A compliant surface is created with micron scale pits or dimples above an electrically biased conductive layer. The dimples are filled partially with fountain solution and brought adjacent a surface bearing a charge image. The field lines between pixel charge and backplane conductive layer are guided by the dielectric variations defined by the dimple walls and the fountain solution. Dielectrophoretic forces cause the fountain solution within the dimples to flow up to the charge image and wet the surface. A desired volume is controlled by varying parameters such as nip pressure. The developed latent image is then brought into contact with a transfer member blanket and split, thus creating on the blanket a fountain solution latent image ready for inking.

A compliant surface is created with micron scale pits or dimples above an electrically biased conductive layer. The dimples are filled partially with fountain solution and brought adjacent a surface bearing a charge image. The field lines between pixel charge and backplane conductive layer are guided by the dielectric variations defined by the dimple walls and the fountain solution. Dielectrophoretic forces cause the fountain solution within the dimples to flow up to the charge image and wet the surface. A desired volume is controlled by varying parameters such as nip pressure. The developed latent image is then brought into contact with a transfer member blanket and split, thus creating on the blanket a fountain solution latent image ready for inking.

A flexographic printer is provided with: a printing plate for transferring ink at an ink transfer site to an object to be printed S; an anilox roll for supplying ink to the printing plate at an ink supply site; a plate cylinder on which the printing plate is wound and rotated; and an ink solvent supply unit for supplying a solvent for the ink on the surface of the printing plate in a post-ink transfer region that is downstream of the ink transfer site in the plate cylinder rotation direction and upstream of the ink supply site in the plate cylinder rotation direction.

A flexographic printer is provided with: a printing plate for transferring ink at an ink transfer site to an object to be printed S; an anilox roll for supplying ink to the printing plate at an ink supply site; a plate cylinder on which the printing plate is wound and rotated; and an ink solvent supply unit for supplying a solvent for the ink on the surface of the printing plate in a post-ink transfer region that is downstream of the ink transfer site in the plate cylinder rotation direction and upstream of the ink supply site in the plate cylinder rotation direction.

For accelerated setting of a quantity of ink in an inking unit of an offset printing unit, it is proposed to maximise the quantity of ink transported out of an ink duct of the inking unit over an ink duct roller (1) and a lifting roller (6) into the inking unit during the adjustment of ink metering elements (3) which determine the metering of the ink in terms of the quantity thereof on the ink duct roller.

For accelerated setting of a quantity of ink in an inking unit of an offset printing unit, it is proposed to maximise the quantity of ink transported out of an ink duct of the inking unit over an ink duct roller (1) and a lifting roller (6) into the inking unit during the adjustment of ink metering elements (3) which determine the metering of the ink in terms of the quantity thereof on the ink duct roller.

A heating circuit having an array of switching heating elements (e.g., field effect transistors, thin film transistors) provides a transient heat pattern over a surface (e.g., substrate, imaging member surface, transfer roll surface) moving relative to the heating circuit, to produce a pixelated heat image and heat a target pattern on the surface. Heat is generated by current flow in the heating elements, and the power developed by the heating circuit is the product of source-drain voltage and current in the channel. Digital addressing may accomplished by matrix addressing the array. Current may be supplied along data address lines by an external voltage controlled by digital electronics understood by a skilled artisan to provide the desired heat at a respective heating element pixels addressed by a specific gate line. The circuit may include a current return line that may be low resistance, for example, by using a 2-dimensional mesh.

A compliant surface is created with micron scale pits or dimples above an electrically biased conductive layer. The dimples are filled partially with fountain solution and brought adjacent a surface bearing a charge image. The field lines between pixel charge and backplane conductive layer are guided by the dielectric variations defined by the dimple walls and the fountain solution. Dielectrophoretic forces cause the fountain solution within the dimples to flow up to the charge image and wet the surface. A desired volume is controlled by varying parameters such as nip pressure. The developed latent image is then brought into contact with a transfer member blanket and split, thus creating on the blanket a fountain solution latent image ready for inking.

A compliant surface is created with micron scale pits or dimples above an electrically biased conductive layer. The dimples are filled partially with fountain solution and brought adjacent a surface bearing a charge image. The field lines between pixel charge and backplane conductive layer are guided by the dielectric variations defined by the dimple walls and the fountain solution. Dielectrophoretic forces cause the fountain solution within the dimples to flow up to the charge image and wet the surface. A desired volume is controlled by varying parameters such as nip pressure. The developed latent image is then brought into contact with a transfer member blanket and split, thus creating on the blanket a fountain solution latent image ready for inking.

An ultra-high resolution capacitive sensor affixed above an imaging member surface measures the thickness of fountain solution on the imaging member surface in real-time during a printing operation. The sensor is considered ultra-high resolution with a resolution high enough to detect nanometer scale thicknesses. The capacitive sensor would initially be zeroed to the imaging member surface. As fluid is added, the capacitive sensor detects the increase and can measure and communicate with the image forming device to adjust fountain solution flow rate to the imaging member surface and correct for any anomalies in thickness. This fountain solution monitoring system may be fully automated. The capacitive sensor may have a resolution (e.g., as low as about 1 nm resolution) of about 0.001% of the distance/gap that the capacitive sensor is mounted away from the imaging member surface.