The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 03, 2001
Filed:
Sep. 04, 1996
Shunqiong Yue, San Diego, CA (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A high gloss pigmented surface is formed in an inkjet printer by first applying a liquid pigmented ink in the form of a liquid suspension medium containing individual particles of pigment and a suitable binder onto a smooth surface of a sheet of print medium to thereby form a printed image, then drying (fixing) the printed image by evaporating or absorbing the suspension medium until the pigment has adhered to the smooth surface of the print medium in the form of clumps of particles having a rough top surface, and then heating the rough top surface until it has softened and flowed together to form a high gloss pigmented layer having a smooth upper surface. Preferably, a relatively low level of heat is applied for a relatively long time to the liquid ink and the print medium to thereby speed up the evaporating or absorption of the suspension medium, and then a relatively high level of heat is applied for a relative short period of time to heat the surface of the already fixed image without burning or distorting the underlying print media, thereby providing the image with the desired high gloss finish. In one practical embodiment, the ink is applied by an inkjet printing mechanism which applies and fixes the printed image as a sequence of individual horizontal image swaths, using unheated ambient temperature air to dry and fix each individual horizontal swath of the image as the ink is being applied, and the high heat level is produced by a jet of heated air directed against the upper surface of the print medium as a separate step after the entire image has been printed and fixed.