The aim of this work is to stabilize toned images after liquid development process. To this end we constructed an imageconditioning device. The device, vacuum-assisted blotter, is able to compress the liquid toned images by an applied electrostatic field and remove excess fluid from the liquid image by transporting fluid through the porous blotter using vacuum. The vacuum-assisted blotter consists of a hard, conductive porous core, an open-celled, semiconductive foam sleeve, and an open-celled, insulative skin. The device has been demonstrated to be effective in producing cohesive images and removing excess fluid for the subsequent transfer process.Using the vacuum-assisted blotter, we are able to remove all fluid surrounding images and we have not observed the limit on fluid removal. This fluid removal rate can be controlled by a pressure difference across the image (generated by a vacuum). The resulting toner concentration is determined by the consolidation stress, which can be created electrostatically or mechanically. The observed toner concentration is consistent with the theory of random ballistic deposition of “sticky” particles.
Shu Chang, Palghat Ramesh, Jack LeStrange, Jerry Domoto, John Knapp, "Stabilization of Liquid Developed Images" in Proc. IS&T Int'l Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies (NIP15), 1999, pp 638 - 641, https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2169-4451.1999.15.1.art00067_2