Inkjet-delivered water-based liquid toner. Say that fast a few times. The most immediate impression of toner is that it is a dry particle imaged using electrophotography and melted on to a substrate. The HP Indigo uses particles in oil imaged using electrophotography, heated to convert the particles to a plastic form and transferred to a substrate.
Thus, there is dry toner and liquid toner. Liquid toner can use oil or water. And, until now, they were imaged using laser-based electrophotographic systems. The oil can be aggressive which may generate VOCs or less aggressive, which does not.
Along comes Landa Nanographic Printing. Instead of oil, there is water. Instead of electrophotography there is inkjet.
[Related: The rise of inkjet]
Liquid toner with oil was actually invented by an Australian research organisation. I asked Benny Landa if he invented liquid toner. He said ‘No, but I made it work.’
The success of the HP Indigo digital printers is a testament to that claim. In 2008, HP demonstrated a wide format printer with a technology they called latex. I saw at their research facility in Barcelona. It delivered the ink via inkjet heads.
In 2012 Xeikon of Belgium acquired the patents from the Australian research organisation. There had been a license to Myakoshi prior to that acquisition. Xeikon announced a printer using the liquid toner technology called Trillium. Océ also announced a printer using liquid toner technology called InfiniStream. All of these printers apply electrophotography.
A 2008 patent that was awarded in 2012 to HP covers ‘Liquid toner including latex particles’, (US 8765348 B2). The liquid toner includes a toner composition with latex particles incorporated therein. The toner composition includes charged toner particles incorporated into a non-polar liquid carrier. The latex particles are polymer particles of acrylic monomers, vinylic monomers, or mixtures thereof, and each latex particle has a size ranging from 20nm to about 5μm.
Like all patents, there are references to related patents. We see Agfa, Fuji, Xerox, and many other companies listed. There is a significant amount of research and development involving new digital printing technology. The word toner is used because of the need for heat.
Inkjet-delivered water-based liquid toner. Or better: Inkjet-delivered water-based polymer ink. That may be the future of digital printing.
Frank Romano is professor emeritus at the Rochester Institute of Technology
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