Ashland Licensing and Intellectual Property LLC

Lisa M Hahn

Sridevi Narayan-Sarathy

Michael L Gould

The present invention relates generally to radiation-curable ink formulations, and particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a family of radiation-curable ink formulations specifically for flexographic and screen printing applications. The inventive ink formulations are based on multifunctional acrylate resins formed by the reaction of acrylate monomers and oligomers with &#x3b2;-keto esters (e.g., acetoacetates), &#x3b2;-diketones (e.g., 2,4-pentanedione), &#x3b2;-keto amides (e.g., acetoacetanilide, acetoacetamide), and/or other &#x3b2;-dicarbonyl compounds that can participate in Michael addition reactions.

Radiation-curable inks for flexographic and screen-printing applications from multifunctional acrylate oligomers

The invention detailed herein comprises a family of multifunctional acrylate oligomers which are useful as pigment grinding vehicles for use in radiation-curable coating formulations. The multifunctional acrylate resins are formed by the reaction of acrylate monomers and oligomers with &#x3b2;-keto esters (e.g., acetoacetates), &#x3b2;-diketones (e.g., 2,4-pentanedione), &#x3b2;-keto amides (e.g., acetoacetanilide, acetoacetamide), and/or other &#x3b2;-dicarbonyl compounds or Michael 'donors' that can participate in the Michael addition reaction. These resin vehicles have a built-in chromophore that enables ink formulations made from their dispersions to cure under standard UV-cure conditions with significantly less photoinitiator than commercial formulations. The resins also exhibit excellent pigment wetting characteristics and can be designed to function as a single dispersion vehicle for different pigments and different ink applications such as screen, flexographic, and lithographic printing.

Multifunctional acrylate oligomers as pigment grinding vehicles for radiation-curable ink applications

The present invention relates generally to radiation-curable ink formulations, and particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a family of radiation-curable ink formulations specifically for lithographic printing applications. The inventive ink formulations are based on multifunctional acrylate resins formed by the reaction of acrylate monomers and oligomers with &#x3b2;-keto esters (e.g., acetoacetates), &#x3b2;-diketones (e.g., 2,4-pentanedione), &#x3b2;-keto amides (e.g., acetoacetanilide, acetoacetamide), and/or other &#x3b2;-dicarbonyl compounds that can participate in Michael addition reactions.

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Delaware, OH, United States of America

Lisa M Hahn