Technical Evolution of Ceramic Tile Printing

Abstract

Ceramic tile decorating techniques have evolved significantly in recent years. Digital inkjet printing technology has enabled digital systems to be used for the direct decoration of ceramic tiles, revolutionizing ceramic tile decoration and providing many advantages over traditional decoration techniques. It was the formulation of inks with soluble and vitrifiable stains that allowed inkjet printing technology to be introduced into ceramic tile decoration. The incorporation of milled inorganic pigments into the inks broadened the available color palette. However, the colloidal instability of these inks and the constraints of the printing heads themselves made it necessary to reduce pigment particle size, thus limiting color saturation and the color gamut. In order to increase color saturation and obtain a set of pigmented inks with colors more closely resembling CMYK colors, pigments with larger particle sizes need to be used. Indeed, other digital decorating techniques, such as xerography, allow larger particle sizes to be used, while also providing the advantages associated with digital decoration. However, the implementation of this technique for ceramic tile decoration requires the development of appropriate ceramic toners and adaptation of printing machines. This article reviews the technical evolution of ceramic tile printing and describes the development of a prototype, based on xerographic printing, that is able to print ceramic tiles directly and provides greater color intensity and a wider color gamut.

New Ceramic Pigments for the Coloration of Ceramic Glazes

“…The foundations of the technologies involved in inkjet digital decoration of ceramic tiles as well as the main requirements and preparation approaches for the development of suitable pigmented nano-inks (rheological properties, surface tension, zeta potential, sedimentation, drop size and shape, fluid mechanics or other parameters affecting inks stability, jettability, drop spreading, and coloring strength) have been recently and nicely overviewed [7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Three main strategies or approaches may be highlighted concerning the development of pigmented ceramic inks for DOD-IJP technology (Fig.…”

“…Nevertheless, an important or paradigmatic revolution is taking place nowadays in the glaze decoration or coloration strategies of ceramic tiles due to the emergence and ever-growing employment of the Drop-On-Demand Ink-Jet Printing (DOD-IJP) technology [7][8][9]. Suitable pigmenting inks must be developed for this modern and more flexible (digitalized) decoration technique, which require the preparation of sub-micronic pigments (200-400 nm) dispersed generally in an organic media, and also the use of additives to optimize the stability and rheological properties [10][11][12][13].…”

Improvement of color quality and reduction of defects in the ink jet-printing technology for ceramic tiles production: A Design of Experiments study

“…One of the more recent innovations in the production of ceramic tiles regards the decorating technique, and in particular the introduction of inkjet printing technology that enables high quality printing on ceramic support and a wide range of aesthetics properties [7]. The limitations of the traditional decoration techniques such as screen printing done directly onto weak and fragile green bodies, resulting in significant quantities of breakages, inefficient screen printing to the edge of the article and inadequate screen resolution for trichromatic prints, leads to a rapid expansion of the Inkjet printing.…”

Diseño de recubrimientos funcionales para regular la humedad en baldosas cerámicas

“…Sobre las piezas se aplican tintas u otras capas decorativas para conseguir los efectos estéticos deseados. Estas decoraciones se realizan mediante diferentes técnicas de aplicación, aunque en los últimos tiempos se ha generalizado el uso de la tecnología inkjet o impresión por chorro de tinta por las mayores ventajas en relación con otras técnicas más tradicionales como la serigrafía o el hueco grabado [29].…”