Influence of the Characteristics of Emulsion on Image Quality

Abstract

The inkjet printing system has expanded its application to commercial and ledger sheets, recently labels and packages, with the advantages of broad printing, high density and continuous productivity due to the advance of line type print heads. According to this study, it was found that the ink performance including the O/W type emulsion greatly depends on the characteristics of the emulsion.

The image quality after printing the emulsion-containing ink on paper was found to be decreased as the amount of emulsion in the ink, that is, the number of particles in the droplet was larger, or as the particle size was increased. On the other, the image quality was higher when Tg of emulsion was higher. In addition, it was found that the product of the spreading area of ink droplets indicating the interaction with paper and the glossiness was a new index for predicting image density.

The abrasion resistance was improved when the film formability of the emulsion was good, and it was considered that the addition amount of the emulsion and the glass transition temperature were related to the film forming property. Regarding the fixing property, it was found that when the amount of emulsion was the same as or larger than that of colorant, the entanglement of the polymer landed on the paper was thought to be improved and the fixing property was enhanced.