I would think a UV cure system would be they way to go. You could even
'cure' the board outside the printer. Unless your are very careful, light
'spillage" in the printer will cure the ink on the head or glue the head to
excess ink pad.
The high solids UV cure systems are used to reduce VOC (Volatile Organic
compounds) emissions in industry to meet air quality standards. These still
do have minor amounts of solvents and tend to be very viscous (thick).
Chris, have you ever looked at the ink used in the HP? how does it compare
to the MIS or Epson ink as far as viscosity (flow characteristics)? Is the
inkjet head heated? What kind of cleaning cycle does it use?
So what is needed? Starting with an Epson piezo print head, you need a
fluid that has the same flow and drying characteristics as the pigment ink.
That means, water based, small particle size, and 'slow' drying. Also it has
to have the proper wetting out characteristics and adhesion to the prepared
copper pcb, both before and after the cure step. Of course it has to be
applied in a layer thick enough and durable to survive the etching bath.
Finally, it has to be KISS simple, inexpensive and easily available.
I've been thinking about this for quite a while, and the only possibility
that I have been able to come up with, short of specially compounding, is
the spray-on photo sensitizing liquid for pcbs. It has the proper after
printer characteristics. the question is what needs to be done to get it
through the EPSON print head successfully.
Up until just recently, I have not had an Epson printer to experiment with,
only the Lexmarks's that use the vaporized droplet method. Since there are 6
separate heads on the R220, I think a few could be sacrificed to try this.
Myc
On 7/25/06, Leon Heller <leon.heller@...> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "lcdpublishing" <lcdpublishing@... <lcdpublishing%40yahoo.com>
> >
> To: <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com <Homebrew_PCBs%40yahoogroups.com>>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006 1:12 PM
> Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: Epson R220 PCB printing Report #1
>
> >I would suspect that you would be better off finding/using a UV
> > cured Ink. My large HP Printer (24" wide) uses UV cured ink but
> > being a big and expensive printer, I have not yet had the courage to
> > try and run a PCB through it.
> >
> > With that system, if I understand it correctly, the print head puts
> > the ink on the paper, and next to the print head is a UV light
> > source that cures it instantly.
> >
> > Some day I would like get the guts up to run a PCB through it, but
> > that won't happen anytime soon I am afraid.
>
> That's how industrial ink jet printers work, for printing on all sorts of
> materials, including PCBs.
>
> Leon
>
>
>
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