Inking printers

Printing electronics is a multidisciplinary field that requires high standards in material quality, ink, printer and device engineering. Many fundamental problems have already been solved, but still many remain as well, underlining the need of future fundamental research in all facets of printing electronics. 

Aluminium liquid Aluminium paint Coating solution, 3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 Compound, enamel Driers, paint or varnish, liquid, n.o.s. Driers, paint or varnish, solid, n.o.s. Enamel Filler, liquid Ink, printer s, flammable Lacquer Lacquer base, liquid Lacquer base or lacquer chips, plastic, wet with alcohol or solvent Lacquer base, solution, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 Lacquer, liquid Paint driers Paint (including paint, lacquer, enamel, stain, shellac, varnish, polish, liquid filler and liquid lacquer base), 3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3,... 

Classification Azobenzene triphenylmethane color Empirical C33H40CIN3 Properties M.w. 514.15 Toxicology TSCA listed Uses Dye for paper pigment in printing inks solvent dye for ballpen inks, printer ribbons colorant in hair dyes... 

Storage Keep in tightly closed container Uses Basic dye for acrylic fiber pigment in printing inks colorant in hair dyes solvent dye in ballpen ink, printer ribbons Manuf./Distrib. ABCR http //www.abcr.de, Fisher Scientific http //www.fisher1.com... 

Fig. 33 (a) Mass spectrometry image (m/z = 340) by MALDI and (b) optical image of a letter printed with an ink printer. The size of the images are 1500 x 1500 (rm. (Reprinted by permission of Elsevier Science from Automated mass spectrometry imaging with a matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight instrument , by Stoeckli et al., Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, Vol. 10, pg 69, 1999, by the American Society for Mass Spectrometry)... 

Xerox Corporation has filed two patents in which supramolecular polymers are used as binders in ink compositions. One application relates to hot-melt inks, consisting of a colorant and a binder [29]. These inks are solid at temperatures below 50°C, and liquid with a viscosity around 20 cps at 160 C. The binder is a multifunctional low molecular weight compound that has been functionalized with 2 to 5 UPy-groups, resulting in polyether compounds that form supramolecular networks. Mixing these materials at elevated temperatures with other ingredients like UV-stabilizers, antioxidants, and colorants, results in inks that can be used in hot-melt ink printers. 

The aromatic extracts have been used in the paint industry to partially replace linseed oil. They are still used for producing printer s ink. In addition, they are finding a variety of applications as plasticizers in the rubber industry or for the manufacture of plastics such as PVC. 

Printers use colored materials, eg, inks (qv), that absorb or subtract regions of the visible spectmm from white light. Subtractive color is usually represented by the three printer s primaries cyan, magenta, and yeUow (CMY). Cyan absorbs red light, magenta absorbs green, and yeUow absorbs blue light. 

Some of the color deficiencies can be overcome by using a fourth ink, black, which allows printing neutral tones and dark blacks and colors. Black also improves the contrast of an image and its apparent sharpness. Black, usually referred to as K to distinguish it from blue, makes up the fourth member of the printer s primaries, CMYK. 

There are two types of impulse printers (Eig. 19). A piezoelectric ink jet propels a drop by flexing one or more walls of the firing chamber to decrease rapidly the volume of the firing chamber. This causes a pressure pulse and forces out a drop of ink. The flexing wall is either a piezoelectric crystal or a diaphragm driven by a piezoelectric incorporated into the firing chamber (Eig. 19a). Thermal impulse ink jets also propel one drop at a time, but these use rapid bubble formation to force part of the ink in a firing chamber out the orifice (Eig. 19b). 

The earliest significant technical work on piezoelecttic ink jet began in the 1930s and the first tme commercial activity was begun in the late 1960s. This early development effort, aimed at office printing appHcations, had limited commercial success. The first successful piezoelecttic ink-jet printer was introduced in 1977. It printed a relatively cmde character set using an array of 12 jets in its printhead. 

Inks for continuous ink-jet printers typically comprise dyes dissolved in water or solvent having salts added to make the ink conductive for electrostatic charging. Whenever waterproof printing is required, low boiling solvent inks ate used. For printers that ate used in office environments, water is used as the ink solvent. Using water-based inks, humectants may be added to inhibit drying of ink in the sump and surfactants ate added to wet the printing surface. 

Piezoelecttic impulse ink-jet printers ate especially sensitive to bubbles in the ink. A bubble in the firing chamber absorbs some of the comptessional force from the flexing of the chamber wall and reduces drop volume and drop velocity, thereby affecting print quaHty. Because of the limited range of motion of the crystal, bubbles ate not readily ejected, and the loss of print quaHty owing to their presence is persistent. 

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