Nanotechnology enters the printing industry

I. Introduction

The development and evolution of printing technology, the content is from symbols through text to black and white to color; manuscripts from analogy to digital; production methods from manual to mechanical and then computer automation; and India from ink, oily to the current nano-imprint ink. While developing digital inkjet printing globally, its core technology is not only focusing on how to develop high-speed, high-volume, low-cost machines, but also on inkjet and laser consumables research and development. In particular, the main nano pigments or functional pigments nowadays are most suitable for the requirements of wide color gamut, water resistance, weather resistance, low cost, high value, and applicable to a variety of substrates. At present, the application of nano-pigment is based on traditional printing ink and ink jet printing, and it has room for development. What is the ideal colorant property:

1. Fresh

2. Good penetration

3. High color intensity

4. Lightfastness

5. Water resistance

6. Durability

In general, dyes have the advantages of fresh color, naturalness and good penetration, and problems of being resistant to water, light resistance, and poor tolerance. Usually applies to textiles, wood and indoor printing, etc.; while traditional pigments have the advantages of water resistance, light resistance, and weather resistance, but there are shortcomings of insufficient color, saturation, poor color strength. Suitable for printing, coating, outdoor printing. The main difference between nanoscale pigments that have been developed in the current laboratory is the size of the particles. The average particle size of conventional pigments varies from 100 to several micrometers (um), while nano-sized pigments are defined as less than 100 nm. The current appearance of nano-scale products is mostly darker than the original color. The reason is that the particles become smaller and the body surface area becomes larger. As the light penetrates through the paint, the small particles continuously scatter and the light that passes through is smaller. As a result, the reflectivity drops and the optical properties change, so that it looks a little darker. The viscosity also varies from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands of lower viscosity (about less than 20 cps).

two. Industry entry point

1. Development of digital inkjet stations and ink heads: Digital ink jet printers and their consumables are currently in low demand in the market. They are mainly based on water-based pigments and dyes; they may also involve the development of patents by other companies. , it can be another quick-drying or hardening of the machine and the ink head in two aspects.

2. Preparation of Pigment Dispersed Color Masterbatch: At present, it is a technical cooperation between Japan and other countries, and it is necessary to develop its own technology so that the upstream and downstream industries can be connected and not limited to others.

3. Traditional ink formulation technology: When the pigment reaches the nano-sized particles, the particles are easy to aggregate, so the particle stabilization technology is the primary condition.

4. Digital inkjet formulation technology: Application of various types of water-based inkjet ink (table, wide and industrial), UV-curable inkjet.

Its main niche point depends on the following four points:

1. Replace imported products

2. Establish new product technology

3. Reduce costs

4. Diffusion application technology

three. Application of nano pigments in inkjet printing

1. Digital ink jet or traditional color filter

2. Desktop/Industrial/Commercial/Wide/Photo Inkjet Printers

3. UV Curing InkJetInk to Large Signage/Posters

four. What is nano?

Nanometers are descriptions of material dimensions, with 1 nanometer (nm) lengths of 10-9 meters. At the nanometer scale, generally referred to as being between 1 nm and 100 nm, the properties of the material do not belong to the macroscopic visual field of classical physics, nor do they belong to the microscopic behavior of quantum physics, but rather to the so-called physics. Mesoscopicphenomena. Nanomaterials refer to atomic clusters (including crystallites or phases) that are at least one-dimensionally sized from 1 nm to 100 nm and therefore include clusters of nanoparticles, fibers, particle films, multilayer films, or nanophase materials. (1nm=10-9m). The dimensions of nanoscience are:

m -100m

Mm --10-3m

Micron --10-6m

Nano--10-9m

Fives. The difficulties and technical bottlenecks of pigment nanocrystallization:

Today's pigments are generally aggregated macroparticles of several micrometers to submicron units. Now to reach nanometer-sized particle sizes (<30 nm), the specific surface area is changed from 1 unit to 100 units, and the van der Waals force is also greater than Above 100, at this time, its most important problems lie in the two aspects of the grinding and dispersion technology and the inkjet formulation and colloidal dispersion stability technology.

1. Grinding and Dispersion Technology: In the process of pigment micronization, the grinding method is mainly based on wet grinding and dispersion. The method is to impact and grind with high energy dispersant and high collision frequency (20~30m/s). Here are the two main parts of the grinder and the grinding material.

A. Grinding machine:

(a). Traditional grinding machines: There are two vertical and horizontal types. Nowadays, horizontal bead mills are generally used. The disadvantages are the complex system design, difficult maintenance, and expensive grinding media (>0.25 mm). The vertical bead mill is rarely used due to the large weight of the ball and its concentration in the bottom of the machine, resulting in uneven grinding.

(b) Nano-scale dispersion equipment: The Institute of Chemical Industry has developed a new grinding media separation system to improve the current equipment. It is a material manufacturing equipment that can wear, high heat transfer effect, can use ultra-fine media (<100um) grinding processing, improve the blade rotation speed (> 15 ~ 30m / s) machine.

B. Grinding medium: The current grinding material is mostly lanthanum or zirconium material, and the traditional grinding material is 0.30-1.0 mm, while the real good material is less than 0.1 mm (ultra fine media). It can increase the collision point between particles and increase the effective shear surface.

2. Ink-jet formula and colloidal dispersion stabilization technique: To prevent the cohesion between particles from affecting its stability, dispersants or surfactants may be used for the treatment. The principle is to add the dispersant or surfactant to make the surface of the particles charged. Based on the principle of same-sex repulsion, the particles will not attract and accumulate to each other, so as to achieve stability.

six. Nanopigment Application / Market:

Application content

Seven. Conclusion:

Nano-pigment technology can be widely applied to every technology, such as the traditional printing ink, can increase the color saturation and reduce the number of color masterbatch; on the inkjet printer can increase the color gamut 1 times and durable In the display area, the color gamut can be increased and the light penetrability exceeds 10% or more; on the textile ink-jet, there can be a small amount of diversified fabrics for inkjet and the advantages of environmental protection and low pollution ... and so on, even for medical use. And make-up special products can be used for effective use. At the same time, two things to note: cost and effectiveness. If the product developed has a high unit cost, it may be difficult to popularize and the market may not accept it. In addition, if the effect is not as expected or if the difference between the original process and product is not significant, the same is true. Will affect the follow-up research power. Therefore, nano-pigment is the new trend in the future, but we are not sticking to the size of the particle size, but focusing on the benefits of micro-refining, in order to increase the added value of the product and enhance the competitiveness of the industry, it is our The real purpose of pursuing new technologies.