Design of Inks for Continuous Ink-Jet Systems

This paper reviews the strategy used at Diconix for developing inks for continuous ink-jet systems. The demands which the printing process and print quality place on the ink are discussed and then translated into a set of physical properties and offline tests. These functional requirements become the target which the ink's chemical formulation is to meet, and their relationships are also discussed as well as interactions among the ink's components. Finally, the question of scaling up the laboratory procedure to a manufacturing process and the role of quality assurance are addressed.