printed on two thermal inkjet printers: Lexmark X-8350 and HP Photosmart Pro B8850. The paper modified with PD exhibited the best print quality on both printers yielding high colour properties (gamut area increase of 12% and 11%, respectively), good line and dot print quality. The print quality results were interpreted taking into account the nature (dyes or pigments) and molecular structure (determined by FTIR spectroscopy) of the inks colourants, paper surface properties, and the paper surface–ink interactions. Overall, the presence of cationic groups and a high polar component at the paper surface favour the fixation of sulphonate-containing dyes while a low paper surface energy and the evidence of aggregation/flocculating properties of the modifier (PD) helps the inks pigments immobilization.

The effect of fiber orientation and needlepunch density on image quality of inkjet printing on nonwoven substrates

Understanding the cause of poor inkjet printing can aid in improving the technology. Furthermore, the effects of the structure of nonwoven fabrics on inkjet-printed image quality are largely unknown. Therefore, this study investigates the effect of fiber orientation and needlepunch density of nonwoven substrates on inkjet-printed line quality. The inkjet image quality was evaluated on several web structures: carded, crosslapped, and airlaid, resulting in different fiber orientations, all under varying needlepunch densities ranging from 98.6 to 197.2 penetrations per square centimeter. The resultant line quality on the nonwoven substrates was poor and under all needlepunch densities the effects of fiber orientation was found to be minimal. This indicates that other factors such as surface characteristics and not fiber orientation contribute more likely to the poor image quality.

The Study of the Affect Factors on the Color Fastness of Inkjet Printing Ink

The color fastness is one of the most important performance indicators of the inkjet printing ink, and its level directly affects the quality of inkjet printing. Currently, color fixing problem of the inkjet printing is a major technical task of the development of inkjet printing technology. In order to get a kind of inkjet printing ink with good soaping color fastness and rubbing fastness, ink samples were prepared by using different types of fixing agent to study the effect of the kinds and content of the fixing agent on the soaping color fastness and rubbing fastness. By changing the baking conditions, the influences of baking time and baking temperature of fixing agent on the ink soaping color fastness and rubbing fastness were discussed. The results showed that: different types of fixing agent had the great impact on the soaping color fastness and rubbing fastness. The content of fixing agent had a certain effect on the ink soaping color fastness and rubbing fastness. It had a different baking temperature and time with different fixing agent, and the baking time and baking temperature directly affected the ink soaping color fastness and rubbing fastness.

Research on the Relationship between Properties of Printing Paper and UV Inkjet Printing Quality

As an environmental printing method, UV inkjet printing is becoming a hot research topic and has great prospects for development. The purpose of this paper was to integrate theory with practice to analyze the relationship between printing paper and UV inkjet printing quality. This could make press worker determinate rationally printing paper and improve the printing quality. In this paper, kinds of paper surface characteristic (including whiteness, glossiness, roughness, Permeability, absorbent) were measured. Printing tone and color reproduction results of these papers were experimented. Different prints parameters were tested with saturation, hue error, gray scale and coloration efficiency. Data of the paper parameters and prints parameters were calculated separately by Principal Components Analysis (PCA) with software. Then, the equation between paper parameters and paper quality synthetic value was obtained on the basis of the tested data. The equation between prints parameters and prints quality synthetic value was obtained in the same way. Linear regression was used to find the correlation between line combination of print quality synthetic value(y-axis) and paper quality synthetic value(x-axis). Paper printability prediction equation is derived according to the curve. It was shown that the results can provide valuable reference for the evaluation of the quality of printing papers and improving color reproduction, and can be used as one of the basis to guide the production.

A Study of Print Quality of UV Ink-Jet Printing on Glass

The global trend of digitization has totally varied the printing production processes. Among different printing technologies, digital ultraviolet (UV) ink-jet printing has strengths of easy to dry, printing on unsmooth surface, easy to print with different substrates and lower cost, and hence was commonly adopted by different industries. This study was to evaluate the print quality and weathering resistance of UV ink-jet printing on glass. The UV inks, from companies of AGFA and Anderson companies, and Primer adhesive and white ink from a domestic company were adopted in this study. Four types Primer were applied, i.e. without Primer, one layer of Primer, three layers of Primer, and five layers of Primer, before the print test target was printed. Two types of inks from AGFA and Anderson were used by a UV ink-jet printer to print out the test target. A spectrophotometer was used to measure the test charts, and the print quality was analyzed in terms of color contrast, solid ink density, ink trapping, dot gain or tonal value increment, gray level, etc. The experiment showed that test targets printed with two types of inks had no significant difference both on printability and print quality. However, the Anderson ink had slightly better print quality, weathering resistance, wear resistance, and adhesion compared to those of AGFA’s. Glass printed with Primer and white ink layers in advance had better printability and color quality in the experiment. Overall, UV ink-jet printing on glass had excellent printability and color performance. The results of this study can be referred by industries.

Influence of the Viscosity of Edible Ink to Piezoelectric Ink-Jet Printing Drop State

Piezoelectric Inkjet Printing is the main ink-jet printing at present, and drop state will have great influence to ink-jet printing quality, so the ink-jet drop state of edible ink is researched based on piezoelectric inkjet printing. The viscosity of the ink is adjusted by the way of adding different levels of resin, and then the samples which have different viscosity are got. Drop state is observed through drops observatory which installs Spectra Polaris nozzle (35pl), then the speed, volume, tail length and roundness of the drops are measured at certain moment in order to evaluate the influence of viscosity to ink-jet drop state. The result shows that viscosity has big influence to ink-jet drop state, when the viscosity becomes larger, the speed of drops becomes smaller, the variation of volume is not so obvious, the tail length of drops becomes smaller and roundness becomes larger accordingly, until the viscosity is 10mPa•s, the tail length is the smallest and roundness is the biggest, the drop state is the best , when viscosity is bigger than 10mPa•s, the tail length will become bigger and roundness smaller.

Printing Performance of Different Pigment Coated Paper

For high print quality, halftone dots should have minimal dot gain and sharp, circular edges, the receiving surface must have a line, high-porosity structure and be hydrophilic. Paper surface chemistry requirements for good inkjet print quality are so unconventional that new paper grades for printing should be specially designed. In this paper, the printability, coating structure and the color reproduction after printing of coated paper was studied.

Study on the Prediction Model of Paper Printability in Ink-Jet Printing

The influences of the paper properties on ink-jet printing quality are very complex. In order to predict the printing quality quickly and accurately, it is necessary to establish a mathematical model and an evaluation system, based on which we can estimate the paper used for ink-jet printing is suitable or not. In this paper, five kinds of ink-jet papers with different properties were chosen, and the properties including brightness (X2),gloss(X3),roughness(X4),air permeability(X5) and absorbency(X6), were tested; then ink-jet printing in the same conditions was carried out and different printing parameters were tested, including solid density(D),dot-gain(DG),print contrast(K)and hue(H). Through combining analysis of each single printing quality parameter with some paper properties by using PCA of SPSS, the correlation functions D/DG/K/H(X2, X3, X4, X5, X6) were obtained. Meanwhile, a comprehensive function Y(D, DG, K, H) involving the printing quality parameters was achieved through synthesis data processing of SPSS. This study shows the influences of paper properties on the printing quality parameters and their corresponding weights, and it also proposes a prediction model of paper printability, which can provide a theory reference for printing work in ink-jet printing.

Influence of the Surface Tension of Edible Ink to Piezoelectric Ink-Jet Printing Drop State

Ink-jet printing technology is the mainstream of digital printing, and piezoelectric ink-jet printing is the main ink-jet printing at present, besides, drop’s injection and controlling technology is the key to the development of ink-jet printing technology. The surface tension plays an important role in the drop’s generation process, it will restrict the length and the state of the drop, further influence ink-jet printing quality. Six edible ink samples with different surface tension are prepared in order to research the influence of the surface tension to the piezoelectric inkjet Printing drop state, then the drop state is observed and its speed and volume are measured through drops observatory. The result shows that the speed of drop is higher if the ink’s surface tension is lower, but the drop is easier to gather into spherical drop and it also has smaller tail length and bigger volume.

Impact of Coating Adhesive on Printability of Inkjet Paper

Paper plays an important role in determining image quality in inkjet printing. For high print quality, halftone dots should have minimal dot gain and sharp, circular edges, the receiving surface must have a line, high-porosity structure and be hydrophilic. Paper structure and surface chemistry requirements for good inkjet print quality are so unconventional that new paper grades for inkjet printing should be specially designed. This paper discuses the impact of coating adhesive on printability of inkjet paper.

Research on Droplet spreading on Substrate Influenced by Droplet Flying Velocity

Droplet spreading characteristics on substrate make great effect on inkjet printing quality, but the ink viscosity, substrate surface parameters all and droplet flying velocity all affect droplet spreading on substrate. In this paper, we just research on droplet spreading on Substrate been influenced by droplet flying velocity from inkjet print-head to substrate. We set up numerical model of flying droplet based on moment equation and energy conservation equation, so that we can get theoretically result, then keep ink viscosity and substrate surface parameters invariableness, just change the droplet flying velocity, and from the analysis result, we find the relationship between droplet flying velocity and droplet spreading characteristic. From the experiment result, we amend the model for droplet, so that we get a correct numerical model for droplet spread, and in this model droplet velocity is the only variable.

Relating ink solvent-coating component thermal properties to smearing and development of abrasion resistance in ink jet printing

Abstract The target of this study was to identify the interactions of the compounds of printing ink and paper coating colour and their effects on the inkjet print quality. Interactions between inkjet ink solvent components and their interaction with paper coating compounds are considered significant for the final print quality. Especially, ink solvent properties play an important role in inkjet ink drying. The methods used to study these interactions are thermogravimetry (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and results are analysed for correlations with print quality. The experimental material consists of both commercial and model inkjet inks, paper coating colour compounds and commercial papers. To visualize the thermal data and to combine the TGA and DSC measurements in a single plot, a representation has been used, in which the specific gravimetric (TGA) and specific energy (DSC) ratios, m1/m2 and E1/E2, corresponding to the mass loss and energy consumed per unit mass of sample, in the temperature regions T < 100°C and 100°C < T < 220°C, respectively, are plotted against each other. The determined ratios differed greatly between different model solvents and ink series. The thermal behaviour of the solvents is seen to be relevant for predicting inkjet print quality.

Special Issue on Mechatronics

The challenge in mechatronics – the foundation of modern machines and systems – is how to synergistically integrate electro-mechanical systems best with computing hardware and software to optimize intelligence and maximize usefulness. This special issue covers the latest developments in mechatronics, together with their wide-ranging applications. Part 1 features four papers (issue number 5 – the previous issue). Part 2 features the five papers appearing in this issue (issue number 6). The increasing importance of precisely dispensing droplets is demonstrated by two papers in Part 1. Saeda’s paper focuses on 3D printing – a novel way for accurately dispensing droplets to form materials manufactured layer by layer. Zhao and Huang’s paper details how to compensate in a new way for errors in droplet distribution and thereby improve inkjet printing quality. An important application of mechatronics is the tracking of humanmovement. In Part 1, Akagi et al. discuss a novel, wearable sensor for detecting the movement of joints, which is very useful in rehabilitation and similar functions. In Part 2, Terabayashi et al. explain how multiple persons are tracked by 2 cameras, introducing clever image processing and shadow detection and demonstrating their proposal’s efficacy both indoors and outdoors. Two papers focusing on human-mechatronics systems with the human in the loop are presented in Part 2. Kawarazaki and Yoshidime cover interesting human-robot communication, important in enabling robotics operate in our daily lives – a field called social robotics. Their system uniquely combines voice recognition and image processing to detect gestures and human movement. The second paper, by Carlier and Murakami, deals with driver assistance based on smart road detection and tactile feedback as an interface with drivers of intelligent vehicles. Three more papers focus on problem in robotics and control. In Part 2, P. Y. Lam and T. K. Sin present a self-balancing bicycle robot based on a control-moment gyro. In Part 1, Yamashita et al. address motion planning problems for a biped robot. Yoshimura et al. describe 3D attitude control for underactuated satellites with thrusters. I hope this special issue will inspire you to contribute to the exciting field of mechatronics. I thank the authors and reviewers for their many efforts in making this special issue possible.

Research on the Color Stability of Edible Ink-Jet Ink

Edible ink-jet ink is environmental friendly and all of its materials reach the food sanitation standards, so it can be directly printed on the surface of food, medicine and packaging in the way of non-contact ink-jet printing. Due to the acid and alkaline of food surface are different, and the food may experience low or high temperatures and long time exposure in the preserved process, so the stability of the ink is of vital important. Edible ink-jet ink has been prepared through choosing reasonable materials. And then, the performances of the ink such as viscosity, surface tension and pH value have been tested. Finally, the best formula of ink has been determined by evaluating the influence of the ink performances to the ink-jet printing quality. We prepared ink sample based on the best formula and stored it in normal temperature environment which is closed to outside, and evaluated the stability of the ink performance through regularly checking its performance; we evaluated the stability of the ink color under different PH value through adding a little acid-base regulator in it; we also evaluated the stability of the ink color to temperature and light through putting the coating sample in the environment with alternate high and low temperature and in the environment with strong light. The result shows that the stability of the ink is fine, and it can be preserved a month at least without any food preservative. The pH value, temperature and light have no influence to the ink color. So it has a favorable color performance and can be printed on the surface of food.

Paper surface chemistry as a tool to improve inkjet printing quality

Surface treatment is an important step of papermaking, namely for improving the final product quality. For uncoated printing and writing papers (P&W), surface sizing is becoming a common practice for controlling paper surface characteristics and liquid spreading and absorption. This work aims at evaluating the potential of assessing and controlling paper surface chemistry, by analyzing the impact of the application of different surface sizing formulations both on the chemical surface characteristics of the modified paper samples and on the final printing quality. For that, blends of cationic starch and minor quantities (5%, 10%, and 20% w/w) of four distinct copolymers of styrene were used, resulting in a total of 12 different surface sizing formulations. A sample surface sized only with cationic starch was taken as reference. Surface chemical properties were determined by using contact angle measurements and inverse gas chromatography. Finally, the inkjet printing quality was evaluated. The results revealed that the surface sizing treatments tested have a substantial influence on the surface energetics and partially explain the differences detected in the inkjet printing quality.