UV-Curing InK-Jet Inks

Ink jet printing and UV-curing technologies have developed in parallel. The digital printing market offers new opportunities for UV curing technology. The advantages of UV curing now recognized in coating, adhesives and other types of inks are becoming available to the ink jet market. The foreign manufacturers have integrated ink jet print heads, printing mechanism, UV-curable inks and UV-curing systems to address a number of industrial printing needs.The advantages of UV-curing inkjet inks are, (1) Emit little to no VOC solvents reducing worker exposure to hazardous substancesand environmental pollution, (2) Will not dry during print process before curing , (3) Will dry almost instantly when cured,(4) Have good qualities of printing, light fastness .scratch resistance, (5) Provide consistent ink composition throughout the length of print runs withoutsolvent loss,(6) Do not produce set-off using impact printing processes, (7) Are compatible with each other, (8) No waste inks.The strict property requirements of an inkjet ink formulation in terms of viscosity, cure speed, cured film performance, pigment wetting and friendly EH&S profile present many challengers to the ink formulator and the supplier of UV curable raw material. The paper introduces the properties of the raw material and how to choose it.There are acrylate polyurethane, HDDA and EOEOEA, Solsperse 24000 and Iragacure 369,Iragacure819; Iragacure2020.Acrylate polyurethane is synthesized by myself. The experiment puts great emphasis on dispersion of pigment into ink and the match of pigment and potoinitator. Based on the theory of dispersion of pigment into ink, making use of SEM, find out the best dispersant Solsperse24000. UV-curing of acrylatepolyurethane was reviewed. Especially the synthesis method of PUA and the function of each component were discussed. But cured-film does not give satisfaction and its adhesive strength and flexibility are not good. We should have the further research.Han Yangfang (Environment Engineering)Supervised by Wang-Xiaqin...