Simulating Accelerated Commercial In-Window Display: Predicted print longevity for pigment ink systems on a range of media types

摘要

The digital printing industry has largely adopted a standard approach to predicting print life for nominal indoor conditions (i.e. no direct sunlight, potentially glass-covered print). However, currently there is no standard calculation method in wide use for Indoor, "In-Window" display longevity estimates. The actual location of the print could be directly in contact with the window, or near the window (within a meter or two); what these "In-Window" displays have in common is a very high average light intensity-with cyclic exposure-and strong UV spectral component. Thus, simulation methods need to address these conditions. The accelerated light exposure used in this investigation used high intensity Xenon Arc illumination, with a cycled dark / light exposure at controlled temperatures and humidities using a commercially-available device. Inkjet media substrates included nanoporous photo paper, coated paper, "photorag", and inkjet-coated canvas; the effect of lamination was also examined. A range of pigment-ink printers were used to generate the prints. Based on an earlier survey by one of the authors of actual commercial in-window display environments in Southern California, a 12-hour average lux assumption of 6,000 lux was used to convert the simulated exposure optical density loss data to a predicted lifetime in 'year or month' units. As expected, the results were significantly lower than the predicted lifetimes based on the nominal indoor lifetime estimates based on 450 lux / 12-hour average assumption. Different pigment ink systems showed very different levels of fade resistance; lamination was found to potentially increase resistance to fading by a significant factor.