US 6,719,423 B2Granted

Ink jet process including removal of excess liquid from an intermediate member

AssigneeNexPress Solutions LLC

InventorsArun Chowdry, Thomas Nathaniel Tombs, John Walter May

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Abstract

Apparatus and method of making an ink-jet-ink-derived material image on a receiver. An ink jet device is used to form a colloidal ink image on a member. The ink for use in the ink jet device includes an aqueous-based colloidal dispersion of particles and a nonaqueous colloidal dispersion of particles. The ink for use in the ink jet device includes an aqueous-based colloidal dispersion of particles, a nonaqueous colloidal dispersion of particles. The particles of the colloidal ink image are caused to become concentrated adjacent an operational surface of the member. Excess liquid is removed from the particles so as to form an ink-jet-ink-derived material image. The ink-jet-ink-derived image is then transferred from the operational surface of the intermediate member to another member, which another member may be a receiver member, a drum or a web.

Claims64

Dependent claims

For forming an ink-jet-ink-derived material image on an operational surface of a member and transferring said ink-jet-ink-derived material image to a receiver member, an imaging apparatus comprising:

an ink jet device for imagewise jetting, on to said operational surface of said member, droplets of an ink made of particles dispersed in a carrier fluid, said ink jet device thereby forming on said operational surface a primary image, said primary image including said particles and said carrier fluid;
a plurality of process zones associated with said operational surface of said member, said plurality of process zones located sequentially in proximity with said operational surface and said plurality of process zones including an image concentrating process zone, an excess liquid removal process zone, and a transfer process zone;
a mechanism in said image concentrating process zone for concentrating said particles of said primary image so as to form a concentrated image on said operational surface from said primary image, said mechanism for concentrating said particles causing said particles to become concentrated adjacent said operational surface;
a mechanism in said excess liquid removal process zone for removing a portion of said carrier liquid from said concentrated image so as to form on said operational surface a liquid-depleted image;
a mechanism for transferring to a receiver member, from said operational surface in said transfer process zone, said liquid-depleted image;
and
wherein said primary image includes a plurality of smallest resolved imaging areas and each of said plurality of smallest resolved imaging areas receives from said ink jet device a preselected number of droplets of said ink, said preselected number including zero.

4 more elements

For forming an ink-jet-ink-derived material image on an operational surface of a member and transferring said ink-jet-ink-derived material image to a receiver member, an imaging apparatus comprising:

an ink jet device for imagewise jetting, on to said operational surface, droplets of an ink made of particles dispersed in a carrier fluid, said ink jet device thereby forming on said operational surface of said member a primary image, said primary image including said particles and said carrier fluid;
a plurality of process zones associated with said operational surface of said member, said plurality of process zones located sequentially in proximity with said operational surface and said plurality of process zones including an image concentration/liquid removal process zone and a transfer process zone;
a mechanism in said image concentration/liquid removal process zone for concentrating said primary image while removing a portion of said carrier liquid so as to form on said operational surface a concentrated liquid-depleted image;
a mechanism in said transfer process zone for transferring said concentrated liquid-depleted image from said operational surface to a receiver member, and
wherein said primary image includes a plurality of smallest resolved imaging areas and each of said plurality of smallest resolved imaging areas receives from said ink jet device a preselected number of droplets of said ink, said preselected number including zero.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 09/973,239Filed 9 Oct 2001
Published: US 2003/0067528 A110 Apr 2003
Granted: 13 Apr 2004
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

B41J 2/04
Characterised by the jet generation process: generating single droplets or particles on demand
B41J 2/17
Ink jet: characterised by ink handling
B41M 5/0256
By transferring ink from the master sheet: the transferable ink pattern being obtained by means of a computer driven printer, e.g. an ink jet or…
B41J 2002/012
Ink jet: with intermediate transfer member

Family

US 2003/0067528 A1Pre-grant publication · published 10 Apr 2003
US 6,719,423 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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