Wetting enhancement coating on intermediate transfer member (ITM) for aqueous inkjet intermediate transfer architecture

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9174432-B2
Application number	US-201213716892-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 17, 2012
Priority date	Dec 17, 2012
Publication date	Nov 3, 2015
Grant date	Nov 3, 2015

Abstract

Described herein is a method and apparatus for ink jet printing. The method includes providing a wetting enhancement coating on a transfer member. The wetting enhancement coating includes water; non-water soluble binders selected from the group consisting of acrylic polymers, styrene acrylic polymers, vinyl-acrylic polymers, vinyl acetate ethylene; and a surfactant. The wetting enhancement coating is dried to form a film having a surface energy greater than 25 mJ/m 2 . Ink droplets are ejected onto the film to form an ink image on the film. The ink image is dried and the ink image and film are transferred to a recording medium.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for ink jet printing comprising:
providing a wetting enhancement coating on a transfer member, wherein the wetting enhancement coating comprises; water; non-water soluble binders; and a surfactant;
drying the wetting enhancement coating to form a film having a surface energy greater than 25 mJ/m 2 ;
ejecting ink droplets to form an ink image on the film;
drying the ink image on the film; and
transferring the inkjet image and the film onto a recording medium.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-water soluble binders are selected from the group consisting of acrylic polymers, styrene acrylic polymers, vinyl-acrylic polymers, vinyl acetate ethylene polymers.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-water soluble binders are dispersed in water in a form of emulsion.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-water soluble binders comprise from about 10 weight percent to about 6.0 weight percent of the wetting enhancement coating.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the surfactant comprises an aqueous soluble siloxane.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the surfactant comprises from about 0.1 weight percent to about 2.0 weight percent of the wetting enhancement coating.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the film has a thickness from about 0.1 microns to about 2 microns.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the surface energy greater than 28 mJ/m 2 .

9. An ink jet printer comprising: a transfer member; a wetting enhancement station adjacent said transfer member that provides a wetting enhancement coating on the transfer member wherein the wetting enhancement coating comprises; water; non-water soluble binders selected from the group consisting of acrylic polymers, styrene acrylic polymers, vinyl-acrylic polymers, vinyl acetate ethylene; and a surfactant; a print head adjacent said transfer member that ejects aqueous ink droplets onto a film formed from wetting enhancement coating on the transfer member to form ink images on the wetting enhancement coating; a transfixing station located adjacent said transfer member and downstream from said print head, the transfixing station having a transfixing roll forming a transfixing nip therewith at said transfixing station; a transporting device for delivering a recording medium to the transfixing nip wherein the ink image and film are transferred to the recording medium.

10. The ink jet printer of claim 9 , wherein the non-water soluble binders comprise from about 10 weight percent to about 60 weight percent of the wetting enhancement coating.

11. The ink jet printer of claim 9 , wherein the surfactant comprises soluble siloxane at a loading of from about 0.1 weight percent to about 1.0 weight percent of the wetting enhancement coating.

12. The ink jet printer of claim 9 , wherein the film is not dissolvable by the aqueous ink droplets.

13. The ink jet printer of claim 9 , wherein the film has a thickness from about 0.1 microns to about 2 microns.

14. The ink jet printer of claim 9 , further comprising a dryer positioned between the wetting enhancement station and the print head.

15. An ink jet printer comprising: a transfer member; a wetting enhancement station adjacent said transfer member that provides a wetting enhancement coating on the transfer member wherein the wetting enhancement coating comprises; water; non-water soluble binders selected from the group consisting of acrylic polymers, styrene acrylic polymers, vinyl-acrylic polymers, vinyl acetate ethylene at a loading of from about 10 weight percent to about 60 weight percent of the wetting enhancement coating; and a surfactant; a print head adjacent said transfer member that ejects ink droplets onto a film formed from the wetting enhancement coating on the transfer member to form ink images on the wetting enhancement coating; a transfixing station located adjacent said transfer member and downstream from said print head, the transfixing station having a transfixing roll forming a transfixing nip therewith at said transfixing station; a transporting device for delivering a recording medium to the transfixing nip wherein the ink image and wetting enhancement coating are transferred to the recording medium.

16. The ink jet printer of claim 15 , wherein the surfactant comprises soluble siloxane at a loading of from about 0.1 weight percent to about 2.0 weight percent of the wetting enhancement coating.

17. The ink jet printer of claim 15 , wherein the film is not dissolvable by the ink droplets.

18. The ink jet printer of claim 15 , wherein the film has a thickness from about 0.1 microns to about 2 microns.

19. The ink jet printer of claim 15 , further comprising a dryer positioned between the wetting enhancement station and the print head.

20. The ink jet printer of claim 15 , wherein the film has a surface energy greater than 25 mJ/m 2 .

Assignees

• Xerox Corp

Inventors

• Liu Chu-Heng
• Condello Anthony S
• Mcconville Paul J
• Mettu Srinivas

Classifications

• B41J11/0015

  for treating before, during or after printing or for uniform coating or laminating the copy material before or after printing (selective coating B41J2/2114) · CPC title

• B41J2002/012

  with intermediate transfer member · CPC title

• B41J2/0057

  where an intermediate transfer member receives the ink before transferring it on the printing material · CPC title

• B41J2/2107

  characterised by the ink properties (supplying ink in a solid state B41J2/17593) · CPC title

• B41J2/01 Primary

  Ink jet · CPC title