Ink‐Jet Ink Technologies

Abstract Inks are composed of colorant and vehicle. Colorants can be categorized as a dye or a pigment where dye is soluble in the vehicle and pigment in not soluble in the vehicle. The vehicle may be aqueous, solvent, solid, or monomer that can be cured by ultraviolet light. Digital ink‐jet inks have similar requirements to analog inks in terms of print quality and durability and also most need to recover quickly from an idle nonprinting state with minimal intervention. Ink‐jet inks are a critical part of the printing process and can be categorized as thermal ink‐jet, piezo ink‐jet, or continuous ink‐jet ink. Each printing process places requirements on the ink. Ink also must be designed for key substrates that will be needed by the customer. Uncoated free sheet paper, photographic ink‐jet paper, and vinyl are key substrates for ink‐jet printing.