Importance

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Abstract

A non-artificially perturbed (NAP) fluid jet marking/treating apparatus and process wherein the treating fluid (10) is in the form of ink, dyestuff or other printing, marking or coloring medium, is delivered under pressure to a cross-machine array of jet orifices (14) from which the medium issues continuously as streams (16) that break randomly into discrete droplets in flight. The moving random droplets are selectively charged as they are formed in a selectively energizable electrostatic field (18). The paths of charged droplets are controlled by a downstream electrostatic deflection field (20) through which the droplets pass. Depending on whether the droplets are charged, they are either caught by a collector (22), or continue falling to impinge on a receiving substrate such as a textile, paper or any other desired medium, product or substance. The streams (16) break up naturally and randomly into droplets. Since the apparatus is not provided with a separate stimulator, vibrator or perturbation device, the orifice plate can have virtually an unlimited cross-machine length. By controlling certain equipment parameters, such random droplet breakup can occur with a narrow distribution around a mean drop size to produce results very much the same as with coherently perturbed systems.

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First Claim