Konica-Minolta Holdings, Inc.

Konica Minolta, Inc.

Konica Corporation

Hirotaka Iijima

Akio Maeda

Toshiyuki Takabayashi

Masashi Ikeda

Yasuhiko Kawashima

Hisashi Mori

Kenichi Ohkubo

Teruyuki Fukuda

Takashi Iwata

Satoshi Mori

Masaki Nakamura

Manabu Kaneko

Makoto Kaga

Tomomi Yoshizawa

Naoki Sato

Kenzo Kasahara

Yoshinori Tsubaki

Katsunori Goi

Hitoshi Morimoto

Kunitsuna Sasaki

Tomoe Sekiguchi

An inkjet recording method comprising: shooting to a recording medium an active-light-ray-curable inkjet ink including a photopolymerizable compound, a wax, a photopolymerization initiator, and a coloring material, and that undergoes reversible sol-gel phase transition relative to temperature; and curing the ink by irradiating an active light ray to the ink that has been shot to the recording medium, wherein the ink including a (meta) acrylate compound (B) having a molecular weight of 300-1500 and a ClogP value within the range 4.0 to 7.0, the wax content being 1.0-10 percent by mass of the total mass of the ink, and the temperature of the recording medium at active light ray irradiation being set such that the saturation solubility of the wax with respect to the ink constitutes 0.5 percent by mass or less. According to this image-forming method, blooming is suppressed.

Image-forming method

An active ray-curable inkjet ink which contains a photocurable compound, a photopolymerization initiator, a gelling agent and a non-polymerizable liquid compound that is in a liquid state at 25&#xb0; C., with the liquid compound being contained in an amount of 15-50% by mass relative to the mass of the ink. Since droplets of this active ray-curable inkjet ink are prevented from combining with each other after landing, this active ray-curable inkjet ink is capable of providing high quality images. Meanwhile, the surface gloss of printed images is increased, and printed images having less coating film thickness difference (namely, less relief-like texture) can be formed.

Active ray-curable inkjet ink and image forming method using same

The purpose of the present invention is to provide an inkjet ink degassing method that can sufficiently remove bubbles contained in active ray curable inkjet ink and improve dispensing stability and curability. The inkjet ink degassing method according to the present invention comprises a step of using hollow fibers to degas active ray curable inkjet ink that has been heated to between 60&#xb0; C. and 120&#xb0; C. and contains a colorant, a photopolymerizable compound, and a photoinitiator.

Inkjet ink degassing method, inkjet recording method, and recording apparatus

An inkjet printing method comprises: an inkjet printing device having an inkjet print head with a built-in heater, an ink tank with a built-in heater the tank interior of which communicates with the atmosphere, and an ink supply path that connects the inkjet print head with the ink tank; a process of heating a radiation-curable inkjet ink in the ink tank with a viscosity at 25&#xb0; C. of 1.0&#xd7;10-1.0&#xd7;10mPa&#xb7;s to A&#xb0; C.; a process of supplying the inkjet ink to the inkjet print head; a process of making the inkjet ink in the inkjet print head to be a temperature B&#xb0; C. in the range of 70&#xb0; C. to 120&#xb0; C. and ejecting to the printing medium; and a processing of irradiating radiation on the printing medium. A&#xb0; C. is a temperature 5-30&#xb0; C. higher than B&#xb0; C.

Inkjet printing method

The purpose of the present invention is to provide an actinic ray curable inkjet ink which, in an inkjet printing method, is capable of having both high pinning characteristics and high ejection characteristics. In order to achieve the above purpose, this actinic ray curable inkjet ink includes an actinic ray curable compound, ketone wax, and ester wax, and reversibly goes through a sol-gel phase transition depending on the temperature.

Actinic ray curable inkjet ink and image recording method using same

Disclosed is an aqueous inkjet ink which may contain water, a pigment, an organic or an inorganic acid, an amine, a resin that has a higher pKa than the organic or the inorganic acid, and a cross-linking agent. The aqueous inkjet ink exhibits excellent abrasion resistance even in cases where the drying time is short, while having high bleeding resistance and high storage stability. Also disclosed is a method for forming an inkjet image.

Aqueous inkjet ink and method for forming inkjet image

Provided are an actinic energy radiation curable ink, which can achieve a high fineness and natural glossiness when recording is carried out onto a non-absorptive recording medium such as a film or a laminated paper or a slightly absorptive recording medium such as a coated paper; and an actinic energy radiation curable inkjet recording method. This actinic energy radiation curable ink, which is to be used in inkjet recording, is characterized by: said actinic energy radiation curable ink undergoing reversible sol/gel phase transition depending on temperature; said actinic energy radiation curable ink containing from 1% or more by mass to less than 10% by mass of a gelling agent; and, at temperature Tm (&#xb0; C.) that is separately defined, the storage elastic modulus (G') of the actinic energy radiation curable ink being from 0.1 or more Pa to less than 1000 Pa and the storage elastic modulus (G&#x2032;) being smaller than the loss elastic modulus (G&#x2033;) thereof.

Actinic energy radiation curable inkjet ink and actinic energy radiation curable inkjet recording method

An inkjet ink set comprising: a color ink including a photocurable compound, a photopolymerization initiator, a gelling agent, and a colorant, the color ink undergoing a sol-gel phase transition depending on the temperature; and a clear ink including a photocurable compound, a photopolymerization initiator, and a gelling agent, the clear ink undergoing a sol-gel phase transition depending on the temperature. The viscosity (&#x3b7;) (CL) of the clear ink at 25&#xb0; C. is less than &#xbd; the viscosity (&#x3b7;) (CO) of the color ink at 25&#xb0; C., and the viscosity (&#x3b7;) (CL) of the clear ink is 1&#xd7;10mPa&#xb7;s or greater. Provided is an inkjet ink set by which a printed image offering both high image quality and surface gloss can be formed.

Inkjet ink set, and method for forming image using same

Disclosed is an actinic energy radiation curable inkjet ink which can be printed on various types of recording media, has excellent printed image quality and excellent fixability particularly on coated printing paper, and is improved in storage stability and ejection stability. Also disclosed is an inkjet recording method using the actinic energy radiation curable inkjet ink. The actinic energy radiation curable inkjet ink is characterized by containing a compound represented by Formula (1) or a compound represented by Formula (2) in an amount of not less than 0.1% by mass and less than 20% by mass based on a total mass of the ink.

Actinic energy radiation curable inkjet ink and inkjet recording method

The active ray-curable inkjet ink comprises a gelling agent, photopolymerizable compounds and a photoinitiator, and reversibly transitions into a sol-gel phase according to the temperature. Therein: (1) a (meth)acrylate compound having a molecular weight of 300-1,500 and having 3-14 (&#x2014;CH&#x2014;CH&#x2014;O&#x2014;) structural units within a molecule is included as the first photopolymerizable compound at a proportion of 30-70 mass % relative to the total mass of the ink; (2) a (meth)acrylate compound having a molecular weight of 300-1,500 and a C log P value of 4.0-7.0 is included as the second photopolymerizable compound at a proportion of 10-40 mass % relative to the total mass of the ink; and (3) the gelling agent has a total of at least 12 carbon atoms, and has a straight or branched alkyl chain including at least three carbon atoms.

Active ray-curable inkjet ink, and image formation method

A printed matter production process including ejecting droplets of an actinic ray curable inkjet ink in a heated state through a head to supply the droplets onto a recording medium, thereby forming an image, the actinic ray curable inkjet ink including a polymerizable compound, a photopolymerization initiator and a gelling agent, having a viscosity of from 60 to 200 mPasecond at 25&#xb0; C. and at a shear rate of 1000/second and showing a phase transition at a temperature of not lower than 25&#xb0; C., characterized in that the actinic ray curable inkjet ink includes a bifunctional polymerizable compound with a molecular weight of not lower than 400 and with a viscosity at 25&#xb0; C. of not more than 100 mPasecond in an amount of not less than 75 % by mass of the total amount of the polymerizable compound.

Printed matter production process, printed matter and actinic ray curable inkjet ink

Provided is a print preparation method possessing an ejection step in which liquid drops of actinic energy radiation curable type ink-jet ink each containing a polymerizable compound, a photo-polymerizable initiator and a gelling agent are injected from an ink-jet recording head to supply the actinic energy radiation curable type ink-jet ink onto a recording medium, and an actinic energy radiation exposure step, wherein the print preparation method further comprises step (A) in which the recording medium is exposed to electromagnetic waves having a longer wavelength than a wavelength of an absorption wavelength of the photo-polymerization initiator contained in the actinic energy radiation curable type ink-jet ink from a side of a surface on which the image is formed, before conducting the actinic energy radiation exposure step, the print preparation method by which a print having images exhibiting excellent image wear resistance, gloss evenness and image density evenness is provided.

Print preparation method

Provided is a method for forming an image using an ink-jet recording method which forms the image with a single pass printing method employing an ink comprising water in an amount of 20 to 90 weight % based on the total weight of the ink, a pigment and a water soluble resin containing an acidic group which is neutralized with ammonia or an amine compound, the method containing the steps of: applying a processing solution on a coated paper for printing; and ejecting droplets of the ink on the coated paper for printing, wherein the processing solution is capable of aggregating an ingredient of the ink or increasing a viscosity of the ink, and the coated paper for printing is heated from 40 to 60&#xb0; C. during the step of ejecting the droplets of the ink.

Image forming method

Provided are an aqueous ink-jet ink and a method for forming an ink-jet image enabling to decrease bleed occurrence during high-speed printing and to realize highly detailed image quality. An aqueous ink-jet ink characterized by containing water, a pigment, an organic or inorganic amine salt, and a water-soluble resin having a higher pKa than an acid component formed by dissociation of the amine salt in an ink.

Method for forming ink-jet image

A degassing method of an ink-jet ink comprising at least a pigment, and having a viscosity of not less than 10 mPa&#xb7;second and not more than 50 mPa&#xb7;second at 25&#xb0; C., comprising the step of: carrying out degassing employing an external refluxing type hollow fiber degassing module under a condition of a pressure loss of the hollow fiber degassing module during degassing being less than 0.1 MPa.

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Tokyo, Japan

Hirotaka Iijima