JPH06293354A - Package for ink-jet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a package that is equipped with necessary characteristic as a package for an ink-jet printer and does not exert harmful influence upon natural environment when discarded in a disposal yard while being suitable to incineration because of its lesser heat-generating property in incineration. CONSTITUTION:A decomposable plastic material that decomposes by the action of microbes and/or light is used for production of the title package. Metallization is applied properly to the plastic film made of the above-mentioned plastic material and a package for an ink-jet printer is produced thereby.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a package for an ink jet printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The ink jet system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,129 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,740,796 enables high-speed, high-density and high-definition high-quality recording. In addition, it is suitable for colorization and compactness, and has been particularly attracting attention in recent years.

The ink supply form of the recording head of the apparatus using this system is as follows: a) A replaceable cartridge type ink tank attached to a stationary recording head, and a water head via an ink supply system such as a supply tube. The ink is supplied to the apparatus by utilizing the negative pressure and the capillary action due to the difference. B) A replaceable cartridge in which the recording head and the ink tank are integrated, and the negative pressure is generated on the ink tank side.
A typical example is one that supplies ink with a balance between the holding power of the meniscus and the negative pressure of the ink tank.

Synthetic plastic is often used as the material for these cartridges. For example, in an ink tank cartridge, the cartridge housing, the ink storage bag,
Ink discharge tubes are made of synthetic plastic materials. In this way, various synthetic plastic materials have been developed and provided in recent years. Has been used more and more.

[0005]

However, as a result of such substitution, the amount of synthetic plastic material used in various industrial fields tends to increase year by year, and the amount of synthetic plastic waste also increases with the increase in the amount used. , Its processing has become a major social problem worldwide. For example, it is said that in Japan today, 11 million tons of plastics are produced annually, and in the United States, about three times the amount produced in Japan is produced, but one-third of that is considered to be discarded after use. Has been.

A part of the waste plastic is incinerated or landfilled after being collected, while the other is in the natural sea.
Abandoned in fields and fields. Furthermore, the plastics recovered and incinerated may generate extremely intense heat during incineration, which may exceed the designed heat value of the incinerator, resulting in damage to the incinerator. Furthermore, many of them generate harmful gas when incinerated.
In landfill disposal, it is becoming more difficult to secure a landfill site every year, and there are problems that harmful substances are also landfilled and concentrated, and that land subsidence may occur at landfill sites. Furthermore, if left in the natural world, it may flow into rivers and the sea and damage marine life.

Under such circumstances, with the spread of ink jet devices and their accessories, synthetic plastic materials used for consumable parts and replacement parts, such as replaceable ink tanks and ink jet heads, have become popular. It is considered that the disposal of such cartridges or the synthetic plastic materials used for the packaging of those cartridges is a problem that needs to be examined in relation to environmental damage.

Therefore, the present invention takes these problems into consideration,
The main object of the present invention is to provide a package for an ink jet printer that contributes to the improvement of environmental destruction due to synthetic plastic waste and has less adverse effect on the natural environment in a waste environment. Another object of the present invention is to provide a package for an ink jet printer which is excellent in strength, airtightness and the like, and which generates little heat during incineration and is suitable for incineration treatment.

[0009]

Means for Solving the Problems The inventors of the present invention have made earnest studies to achieve the above-mentioned object in order to improve the problem of environmental destruction caused by waste plastic, and as a result, by using degradable plastic as a material, It has been found that a package that can achieve the purpose of can be obtained. That is, the present invention provides a package for an inkjet printer whose material is degradable plastic.

The present invention will be described in detail below.

The degradable plastic used in the package of the present invention has characteristics equivalent to synthetic plastics in a normal use environment, and the use state does not change, but it is degradable in a waste environment. For example, it is first decomposed in the presence of soil microorganisms in an environment such as landfill. Such degradable plastics can be roughly classified into biodegradable plastics that deteriorate due to biological effects of microorganisms and the like, and photodegradable plastics that deteriorate due to exposure to ultraviolet light.

Biodegradable plastic refers to a plastic material that, under certain biological environmental conditions, undergoes bond scission at a greater rate than a control. Such degradable plastics are further classified into the following three types.

(1) formed by a) a polymer produced by a microorganism, b) a natural polymer such as cellulose, c) a biodegradable synthetic plastic such as polyester,
A so-called "biodegradable plastic" that is completely decomposed by the action of microorganisms to give CO ₂ and H ₂ O.

(2) A so-called "kneading-type disintegrating plastic" which is formed by adding a biodegradable substance such as starch to a synthetic plastic and has a biodisintegrating property that disintegrates by the action of microorganisms.

(3) A so-called "photodegradable plastic" which is photodegradable by ultraviolet rays by adding a certain kind of additive in addition to biodegradability.

Specific materials for the above decomposable plastic are shown below.

The biodegradable plastic (1) is, as described above, a) a microbial production system, b) a natural polymer system and c).
It can be divided into biodegradable synthetic polymer systems derived from petroleum-based raw materials. Specific examples of these are shown below.

A) Microbial Production System As a microbial production polymer, for example, Biopol (trade name, manufactured by ICI), which is a linear polyester of 3-hydroxybutyric acid (HB) and 3-hydroxyvaleric acid (HV), is available. Yes , this is a hydrogen bacterium ( Alcaligenes)
It is produced by sugar fermentation by eutrophus ), and the molecule itself is biodegraded. Furthermore, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA, a general term for polyester compounds produced by microorganisms) such as 3-hydroxybutyric acid (HB) and 4-hydroxybutyric acid (HB) linear polyesters, and β-1,3-glucan Curdlan (trade name, manufactured by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.), which is a sugar, can be mentioned.

B) Natural polymer type As the natural polymer type, benzylated wood (cellulose obtained by treating wood or the like, lignin treated with an alkali such as caustic soda, and benzylated or plasticized by acetyl), higher fatty acid Examples thereof include esterified wood, wheat gluten with glycerin, glycol, emulsified silicone oil, urea added, cellulose with chitosan added, pullulan, alginic acid, chitin, chitosan, carrageenan, and starch.

C) Biodegradable polymer system from petroleum-based raw materials As the biodegradable polymer system from petroleum-based raw materials, polyester polyether, polyester polyolefin, ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer, polyester polyamide, nylon (10 Less than or equal to the quantity), polyester,
Examples thereof include copolymers of polyether polyurethane and aliphatic polyamide, copolymers of aromatic polyester and aliphatic polyester, polyamide and polycaprolactone.

As the kneading-type disintegrating plastic (2), a mixture of polycaprolactone (PCL) and polypropylene, a mixture of PCL and nylon-6, PC
A mixture of L and polystyrene, a mixture of PCL and polyethylene terephthalate, a mixture of low density polyethylene and PCL, a mixture of PCL and hydrous magnesium silicate, corn starch and starch in synthetic plastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene. Polyclean (trade name, Archer Daniels Midland),
Polygrade II, III, (brand name, Ambasset company), Ecostar (brand name, St. Lawrence Starch company), tone (brand name, UCC company), etc. are mentioned.
ECOSTAR is a dispersion of starch in polyethylene, which is decomposed by the mechanism that starch is decomposed by microorganisms, holes are made in that part, and the molecular chain is broken by peroxide to break it. It

As the photodegradable plastic of (3),
ECO (trade name, Dow Chemical Co., DuPont or UCC Co.), which is a copolymer of ethylene and carbon monoxide, Knucknal P (trade name, Nippon Unicar Co., Ltd.), Polygrade (trade name, Ambasset Co.), Plastigon (Product name,
F for Idea Masters, Eco Light (trade name, Eco Plastics), low density polyethylene (LDPE)
e (III) Acetyl acetate (AcAc) added, dithiocarbamate (DNDC) and AcAc complex, LDPE with Zn (II) DEC and Ni (II) D
EC added, substituted polyacetylene consisting of specific polymer containing silicon and decomposition improver, xanthone or anthraquinone added to polyolefin, oxime methacrylate or metal complex added to allyl ester, oxide wax metal added Material, Eco Star Plus [trade name, manufactured by St. Lawrence Starch; this material is a material obtained by adding photo-degradability (decomposes according to the Norrish II reaction) to the aforementioned Eco Star. ] Etc. can be mentioned.

These degradable plastics have no effect on the life cycle in the usual usage form as plastics, and are not decomposed until they are placed in an environment in which microorganisms such as soil or water are actively active or an environment exposed to ultraviolet rays. start. In addition, the decomposition process is purely biological or photochemical, and in the case of biodegradable plastic that is decomposed by the involvement of microorganisms, it finally becomes carbon dioxide and water.

The kneading-type disintegrating plastic is
Cornstarch and starch dispersed in plastics are attacked by microorganisms, the bonds are broken, and the molecular chains are broken by peroxides, but they are disintegrated, but unlike biodegradable plastics, they are not completely decomposed. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the risk of secondary pollution is inherent.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a procedure for inserting an ink jet printer into an ink jet printer package of the present invention. After inserting the ink jet printer 2 into the bag-shaped package 1, the end of the package is sealed by heat welding, Pack in a box.

After taking out the ink jet printer, a general user usually discards such a package as dust. In particular, it is difficult to collect the package because it does not have a special purpose.

Therefore, such a package is likely to be discarded and incinerated as ordinary waste rather than reused. Therefore, it is preferable to select a degradable plastic with a low calorific value as its material.

Further, it goes without saying that the package made of such degradable plastic must have various characteristics required for the packaging member. Therefore, these packages can be subjected to various treatments as required to give desired characteristics. For example, a metal thin film such as aluminum can be formed on the surface of the package by vapor deposition to suppress vapor permeation and prevent evaporation or deterioration of the ink in the package.

[0029]

【Example】

(Example 1) As a material for a package for an ink jet printer, Naknarl P which is a photodegradable plastic was used. This NACKNAL P is an ECO polymer produced by the copolymerization of ethylene and carbon monoxide, and decomposes in the Norrish II reaction upon irradiation with ultraviolet rays. Naknar P is excellent in workability, water resistance, inorganic chemical resistance, mechanical properties, low temperature properties, heat resistance and the like, and is suitable as a packaging material. The package thus obtained had these characteristics and was excellent in degradability under waste conditions.

However, in this case, since the material of the package is photodegradable, it is necessary to prevent the package from being exposed to sunlight during packaging, and the purchased printer should not be taken out of the packaging box until it is used. , It is necessary to attach a note for users.

Example 2 15% by weight of a biodegradable plastic masterbatch (trade name: Ecoter) manufactured by St. Lawrence Starch, 80% by weight of a copolyamide resin (trade name: Ube nylon) manufactured by Ube Industries, Ltd., Mitsui Oil Co., Ltd. A 20 μm thick outer layer consisting of 5% by weight of an ethylene-modified resin (trade name Admer) manufactured by Kagaku Co., Ltd., 20% by weight of the above Admer, 10% by weight of the above Ecoter, ethylene of Mitsui Petrochemical Co., Ltd. 66.95% by weight of 4-methylpentene-1 copolymer resin, fatty acid amide lubricant (trade name Armoslip CP) manufactured by Lion Akzo Co., Ltd. 0.0
A printer package was prepared using a film in which 300Å of aluminum was vapor-deposited as a simultaneous two-layer coextrusion inflation film having a total thickness of 50 μm, which was composed of two inner layers having a thickness of 5 μm and a thickness of 30 μm.

The package made of the metal vapor-deposited film has almost zero vapor and gas permeation, and prevents deterioration or evaporation of the ink even if the ink is filled in the ink jet printer. It also had an effect.

[0033]

By making the package of the printer using the degradable plastic as a material, it is possible to obtain a preferable package in terms of environmental pollution, which has few problems in processing plastic waste. Furthermore, by making a package from a film having a metal vapor-deposited on the surface, it is possible to prevent the deterioration and evaporation of the ink.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a procedure for packaging an inkjet printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 package 2 inkjet printer

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A package for an inkjet printer, wherein the material is a degradable plastic. 2. A metal is vapor-deposited on the surface.
Package described in. 3. The package according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the degradable plastic is a biodegradable plastic that is subject to microbial degradation. 4. The degradable plastic is a photodegradable plastic that is subject to degradation by light.
Package described in. 5. The package according to claim 4, wherein the light involved in the decomposition is ultraviolet light. 6. The package according to claim 3, which is made only of a biodegradable plastic that undergoes biodegradation. 7. The package according to claim 3, which is made of a synthetic plastic in which a biodegradable plastic that undergoes biodegradation is dispersed, and which is biodegradable.