I have not done any tests by myself yet, but what I have been reading makes me
think of certain points:
-there are apparently two sorts of ink: dye and pigment based.
-dye inks are essentially thin and leave (almost) no residue and work by
'dirtying' the surface they are applied to.
-pigment inks are thicker and leave some sort of 'residue' (aka pigment) on the
surface they are deposited on.
-the 'curing' process applies heat until the 'residue' burns (carbonizes)
leaving something stuck on the surface that is not water (etchant) soluble.
-dark inks need very little residue to be visible, whereas light inks (yellow)
need a thicker residue to be visible, so after 'curing' more stuff is available
to protect the surface. This explains why black has proven useless and yellow
the best.
-alternate reason may be that black is already carbon and does not change by
heating while yellow is some sort of delicate organic pigment that nicely
'burns' and sticks during curing. Remember that those who report success say
the yellow has to turn brown to work.
question to discuss:
is there some chemical (surely organic) to be added to the ink that:
1) is water soluble (or suspendable)
2) adheres well to metal
3) becomes inert when (over) heated?
the yellow pigment of MIS ink is one answer, are there any others?
some sort of water soluble varnish?
one that could be used with non Epson printers?
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