Digital print with water-based ink

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9605168-B2
Application number	US-201514610256-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 30, 2015
Priority date	Jan 31, 2014
Publication date	Mar 28, 2017
Grant date	Mar 28, 2017

Abstract

Water-based ink comprising a pigment mix and a method to form a digital print on a substrate with a pigment mix comprising large pigments and a Piezo ink head equipped with an ink circulation system, the method including: providing a water-based ink including an aqueous pigment mix including settling pigments, a binder including an acrylic resin dispersion, and a viscosity increasing substance including glycol and/or glycerine, providing a steric stabilization of the pigments and adapting the size of the pigments and the viscosity of the water-based ink such that a settling velocity of the pigments exceeds about 0.001 mm/min at 25° C., circulating said water-based ink within said at least one Piezo print head, and printing a digital image with said at least one Piezo print head by applying ink drops of said water-based ink on the substrate.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of printing a digital image on a substrate attached to a panel with at least one Piezo print head, the method comprising:
providing a water-based ink comprising:
an aqueous pigment mix comprising pigments,
a binder comprising an acrylic resin dispersion and
a viscosity increasing substance comprising glycol and/or glycerine,

providing a steric stabilisation of the pigments and adapting the size of the pigments and the viscosity of the water-based ink such that a settling velocity of the pigments exceeds about 0.001 mm/min at 25° C.,
circulating said water-based ink within said at least one Piezo print head, and
printing a digital image with said at least one Piezo print head by applying ink drops of said water-based ink on the substrate.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the pigments have an average diameter of about 200-500 nm and a diameter variation of at least 90% of the pigments is within 100 nm-1000 nm.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least 90% of the pigments have a diameter exceeding 250 nm.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least 90% of the pigments have a diameter smaller than 800 nm.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the viscosity of the water-based ink is about 5-50 cps at 25° C.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the digital image is a wood design comprising a first and a second base colour, and wherein at least one of the first and second base colour is formed by said water-based ink comprising said aqueous pigment mix.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the water-based ink comprises a spot colour.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the spot colour is applied as overlapping drops comprising a drop size of at least 30 picoliters.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising applying heat and pressure to the substrate after printing.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises a thermosetting resin.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the substrate is powder based.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises a paper.

13. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the Piezo print head comprises a nozzle opening with a diameter of at least 30 microns.

14. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein settling velocity of the pigments is 0.01-1 mm/min at 25° C.

15. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein providing steric stabilization of the pigments comprises including a dispersing agent in the water-based ink.

16. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the viscosity increasing substance comprises at least 30 wt % of glycol and/or glycerine.

17. A method of printing a digital image on a substrate attached to a panel with at least one Piezo print head, the method comprising:
providing a water-based ink comprising:
an aqueous pigment mix comprising pigments,
a binder comprising an acrylic resin dispersion, and
a viscosity increasing substance comprising glycol and/or glycerine,

adapting the size of the pigments such that the average diameter of the pigments is about 200-500 nm and such that a diameter variation of at least 90% of the pigments is within 100 nm-1000 nm and providing a steric stabilisation of the pigments,
circulating said water-based ink within said at least one Piezo print head, and
printing a digital image with said at least one Piezo print head by applying ink drops of said water-based ink on the substrate.

18. The method as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the viscosity of the water-based ink is about 5-50 cps at 25° C.

19. The method as claimed in claim 17 , wherein at least 90% of the pigments have a diameter exceeding 250 nm.

20. The method as claimed in claim 17 , wherein at least 90% of the pigments have a diameter smaller than 800 nm.

21. The method as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the digital image is a wood design comprising a first and a second base colour, and wherein at least one of the first and the second base colour is formed by said water-based ink comprising said aqueous pigment mix.

22. The method as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the water-based ink comprises a spot colour.

23. The method as claimed in claim 22 , wherein the spot colour is applied as overlapping drops comprising a drop size of at least 30 picoliters.

24. The method as claimed in claim 17 , further comprising applying heat and pressure to the substrate after printing.

25. The method as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the substrate comprises a thermosetting resin.

26. The method as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the substrate is powder based.

27. The method as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the substrate comprises a paper.

28. The method as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the Piezo print head comprises a nozzle opening with a diameter of at least 30 microns.

29. The method as claimed in claim 17 , wherein providing steric stabilization of the pigments comprises including a dispersing agent in the water-based ink.

30. The method as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the viscosity increasing substance comprises at least 30 wt % of glycol and/or glycerine.

Assignees

• Ceraloc Innovation Ab

Inventors

• Pervan Darko

Classifications

• C09D11/107 Primary

  from unsaturated acids or derivatives thereof · CPC title

• C09D11/38

  characterised by non-macromolecular additives other than solvents, pigments or dyes · CPC title

• B41J2/2107 Primary

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

• C09D11/322

  Pigment inks · CPC title

• B41J2/01

  Ink jet · CPC title