L&p Property Management Company

Milan Badovinac

Richard N Codos

William W Collan

Robert B Comerford

Angelo Quattrociocchi

An ink jet printing is provided on large area such as wide textile webs, having such pores or other opening therethrough such that, when ink is jetted from a print head onto the web, some of the ink jets through the opening to a side of the web opposite the print head. At the printing station, maintaining a space between the web and the surface such that the web is out of contact with the surface at the printing station so that when ink jetted through the web and onto the surface it does not contaminate the web.

Method and apparatus for ink jet printing

Ink jet printing is provided on large area substrates such as wide width textile webs. The printheads are driven by linear servo motors across a bridge that extends across the substrate. The timing of the jetting of the ink is coordinated with the motion of the printheads, so that the heads can be rapidly moved and the ink can be jetted while the printheads are accelerating or decelerating as they move on the bridge. Preferably, ultraviolet (UV) light curable ink is jetted and first partially cured with UV light and then subjected to heating to more completely reduce uncured monomers of the ink on the substrate.

Method and apparatus for ink jet printing on textiles

Ink jet printing is provided onto fabric using ultraviolet (UV) light curable ink. The ink is first partially cured with UV light and then is subjected to heating to more completely cure the ink and to remove by evaporation or otherwise, the uncured monomers and producing a printed image of ink having an amount of unpolymerized monomers and polymerization reactants and byproducts that is less than a food industry packaging standard of 100 PPM, and as low as 10 PPM. The printing is provided in a quilting machine having a quilting station and a printing station located upstream of the quilting station. Preferably, at the printing station, only a top layer of fabric is printed with a multi-colored design under the control of a programmed controller. UV curable ink is jetted onto the fabric with a dot volume of about 75 picoliters. A conveyor moves the printed fabric from the printing station through a UV curing station where a UV curing light head moves either with the print head or independent of the print head to expose the deposited drops of UV ink with a beam of about 300 watts per linear inch of energy, at a rate that applies about 1 joule per square centimeter. The conveyor then conveys the fabric through a heated drying station or oven where the fabric is heated to about 300&deg; F. for from about 30 seconds up to about three minutes. Forced hot air is preferably used to apply the heat in the oven, but other heating methods such as infrared or other radiant heaters may be used. Before, or preferably after, the heat curing, the fabric is combined with other material layers and a quilted pattern is applied in program controlled coordination with the printed pattern.

Ink jet printing is provided onto fabric using ultraviolet (UV) light curable ink. The ink is first cured with UV light to about a 90-97% cure, and then is subjected to heating to more completely cure the ink and to remove by evaporation or otherwise, the uncured monomers and producing a printed image of ink having less than 100 PPM of uncured monomers, and as low as 10 PPM of uncured monomers. The printing is provided in a quilting machine having a quilting station and a printing station located upstream of the quilting station. Preferably, at the printing station, only a top layer of fabric is printed with a multicolored design under the control of a programmed controller. UV curable ink is jetted at a dot density of about 180&times;254 dots or more per inch per color, each dot of about 80 picoliters. A conveyor moves the printed fabric from the printing station through a UV curing station where a UV curing light head moves either with the print head or independent of the print head to expose the deposited drops of UV ink with a beam of about 300 watts per linear inch of energy, at a rate that applies about 1 joule per square centimeter. The conveyor then conveys the fabric through a heated drying station or oven where the fabric is heated to about 300&deg; F. for from about 30 seconds up to about three minutes. Forced hot air is preferably used to apply the heat in the oven, but other heating methods such as infrared or other radiant heaters may be used. Before, or preferably after, the heat curing, the fabric is combined with other material layers and a quilted pattern is applied in program controlled coordination with the printed pattern.

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Mississauga, Canada

Milan Badovinac