Priming fluid for ink jet printheads
AssigneeE. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company
InventorsKathryn A. Pearlstine, Waifong Liew Anton
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This invention relates to the use of a priming fluid in ink jet printers and in particular, to the use of an aqueous priming fluid used in conjunction with aqueous based ink jet inks in ink jet printers using ink jet printheads, such as, piezo ink jet printer heads.
Claims19
An improved ink jet ink printing process for priming passage ways to printhead(s) and the interior of printhead(s) used in an ink jet printing process to remove air and contaminants therefrom, which comprises the step of passing an aqueous priming fluid through said passages and into the interior of the printhead(s), wherein the improvement comprises that the aqueous priming fluid has an advancing contact angle of less than about 25 degrees and comprises the following:
- about 10-90% by weight, based on the total weight of the priming fluid, of at least one polar, water miscible organic solvent having a solubility of at least about 5 parts per 100 parts of water (by weight), and correspondingly,
- about 90-10% by weight, based on the total weight of the priming fluid, of water.
A priming fluid having an advancing contact angle of less than about 25 degrees and comprises:
- a. about 20-60% by weight, based on the total weight of the priming fluid, of at least one polar water miscible solvent having a water solubility of at least 5 parts per 100 parts of water (by weight);
- b. about 5-25% by weight, based on the total weight of the priming fluid, of a water miscible organic solvent to reduce the freezing temperature of the priming fluid;
- and
- c. about 40-80% by weight, based on the total weight of the priming fluid, of water.
A priming fluid having an advancing contact angle of less than about 25 degrees and comprises:
- a. about 0.1-10% by weight, based on the total weight of the priming fluid, of at least one surfactant, and
- b. about 50-99.9% by weight, based on the total weight of the priming fluid, of water,
- with the remainder being one or more other additives.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.