Seiko Epson Corporation

Mikuni Color Ltd.

Hiroto Nakamura

Hidehiko Komatsu

Masahiro Yatake

Michinari Tsukahara

Hitoshi Fukushima

Katsumori Takei

Hideo Yamazaki

Kohei Iwamoto

Akio Owatari

Kazutoshi Fujisawa

Toshiyuki Miyabayashi

Hitoshi Ohta

Makoto Matsuzaki

Kenichi Kanbayashi

Yasuko Hirano

Fumie Uehara

Masataka Kamijo

Toshio Kumagai

Takahiro Naka

Hiroyuki Onishi

Kazuhiko Hara

Hiroko Hayashi

Makoto Fujino

Osamu Ishibashi

Yoshiyuki Ozawa

Naoki Okamoto

Masakazu Shinozuka

Yoshiyuki Koike

Minoru Waki

Fumitsugu Ito

Kazumi Adachi

Noriko Oyama

Yaeko Maruyama

Yoshie Hosono

Yoshie Kumagai

Toshiyasu Minami

A waste liquid tank is arranged outside a printer. A connection port arranged at an upstream end of a duct extending from the waste liquid tank is connected to a transfer device. The transfer device is connected to a discharge side of a suction pump for drawing in ink from a nozzle of a recording head of the printer through a duct.

Waste liquid recovery apparatus, relay and liquid jetting apparatus

Provided are ink jet ink excellent in dispersion stability and ejection stability and capable of forming images with fastness, abrasion resistance, color developability, and high density with little feathering; a microencapsulated pigment (MCP) providing the ink and a process of making the same; and an aqueous dispersion of the MCP. The MCP comprises pigment particles having a hydrophilic group on their surface (hydrophilized pigment particles) and coated with a polymer by emulsion polymerization. The process comprises emulsion polymerization in the presence of the hydrophilized pigment particles. The ink essentially contains the MCP and water.

Microencapsulated pigment, production process therefor, aqueous dispersion, and ink jet recording ink

An object is to provide a recorded article or sticker whereby counterfeited articles and genuine articles can be visually distinguished in simple fashion in the market and wherein it is not possible to identify in the market the location and type of the anti-counterfeiting measures that have been taken. Both an overt region(which can be recognized visually in the market) are printing using a color-change ink or liquid-crystal ink, for example, and a covert regionformed by for example optical retro-reflective printing (which cannot be recognized without using a special tool) are provided on the surface of the same recording medium. The overt regionand the covert regionmay be arranged at different locations or may overlap, or may be positionally aligned. The overt letter/design pattern and the covert letter/design pattern may be the same or different. An overt recording that is printed using liquid-crystal ink may also function as a covert recording by employing a genuineness inspection method using a circularly polarized plate. A sticker may be provided with one or a plurality of cuts such that the sticker is broken when peeled off, so that it cannot be re-used.

Recorded matter having countermeasure against forging

Recorded article with anti-counterfeit measures

Microencapsulated pigment, production process therefor, aqueous dispersion and ink jet recording ink

A printing paperhas memory elementsarranged on an upper left corner and a lower right corner on the surface thereof. Each of the memory elementsstores printing information used for printing, such as a paper size and a paper type, and transmits the printing information by radio wave, when receiving radio wave of a preset wavelength. A printerhas two information collection unitsattached to a left end and a right end on a rear side of a carriage mechanism. Each of the information collection unitstransmits the radio wave of the preset wavelength and receives the printing information transmitted from the memory elementin response to reception of this transmitted radio wave. The printing paperis set in the printerand is used for printing. The printercarries out printing with settings of a paper size, a paper type, and a paper direction, based on the printing information received by the information collection unit

Printing paper with memory element mounted thereon and printing technique using such printing paper

Ink for ink jet recording

An ink for ink jet recording including at least a particulate pigment having a sulfur-containing dispersibility providing group chemically bonded to the pigment surface with a treatment containing sulfur, a penetrating agent and a liquid component including water. In one embodiment, the liquid component includes polyvalent metal ions and has a sulfur content that is 2,000 ppm or less as calculated in terms of SO . In other embodiments, the ink has (a) a sulfonic acid anion group or a sulfinic acid anion group and an alkaline metal or monovalent counter ion; (b) a penetrating agent having the formula R&mdash;EOn &mdash;POm &mdash;X; and (c) a sulfur-containing dispersibility providing group in an amount of 10&times;10 equivalent or more per gram of particulate pigment.

Ink for ink-jet recording and process for producing the same, ink set for ink-jet recording, and ink cartridge

The present invention provides an ink composition for an ink jet recording process, which exhibits excellent print quality with good water fastness and light fastness and without flying in deflected directions from the ink head or nozzle fill-in even after a prolonged ink jet printing. The ink comprises (1) a carbon black, (2) an organic pigment, (3) a dispersant incorporated in an aqueous medium and (4) a saccharide.

Ink composition for ink jet recording, process for the preparation thereof, and ink jet recording process using said ink composition

Disclosed is a pigment dispersion that can be used for an ink jet printing-use pigment ink that affords stable printing characteristics and has excellent storage stability in an ink jet printer having a head driven at a high frequency and having finer nozzles in order to enhance image quality and raise the speed. Disclosed is also a method for manufacturing this pigment dispersion. This manufacturing method includes a step of surface-treating a self-dispersing type of pigment, in which at least hydrophilic, dispersibility-imparting group is introduced to the pigment surface directly and/or via a polyvalent group, and a step of dispersing the self-dispersing pigment obtained in said surface-treating step in an aqueous medium, wherein the dispersion step is a step in which at least the self-dispersing pigment, a wetting agent, and water are dispersed in the form of a liquid mixture.

Method for manufacturing pigment dispersion, pigment dispersion obtained by this method, and ink jet recording ink using same

Disclosed are an ink composition which can satisfy, on a high level, various property requirements for ink compositions for use in ink jet recording (e.g., excellent ejection stability and realization of images free from feathering or color-to-color bleeding) and can realize good images by sublimation transfer. A sublimation transfer ink jet recording method using the ink composition is also disclosed. The ink composition comprises a heat transferable dye, a glycol ether, an acetylene glycol surfactant, and water. This ink composition is printed by ink jet recording onto an intermediate transfer medium to form a latent image on the intermediate transfer medium, and the intermediate transfer medium is then put on the surface of a receptor object, followed by heating of the intermediate transfer medium at a sufficient temperature and for a sufficient time to sublimate the heat transferable dye and to deposit the sublimated dye onto the surface of the receptor object. This recording method can realize good transferred images suffering from minimized bleeding.

Sublimation transfer ink jet recording method and ink composition for use therein

Ink jet recording method and ink composition for use in said method

An ink composition for ink jet recording is described comprising a pigment, a resin dispersant, a thermoplastic resin emulsion and water, wherein the weight ratio of the pigment to the resin dispersant is from 20:1 to 5:2. The foregoing ink composition is little susceptible to irregular bleeding on a recording medium, undergoes no change in physical properties and jettability and no precipitation of solid matter and exhibits an excellent redispersibility.

Ink composition for ink jet recording and ink jet recording process

An agglomerated pigment comprises (1) an organic pigment compound, (2) either a sulfonated organic pigment compound obtained by incorporating at least one sulfonic group into the organic pigment compound or a sulfonated organic pigment derivative obtained by incorporating at least one sulfonic group into a derivative of the organic pigment compound, (3) univalent inorganic counter ions bonded to sulfonic groups of component (2), and (4) bivalent or higher inorganic counter ions which are bonded to sulfonic groups of component (2) and wherein each such group has an at least univalent positive charge, the surface of the agglomerated organic pigment as a whole being positively charged. An aqueous pigment dispersion and a water-based ink composition both having excellent storage stability, an agglomerated pigment for use as a raw material for the dispersion, and a process for producing the pigment are provided.

Agglomerated pigment, process for producing the same, aqueous pigment

Ink jet recording method and apparatus therefor

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Nagano, Japan

Hiroto Nakamura