A printing apparatus 1 includes a pretreatment unit 4 that applies a processing liquid containing a polar material to a fabric M, a printing unit 5 that applies ink containing a color material to the fabric M applied with the processing liquid, and an AC electric field generator 62 that generates an AC electric field. The AC electric field generator 62 includes a first electrodes 71 and a second electrode 72 that face the fabric M and that are disposed adjacent to each other, a high-frequency voltage generator 77 that generates a high-frequency voltage to be applied to the first electrodes 71 and the second electrode 72, and a conductors 73 that electrically connects the first electrodes 71 and the second electrode 72 to the high-frequency voltage generator 77.

In one embodiment, a high-speed, closed-loop fabric printer comprises a plurality of consecutive stations that can be managed by a single operator. In particular, shirts or other fabric garments may be individually loaded and secured on a pallet by an operator, and the loaded pallets may then cycle through a plurality of unmanned stations positioned along a contiguous path (e.g., oval). The stations may be configured for pretreating the fabric surface, drying and pressing the pretreated fabric with heat, and then inkjet printing a selected image, among others. In this manner, a “wet-to-dry-to-wet” direct to garment (DTG) printing process may thus be achieved, along with optimal controls for maximum adaptability. Furthermore, due to the closed-loop design, a recently printed fabric product returns to the operator to be unloaded at the position in which a new unprinted fabric is loaded, allowing for increased throughput and minimal operator requirements.

A droplet drying device includes a plurality of light emitting devices arranged in a two-dimensional manner to irradiate droplets with light to dry the droplets, the droplets being ejected on a recording medium by an ejection unit, a regular irradiation capability portion provided in a region corresponding to an image forming region of the recording medium where an image is formed, the regular irradiation capability portion having a predetermined light irradiation capability, and a low irradiation capability portion provided in a region corresponding to a region of the recording medium set to have a lower image forming density than the image forming region, a light irradiation capability of the low irradiation capability portion being lower than the predetermined Hein irradiation capability.

Disclosed are a light irradiation apparatus that prevents or suppresses projection of light on adjoining other portions and can be miniaturized overall, and a photocurable material treatment apparatus that includes this light irradiation apparatus.

The light irradiation apparatus according to the present invention includes, with three mutually orthogonal directions as an x direction, a y direction and a z direction: a long light source unit in which a plurality of light emitting elements are disposed in a state of being arranged in the x direction along a plane extending in the x direction and the y direction; and a cylindrical lens that has an elongated shape extending in the x direction along the light source unit, a longitudinal peripheral surface of the cylindrical lens including a light reception surface for receiving light from the light source unit and a light-exiting surface for allowing the received light to exit therethrough. The light source unit is disposed so that a light source reference plane that includes a center of a light emission surface of each light emitting element and extends in the x direction and the z direction is located on a plane separated in the y direction from a lens reference plane that includes a center axis of the cylindrical lens and extends in the x direction and the z direction. A direction of the light from the light-exiting surface of the cylindrical lens is tilted in a direction away from the light source reference plane with respect to the lens reference plane.

A recording substrate treatment apparatus includes transporting mechanism for transporting a sheet of a recording substrate through a first chamber in the interior space of the recording substrate treatment apparatus; a first suction device arranged for removing a gaseous medium from the first chamber; and an impingement device, arranged for providing a first flow of the gaseous medium at the outer surface of the transporting mechanism. The first suction device is fluidly connected to the impingement device, such that in operation the impingement device receives a first flow of the gaseous medium from the first suction device. With this arrangement, the impingement flow is balanced with an air flow directly extracted from the first chamber of the recording substrate treatment apparatus. A printing system including such a recording substrate treatment apparatus and a method of drying a recording substrate using such a recording substrate recording apparatus are also disclosed.

A multi-axis robot includes robot drives, a tool head, a drag chain for guiding flexible lines along at least a part of the robot up to the tool head, and an auxiliary system for moving a tool head-side end of the drag chain. The auxiliary system includes at least one auxiliary system drive for moving the tool head-side end. The auxiliary system drive is different than the robot drives. The multi-axis robot advantageously allows collisions between the tool-side end of the drag chain and the object to be treated or other objects in the vicinity of the robot to be avoided, ensuring that the surface of the object may be treated, in particular printed on by an inkjet print head, without disruption.

A printer includes a print station; a media transport mechanism arranged for conveying print media on a transport path past the print station, the transport mechanism having a support surface for supporting the media; and a vacuum device arranged for attracting the media against the support surface on a section of the transport path downstream of the print station. The vacuum device is divided, in the direction along the transport path, into at least two segments in which the media are attractable with different non-zero suction pressures.

A device for applying at least a first energy to a substrate includes a conversion material application unit configured to apply a conversion material for converting a second energy to the first energy to the substrate and an energy application unit configured to apply the second energy to the conversion material applied to the substrate, wherein the second energy corresponds to an amount of heat not less than heat of evaporation of the conversion material.

A radiation curable ink jet ink composition includes vinyl methyl oxazolidinone; and a monomer having at least two vinyl ether groups.

A manufacturing method for a printed matter exhibiting metallic gloss includes an applying step of applying an ink composition onto a substrate in a form of a droplet by an inkjet method, and the ink composition containing an external stimulus film-forming resin that forms a film by an external stimulus including radiation or heat, and scaly particles containing a metal; a standby step of providing a predetermined standby time to bring the scaly particles close to a surface of the droplet and orient the scaly particles to be substantially parallel to the surface; and a film forming step of forming the film by applying the external stimulus to the ink composition after the standby step to form a metallic glossy layer exhibiting metallic gloss.