UV-Curable Toners:Production and Film Formation in Electrophotographic Printing

Toner, in both liquid and powder forms is used to create an image in electrophotographic, ionographic and magnetographic printing. Electrophotographic printing is one of the most applicable non-impact printing methods consisted of seven steps including charging, exposure, development, transferring, cleaning, and fusing. The physical properties and optical quality of the printing is mostly dependent on the fusing step. Generally, this step is divided into contact and non-contact fusing. In contact fusing, the fusing energy is supplied by pressure and a conductive heat transfer. In non-contact fusing, other methods such as non-contact heating, vapor melting, and cold pressure fixing and flash fusing is used. In flash fusing high energy beam such as UV or electron beams is used to form a crosslinked network film. UV-curable toners contain a photo-curable resin and photoinitiator which the film will be created after exposing to UV. This toner can be prepared by a physical or emulsion aggregation as chemical method. This toner can be used in food, cosmetic and medical packaging industries.