Significance of paper properties on print quality in continuous ink jet printing

In this article, we discuss the relationship between a high-speed continuou s ink jet system and the printing substrate. Nonabsorbent materials, with d ifferent surface topographies were used to evaluate the importance of the d roplet impact and spreading without capillary penetration. Commercial paper s were also used to evaluate the potential of the existing grades, and to f ind their essential performance parameters. A laboratory scale testing envi ronment was used for the high-speed imaging of ink jet drops. The impact, s preading, absorption, and drying of the ink droplets on the samples can be observed and analyzed in this testing environment on the time scale of micr oseconds up to several minutes. The image technical performance of the samp les was measured with an image analysis system which was specially designed for the analysis of print quality with non-impact printing techniques.