Dynamic Surface Tension of UV-Curable Inkjet Inks

摘要

Properties like adhesion of inkjet prints on unporous media are strongly determined by wetting characteristics of ink on media. In contrast to solvent based inks for UV-curable inkjet-systems the ink is not allowed to equilibrate on surfaces because the film is cured within a very short timeframe after jetting. Therefore the static surface tension is not able to characterise the ink-media interaction before the ink curing process is initiated. In a time-scale of milliseconds the dynamic surface tension measured with the maximum pressure bubble method can be used to describe the dynamic processes of ink on unporous media. In this paper we present a study of dynamic surface tension of mono-, di-, and trifunctional acrylates in order to evaluate the effect of molecular weight, structure and the behavior of mixtures on the resulting dynamic surface tension in UV-curable inkjet inks.