Preparation of UV-Curable Ink-jet Ink for Digital Textile Printing

摘要

Ultraviolet curing technology is widely applied in the field of digital ink-jet ink. It is a new green technology, which is developed by ink manufacturers due to its advantages of high efficiency, energy saving, zero environmental pollution, and excellent physical and chemical properties of UV-curable products.rnCuring performance of UV-curable ink is greatly influenced by polyurethane acrylate (PUA) and monomers. To gain ideal performance such as adhesive strength, film flexibility, solvent-resistance and rigidity, an appropriate amount of PUA and monomers has to be determined respectively. Curing time of UV-curable ink is greatly affected by photo initiators and pigments. In order to improve the curing rate of UV-curable ink, matching of a sort of pigment and its corresponding photointiators is most important.3"5 So a series of experiments were carried out to select the type and dose of photoinitiators. Four basic colors (CMYK) of UV-curable inkjet ink are prepared by changing the varieties and quantities of photoinitiators and pigments. Herein we describe the influence of PUA, monomers, monomer matching, photoinitiators, and pigments on the curing time and curing performance of UV-curable ink. Figure 1. Influence of PUA content on viscosity of UV-curable ink.