Henry R. Till

Electrostatic control of flow-induced smearing in the transfer of liquid ink images

Abstract Electrophotographic images developed from liquid inks are occasionally subject to a defect called transfer smearing. This defect is most noticeable on solid area patches as a shift of the trailing edge of the image onto the adjacent clear area, and can be eliminated by the application of an electric field. Measurements of the theology of the image and estimates of the viscous and electric forces in the transfer nip indicate that the suppression of the defect results from the electrorheological nature of the developed image.