Inks

At the center of any digital printing system is the ink, which consists of the carrier fluid as well as the colorant itself, a pigment or dye. The purpose of the ink is to deposit the pigment and bind it to a media’s surface. To ensure print quality and minimize costs associated with printing, it is essential to optimize ink cleanliness through filtration. The introduction of particles into ink can occur at many points in the manufacturing and printing process, thus it is necessary to remove oversized pigments, agglomerates, and other types of environmental contaminants to avoid plugging print heads and nozzles, minimize downtime, and optimize image quality. Digital printing or inkjet inks are made of various formulations which use different carrier fluids to deliver the ink to the surface. As the ink is deposited on the surface, it must travel through a microtube and orifice making digital inks a filtration-intensive process. The choice of filters will depend upon the carrier fluid, the source of color (pigment or dye based) as well as the color itself, as not all colors filter equally.