Arrangements and methods for drying printed ink
AssigneeDover Europe SàRl
InventorsBruno Barbet, Amine Bendaoud
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An arrangement in communication with a printer. The printer includes at least a print-head configured to deposit liquid ink on an area on a surface of a substrate. The liquid ink comprises a solvent portion and a dry content. The arrangement comprises at least one nozzle configured to generate a stream of gas over said area with a gas stream velocity and/or gas stream shape, such that an evaporation rate of the solvent portion of the liquid ink is increased and a rate of change of velocity of the gas stream propagation increases with a distance normal to a direction of a gas flow and is maximized over the surface of the substrate and the deposited ink.
Claims18
A dryer arrangement configured to be arranged downstream of a liquid ink depositing printhead and to speed up drying time for a liquid ink deposited on an area on a surface of a substrate, wherein the arrangement comprises:
- at least one nozzle portion configured to emit a pressurized gas stream, the at least one nozzle portion comprising a nozzle head having an orifice through which the gas stream is emitted, the nozzle head configured to emit the gas stream in a direction substantially parallel to the surface of the substrate and in a direction that is the same as the direction of travel of the substrate;
- wherein the emitted gas stream is a laminar stream of gas;
- wherein the gas stream includes a gas boundary layer adjacent the surface of the substrate at the area and that flows through a dispersion layer of a solvent portion of the liquid ink, the gas boundary layer having a plurality of sublayers in which a difference in respective velocities of adjacent sublayers of the gas boundary layer increases with distance normal to and going away from the surface of the substrate so that the gas boundary layer has a gas velocity gradient with a predetermined thickness over the area and so that an evaporation rate of the solvent portion of the liquid ink is increased.
A method of evaporating a solvent portion of a liquid ink deposited on an area on a surface of a substrate, the method comprising:
- applying pressure to a gas stream;
- emitting the controlled gas stream from a nozzle, the gas stream being a laminar stream of gas, the nozzle comprising a nozzle head having an orifice through which the gas stream is emitted, the nozzle head configured to emit the gas stream in a direction substantially parallel to the surface of the substrate and in a direction that is the same as a direction of travel of the substrate;
- wherein the gas stream includes a gas boundary layer adjacent the surface of the substrate at the area and that flows through a dispersion layer of a solvent portion of the liquid ink, the gas boundary layer having a plurality of sublayers in which a difference in respective velocities of adjacent sublayers of the gas boundary layer increases with distance normal to and going away from the surface of the substrate so that the gas boundary layer has a gas velocity gradient with a predetermined thickness over the area and so that an evaporation rate of the solvent portion of the liquid ink is increased.
A dryer arrangement configured to be arranged downstream of a liquid ink depositing printhead and to speed up drying time for a liquid ink deposited on an area on a surface of a substrate, wherein the arrangement comprises:
- at least one pressure source configured to generate a pressurized gas stream;
- at least one nozzle portion configured to emit the pressurized gas stream, the at least one nozzle portion comprising a nozzle head having an orifice through which the gas stream is emitted, the nozzle head configured to emit the gas stream in a direction substantially parallel to the surface of the substrate and in a direction that is the same as the direction of travel of the substrate;
- wherein the emitted gas stream is a laminar stream of gas;
- wherein the gas stream includes a gas boundary layer adjacent the surface of the substrate at the area and that flows through a dispersion layer of a solvent portion of the liquid ink, the gas boundary layer having a plurality of sublayers in which a difference in respective velocities of adjacent sublayers of the gas boundary layer increases with distance normal to and going away from the surface of the substrate so that the gas boundary layer has a gas velocity gradient with a predetermined thickness over the area and so that an evaporation rate of the solvent portion of the liquid ink is increased.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.