An inkjet printing apparatus 1 includes an ink-jet head 23 that ejects UV curable ink to a medium M, an irradiation lamp 25 that irradiates the UV curable ink ejected to the medium M with ultraviolet rays, and a heater 37 that heats the UV curable ink after the ultraviolet ray irradiation by the irradiation lamp 25 and thereby stabilizes color fixation of the UV curable ink. The UV curable ink after the ultraviolet ray irradiation is heated at least at 35° C.

A radiation-curable ink jet composition contains a polymerizable compound, a white pigment, and inorganic particles different from the white pigment. The polymerizable compound includes a monofunctional polymerizable compound. The content of the monofunctional polymerizable compound is 80 mass % or more with respect to the total mass of the polymerizable compound contained in the radiation-curable ink jet composition.

This disclosure describes substrate(s) formed with a three-dimensional (3D) feature thereon, and method(s) of printing the same. One method includes identifying a plurality of locations on a substrate surface where the three-dimensional feature will be formed, determining a height value of the three-dimensional feature at each location, assigning a grayscale value to each location based on the height value, and applying ink to the substrate surface at each location according to the assigned grayscale value.

Disclosed are an aqueous UV curable ink and the method of preparing the same. In particular, the disclosure relates to a UV curable aqueous dispersant and a method of preparing the same; a UV curable aqueous ink composition and a method of preparing the same; and a method of forming an image on a recording medium. The UV curable aqueous dispersant according to the disclosure, and the UV curable aqueous ink composition including the same have no limitations in selecting a material, and improve the texture and fastness of an object, which is subjected to printing, in the fields of textile.

Provided is a method for manufacturing an exterior case for a hot-water unit, used to house hot-water equipment for generating or storing hot water inside. The method includes a step combining an inkjet printing step for forming an inkjet printing layer by applying inkjet printing to the outer surface of a component of the exterior case and a curing step for curing the inkjet printing layer, in which the inkjet printing step and the curing step are repeated a plurality of times at the same location to form a thick printing portion in which the plurality of inkjet printing layers are laminated in an overlaid state.

The present invention provides a method of multi-pass inkjet printing comprising: (i) providing an inkjet ink comprising a radiation-curable monomer and a photoinitiator; (ii) jetting the ink via a printhead on to a substrate, wherein the ink is applied in multiple passes of the printhead with respect to the substrate, with each pass jetting a portion of ink in a layer on the substrate, with a first layer being jetted directly on to the substrate and subsequent layers being jetted onto the preceding layer, to build an image formed of the multiple layers; and (iii) exposing all of the layers of ink to actinic radiation to cure the ink, wherein the order of jetting the layers and curing is that pairs of layers are applied to the substrate without exposing the first layer of the pair to actinic radiation prior to the second layer of the pair of layers being applied, curing the pair of layers simultaneously by exposing the pair of layers to actinic radiation, and repeating until the image is formed.

A line-head-type inkjet image-forming method includes ejecting a gel ink to a recording medium at a first coverage rate that is less than 100% and set to allow dots of newly ejected gel ink to unite with dots of the gel ink already landed on the recording medium. The gel ink contains a specific amount of a polymer dispersant based on the amount of the colorant and has a specific contact angle on the recording medium. The gel ink is ejected from nozzles so as to form dots with a diameter slightly larger according to the resolution of the image to be formed.

Both stability and high glossiness of a glossy ink used for printing can be achieved. A printer is provided that performs inkjet printing for a medium. The printer includes a glossy ink head as an inkjet head that discharges droplets of a glossy ink, a heater, and an ultraviolet light source. The glossy ink includes an ultraviolet-curable resin curable by being irradiated with ultraviolet light, a glossy pigment, and a solvent added to disperse the pigment. Particles of the glossy pigment have particle sizes less than or equal to 0.5 μm. The heater heats the medium to volatilize and strip the solvent in the ink. The ultraviolet light source irradiates dots of the glossy ink on the medium with ultraviolet light after a preset waiting time has passed subsequent to a timing of the droplets of the glossy ink landing on the medium.

A water dispersion of gel particles, in which the gel particles having a polymerizable group, having a three-dimensional crosslinked structure including at least one bond selected from a urethane bond and a urea bond, and including at least a photopolymerization initiator and a resin are dispersed in water, a method of producing the water dispersion, and an image forming method using the water dispersion.

A method for printing on a substrate comprises two steps. The first step consists essentially of: applying onto a substrate one or more layers of an energy curable ink and applying one or more layers of a water-based coating over the top of the one or more layers of energy curable ink. The second step comprises the steps of, in any order: a) drying the one or more layers of water-based coating, and b) actinically or electron beam curing simultaneously all the energy curable ink layers.