Date of Award

4-1999

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Chemical and Paper Engineering

Department

Paper Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Imaging

First Advisor

Dr. Thomas Joyce

Second Advisor

Dr. Sasha Pekarovicova

Third Advisor

Dr. Jerry Hamelink

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

It is well known that variations in ink temperature cause a variation in color density and viscosity. The viscosity of almost all liquids decreases with increasing temperature. In this research project, three different ink temperatures were selected to measure the effects of temperature control on solvent and ink consumption and on printability. Two colors were selected (magenta and cyan) and two heat exchangers were constructed to cool and/or heat the ink.

It was found that variations in ink temperature cause variation in solvent and ink consumption. As the temperature of the ink increases, solvent consumption and ink consumption increase, but print quality decreases. At higher ink temperatures, the pigment to solvent ratio is higher, thus printing with more ink particles and less solvent. A decreasing solvent to pigment ratio decreases drying time, thus wettability was the major printing problem. This research project proves that packaging printers may not only decrease ink and solvent consumption by reducing ink temperature, but may also increase print quality.

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