News Release
Tokyo, September 6, 2012 — Ricoh Company, Ltd. (President and CEO: Shiro Kondo, hereinafter "Ricoh") has developed a photo (UV)-curable inkjet ink (*1) that significantly reduces skin sensitization (*2), which causes allergic dermatitis, such as itching or irritation of skin. The physical burden on people working in the printer industry is expected to fall with no loss in properties of conventional photo-curable ink.
Photo-curable inkjet ink is cured instantly when irradiated, so it is effective for applications that require quick-drying or printing on materials that are are not easily penetrated by liquids. That is why it has been used to print on plastics and similar materials. Recent years have also seen it used in 3D printers. The influence on the human body of photo-curable inks in their liquid state before photo irradiation has not always been taken into account. Improved resistance to skin sensitization is needed.
Ricoh has developed a photo-curable inkjet ink with the three following features:
Ricoh will publish this technology at the NIP28 international conference (The 28th International Conference on Digital Printing Technologies) to be held in Quebec City, Canada, September 9 to 13.
Photo-curable inkjet technology is used for various applications at present, but Ricoh expects safety improvements in terms of effects on the human body. While maintaining the conventional cost and performance of photo-curable inkjet ink, this will lead to expanded applications. Ricoh will continue improvements toward commercialization, with the goal of providing this ink to printer vendors.