Method of enchancing adhesion of liquid toner printed on a substrate, and products therefrom

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017336725-A1
Application number	US-201715598145-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 17, 2017
Priority date	May 18, 2016
Publication date	Nov 23, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method of improving the adhesion of a liquid ink to a substrate where the ink is applied to the substrate using an LEP printing process, and products therefrom.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of enhancing adhesion of an image to at least one surface of a substrate where the image was from an electrophotographic printer utilizing liquid toner technology and the image was based on a liquid toner, the method, comprising treating at least a portion of a substrate prior to printing with a composition comprising a water soluble or water dispersible binder and a water soluble or water dispersible binder additive, wherein the binder additive comprises a polymer comprising one or more repeat units, wherein the one or more repeat units has a localized strong, negatively charged dipole and no strongly positively charged dipole.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the binder additive comprises a polymer having at least one repeat unit comprising a tertiary amide group, wherein (i) at least one of the carbon atoms bonded to the nitrogen atom of the tertiary amide group has two or three hydrogen atoms bonded thereto, and (ii) the nitrogen of the tertiary amide group is bonded to a carbonyl group bonded to a —CH, —CH 2 , or —CH 3 group.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the binder additive comprises a polymer produced from one or more monomers selected from the group consisting of vinylpyrrolidone, an oxazoline-containing monomer, N-vinyl piperidinone, vinylcaprolactam, N,N-dimethyl acrylamide, and combinations thereof and (ii) optionally one or more non-ionic monomers or optionally (iii) one or more non-hydrogen bonding monomers.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the oxazoline-containing monomer is selected from the group consisting of 2-ethyl-2-oxazoline, 2-methyloxazoline, and combinations thereof.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer is selected for the group consisting of poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline), poly(2-methyloxazoline), or polyvinylpyrrolidone.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer has a number average molecular weight greater than 40,000 Daltons.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the binder is selected from the group consisting of polyvinyl alcohol, oxidized starch, cationized starch, esterified starch, enzymatically denatured starch, gelatin, casein, soybean protein, carboxy-methyl cellulose, hydroxyethyl cellulose, acrylic emulsion, vinyl acetate emulsion, vinylidene chloride emulsion, polyester emulsion, styrene-butadiene emulsion, acrylonitrile-butadiene latex, and combinations thereof.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the binder comprises a water soluble hydroxyl-group containing polymer.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is selected from the group consisting of paper products, a woven fibrous material, non-woven fibrous material, plastic, and combinations thereof.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the liquid toner comprises a suspension of pigment or pigment containing particles in a nonaqueous liquid.

11 . A printed substrate produced by the method of claim 1 .

12 . The printed substrate of claim 11 , wherein the substrate is a paper product.

13 . The printed substrate of claim 12 , wherein the paper product is uncoated.

14 . The printed substrate of claim 12 , wherein the amount of binder additive on each treated side of the paper product is in a range of from about 0.0075 to about 0.375 g/m 2 of the paper on a dry weight basis.

15 . The printed substrate of claim 12 , wherein the amount of binder additive on the paper product is in a range of from about 0.02 to about 1 wt % of the paper product on a dry weight basis.

16 . The printed substrate of claim 11 , wherein the image has an adhesion to the substrate of greater than 90% as measured by the Tape Pull Test using 3M 230 tape.

17 . A method of enhancing adhesion of a liquid toner based image to at least one surface of a substrate, comprising:
(a) surface treating at least a portion of at least one surface of a substrate with a composition comprising a binder and a binder additive to form a print receiving coating on at least a portion of the at least one surface of the substrate; and (b) liquid electrophotographic printing an image on at least a portion of the print receiving coating using a liquid toner;
wherein the binder additive comprises a polymer comprising one or more repeat units, wherein the one or more repeat units has a localized strong, negatively charged dipole and no strongly positively charged dipole.

18 . A printed material, comprising:
(a) a treated substrate comprising a substrate treated with a composition comprising a binder and a binder additive to form a treated substrate, and (b) an image on at least a portion of one surface of the treated substrate, wherein the image is printed on the treated substrate using a liquid electrophotographic printer and a liquid toner;
wherein the binder additive comprises a polymer comprising one or more repeat units, wherein the one or more repeat units has a localized strong, negatively charged dipole and no strongly positively charged dipole.

19 . The printed material of claim 18 , wherein the treatment comprises a surface treatment of the composition on at least a portion of at least one side of a substrate.

Assignees

• Solenis Tech Lp

Inventors

• Varnell Daniel F

Classifications

• G03G7/008

  being macromolecular · CPC title

• C09D179/02

  Polyamines · CPC title

• C09D5/002

  Priming paints (C09D5/08 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C09D103/04

  Starch derivatives · CPC title

• G03G7/004

  obtained by reactions only involving carbon-to-carbon unsaturated bonds · CPC title