An analysis of effects of internal and surface sizing on ink jet printing quality

This study provides an analysis of liquid penetration in internally and surface sized papers with respect to their ink jet printing qualities. Internal sizing alone does not provide the paper with a uniform sizing level, instead, it provides a nonuniform sizing level in a microscopic scale. The printed ink will find surface energetically suitable channels to penetrate and wick in paper, leading to bleeding and mottle. The surface morphological heterogeneity further exacerbates the problem by providing the favourable channel geometry to allow ink bleeding to occur. Whereas the surface energy effect on ink jet printing is widely appreciated, the surface morphology effect is less investigated. This work presents an experimental modelling study of the V-shaped grooves to simulate the effect of interfibre gaps on the wicking of ink jet inks on paper surface. Our results show that the apex angle has a significantly influence to liquid wicking rate. The increase in the apex angle of the groove significantly reduces liquid wicking rate. Our analysis shows that surface sizing may have an effect of increasing the apex angle of interfibre gaps. This effect is particularly useful for reducing ink wicking and increase ink jet print quality.