Printing ink that can really stand the heat
September 17, 2018
A German company has produced a new pigment ink that can still produce a clear typeface at 1000°C.
Paul Leibinger GmbH has announced the launch of a new ink which can still print clearly at temperatures even hotter than lava.
As the company explains, there are few component-labelling inks available on the market which can withstand this kind of heat, but the Tuttlingen-based company’s new release can do just that. This ability to cope with up to 1000°C heat is necessary for printing onto ceramic components, which are hardened in a kiln which produces heat more intense than that of lava, commonly between 600 and 900°.
“The danger is that the ink burns in the oven and dissolves in soot. The typeface, such as a model number, would no longer be readable, so the component would be rejected,” explains Christina Leibinger, Managing Director of Leibinger. “That’s why we have developed a new ink for our CIJ JET3up PI printer, which ensures a reliably readable typeface with high contrasts even at temperatures of up to 1000 ° C.”
Not only ceramics are printable, but also metal and glass, such as light bulbs and halogen lamps. The printer ink is now available and compatible with the Leibinger CIJ printer JET3up PI.
Ink consists of floating, heat-resistant paint particles, as Leibinger explains. The company’s experts were able to modify the particles and medium of the pigment ink in such a way that they could withstand heat of up to 1000 degrees Celsius unscathed. They also found a way to keep the particles in suspension through chemical stabilisation. This slows down the process of so-called sedimentation, in which the pigments settle on the ground.
In addition, the CIJ printer JET3up PI incorporates a stirring mechanism that mixes the ink continuously. “The combination of chemical stabilisation and stirring mechanics ensures a reliable and low-maintenance labeling system.”
The heat-resistant pigment ink is designed for the JET3up PI – a printer that marks products without contact using the so-called Continuous Inkjet (CIJ) technology. In the printhead, an ink jet shoots through a nozzle, which consists of up to 96,000 electrically charged single drops per second. When printing, a high-voltage field changes the trajectory of individual drops, so that they end up as pixels on the product surface. The remaining drops fly into a catcher tube and are sucked back into the circulating hydraulic circuit and used there. The printing technology is fast enough to keep up with conveyor belt speeds of up to 10 m / s. It is also economical. The CIJ printer can print up to 120 million letters with one litre of ink.
For more information visit www.leibinger-group.com.
Categories : Products and Technology
Tags : Leibinger Group Pigment Ink Printing
