What kinds of inks do inkjet printers use?

Kuba helps the assistant answer your question about "". The types of inks used by inkjet printers are: (1) The original ink cartridges only contain dyes and pigment inks. Inkjet printer manufacturers have only two kinds of original ink cartridges: either dye ink or pigment ink. (2) Compatible inks Compatible inks include dye inks and pigment inks, and thermal transfer inks and weak solvent inks have also developed. Of course, there are also UV ink, printing and dyeing ink, solvent ink, etc. Zhengzhou Hongsheng Digital Color Technology Co., Ltd. is the most comprehensive one in terms of ink. Among compatible inks, dye ink is the most widely used, followed by pigment ink. As for thermal transfer ink and weak solvent ink, they are mainly concentrated in some shops and businesses with personalized output, and family users generally do not use them. 1. Dye ink Dye ink is a dye soluble in water or organic solvent. Dye ink is a completely soluble ink at the molecular level, which belongs to a completely composite solution, and the ink is a transparent liquid. The advantages of dye ink are bright color, strong color reproduction ability, stability, good storage and low cost. The probability of blocking the nozzle in use is very small, and the feeling of fluency, wide color gamut and bright colors, especially the bright colors and smooth printing of photos, is often the reason why some people refuse to use pigment ink. However, dye ink has poor chemical stability and optical stability, is water-resistant, and is easily influenced by water, which makes the dye swim on the printing medium and has poor light resistance, and leads to the decline of printing color density and clarity with the diffusion of water. On the other hand, the dye in water-based dye ink diffuses and permeates with molecules, which will cause large printing color points and affect the color density and definition (resolution) of photos. Dyes exist in the form of single molecules or small aggregates on paper, which are easily damaged by ultraviolet rays, ozone and other factors and lose color, making photos lighter or completely eclipsed. 2. Pigment ink The colorant of pigment ink is insoluble pigment, which is suspended in water with the aid of dispersant, so it is an opaque liquid. That is to say, the solid pigment is first ground into very fine particles and dissolved in a special water solvent. Contrary to the principle that dye ink penetrates into the medium to form color, it develops color by attaching pigment to the surface of the medium. Pigment ink has good chemical stability and optical stability, good water resistance and light resistance, high security, and high printing color clarity and density. Although water permeates the paper during printing, because the dispersant is absorbed by the paper, the pigment will not disperse in the water, but will remain on the surface of the paper to form a stacking layer, which has strong hiding power and reduces the requirements on the paper, so high-density and high-definition printing can be realized. At the same time, when the larger pigment aggregate is subjected to ultraviolet rays and ozone, only the surface layer is destroyed, and the colorant in the inner layer still maintains its color characteristics, so it has high light resistance and weather resistance. Moreover, because the pigment is insoluble in water, the printing paper has strong water resistance when it encounters moisture. The particle size of pigment ink suspended in water is in the range of visible light wavelength, which scatters visible light waves and affects the transparency of ink. Because the pigment is granular, it can't fully show the characteristics of selective absorption of visible light waves, so it loses the brightness of color. Due to the influence of pigment fineness, the storage stability and color vividness are generally worse than those of dye-based inks, while the manufacture of ultrafine pigments and pigment inks stably dispersed in water requires special technology, and the cost is often higher. Through the above comparative analysis, we can see that pigment ink has unique advantages that dye ink cannot replace in photo output. With the progress of pigment ink manufacturing technology, especially the rapid development of superfine pigment powder preparation technology and pigment dispersion technology in water, the dispersion degree of pigment in water-based ink is getting higher and higher, and as a result, not only the stability of ink is greatly improved, but also its color characteristics are more distinct. In order to solve the problem that pigment ink on glossy paper will reduce the gloss due to the diffuse reflection of pigment particles, Epson introduced R 1800/R 1900 printer, which increased the bright colors and ensured a better gloss. In addition, the printers developed in recent years are equipped with heating device technology, which makes the color of pigment ink printed on ordinary coated paper reach or even exceed the color effect of dye ink printed on photographic paper. Of course, because good pigment ink has high technology content, it will naturally have a higher price. At the same time, the quality assurance of pigment ink is not as mature as that of dye ink at present, people still have differences on the use and understanding of pigment ink, and the media development and post-treatment corresponding to pigment ink are obviously backward, so the relatively low-priced dye ink still occupies a large market share at this stage. However, with the increasing demand for fading resistance of digital photo printing, pigment ink has good water resistance and light resistance, which is in line with the development trend of high-quality photo printing. At the same time, with the continuous improvement of the quality of pigment ink products, it is predicted that the overall proportion of pigment ink will gradually increase in the future development direction of ink for inkjet printers, and pigment ink will surpass dye ink in photo output ink. The appearance of pigment is different from that of dye ink. 3. Thermal transfer ink, also known as thermal sublimation ink, cannot be printed directly on the terminal medium, that is, the ink is printed on special paper first. By heating the printing paper on the terminal medium, the images on special paper can be transferred to the terminal medium in the shortest time, so that exquisite patterns can be made on materials such as porcelain, metal, silk and chemical fiber cloth, which is very suitable for the market demand of personalized development. At present, the thermal transfer ink in desktop printers is mainly used in Epson printers. 4, weak solvent ink When it comes to solvent ink, you will think of printing outdoor advertisements and a bit pungent ink smell. Because of its special composition, solvent-based ink does not need coating medium, and its volatilization speed is fast. The main components of solvent-based inks are organic solvents, and generally esters and ketones are used. In the process of combining with the medium, the medium swells first and then melts, so the colorant in the ink is closely combined with the substrate, so the solvent-based ink does not need to coat the medium, and the ink volatilizes quickly. Solvent-based ink is a patent for outdoor spraying, and they are specially designed for this ink: from the nozzle to the pipeline, and finally to the cleaning unit, they have all adapted to this ink. Of course, the pictures produced by inkjet printers using solvent-based inks are generally not very accurate. Due to some attractive characteristics of solvent ink, can we produce an environmentally friendly ink that is less pungent and corrosive? So it is in this case that weak solvent-based ink began to develop and became a very popular solvent-based ink in recent years. The main reason is that the weak solvent ink not only has low taste, but also has fine ink particles, beautiful printed pictures and little corrosion. It is this kind of ink that can print good photos without picking paper, so someone transplanted it to the desktop Epson inkjet printer. An inkjet printer using weak solvent ink is also called a "printer", and an inkjet printer converted to a flat panel is called a "universal printer" if it uses weak solvent ink. The biggest feature of using weak solvent ink is that it can eat almost any medium. The printing effect of pictures on ordinary paper is not good, but weak solvent ink can; You can't print on ordinary coated paper, can you? Weak solvent inks can also be used. We drew a picture on the iron plate with a toothpick dipped in some ink. After a while, we couldn't fasten it by hand.