Formulation and Evaluation of Glass-Ceramic Ink for Digital Ink-jet Printing

Abstract

Ceramic ink-jet printing has become a widespread technology in ceramic tile and ceramicware industries, due to its capability of manufacturing products on demand with various designs. Generally, thermally stable ceramic inks of digital primary colors(cyan, magenta, yellow, black) are required for ink-jet printing of full color image on ceramic tile. Here, we synthesized an aqueous glass-ceramic ink, which is free of Volatile organic compound(VOC) evolution, and investigated its inkjet printability. CoAl2O4 inorganic pigment and glass frit were dispersed in aqueous solution, and rheological behavior was optimized. The formulated glass-ceramic ink was suitably jetted as single sphere-shaped droplets without satellite drops. After ink-jet printing and firing processes, the printed glass-ceramic ink pattern on glazed ceramic tile was stably maintained without ink spreading phenomena and showed an improved scratch resistance.