Micro-diffusion ink and ink jet printing process
OwnerJohn Murrayinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ink composition for ink jet printing on substrates, preferably fibrous fabric materials comprising a suspension of uniform, very tine, mainly spheroidal ink particles in aqueous medium to form a stable colloidal suspension. The particles may contain a waxy coating to prevent agglomeration and to aid in spheroidization of the particles. The presence of a small amount of solvent for the dye particles during milling also contributes to formation of uniform, spheroid particles.
Claims31
A method of printing a stable image on a substrate comprising fibers formed of a plurality of filaments comprising the steps of:
- emitting a plurality of ink jet droplets from the orifice of a piezoelectric print head of an ink jet printer in the form of an image onto a surface of the substrate, said ink-droplets comprising a dispersion of very fine, solid dye particles at least 50% of which have a diameter below about 50 nm and said particles contain less than about 1% by weight of agglomerates larger than 50 nm dispersed in an aqueous medium and embedding said particles in the filaments of said fibers;
- and
- fixing said image on said surface to remove said medium and to penetrate said dye particles into said fibers.
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A method of forming an ink jet dye composition free of agglomerates and having good storage stability that forms bright, stable images on a substrate comprising the steps of;
- forming a paste of solid, ink jet dye particles in an aqueous medium;
- milling the paste to reduce the size of the dye particles;
- diluting the paste with water to form a first suspension containing a minor amount a of water soluble organic solvent for the dye particles to soften the particles;
- milling the first suspension in a homogenizer to reduce the presence of agglomerates and to spherodize the softened particles forming a homogenized first suspension;
- and
- subjecting the homogenized first suspension to further milling in the presence of a dispersible wax while intensely rotating the suspension to further reduce the diameter of 50% the particles to below 50 nm and to coat the particles with said wax.
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A shelf-stable ink jet dye composition having reduced agglomerates and reduced settling of dye particles comprising;
- ink jet dye solid particles having a uniform, spherical shape, at least 50% by weight having a particle size below 50 mm, dispersed in;
- an aqueous medium containing less than 2% of a water miscible solvent for the dye particles and a minor amount of a water dispersible wax.
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A stable ink jet dye composition in the dye particles solvent comprises thiodiethylene glycol.
A stable ink jet dye composition in which the dispersible wax is an alkylpolyglycoside surfactant.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.