Digital inkjet printing technology for the aircraft industry
A recent study explores the possibilities of digital inkjet printing technology in the aircraft industry for printing complex images, logos and other visual effects directly on the aircraft.
The work presents a study of digital inkjet printing technology for aerospace industry using different coatings on aluminum surfaces. The objective of this work is to understand the effect of some process parameters on digital inkjet printing technology in the aircraft industry for printing complex images directly on the fuselage of aircraft with high quality, in order to replace conventional and manual aircraft painting processes.
The consequent effects of the different coated surfaces on the properties of the printed images (e.g., adhesion, UV resistance, visual appearance and optical properties) were evaluated in order to understand how the coated surfaces affect these properties. For that purpose, solvent-based and UV-curing inkjet inks for industrial printing applications were used in the colors cyan, magenta, yellow and black on coated aerospace surfaces.
Effective strategy
The results show that the inkjet technology requires a white background substrate to match the conventional colours and there is an adhesion issue on conventional top coating used as a base for direct inkjet printing. The use of a new primer/top coating with clear coat was the optimal condition for maximising the printed image properties, adhesion, UV degradation, low color variation and improve the gloss effect.
Although there are some challenges regarding this technology and these results create an effective strategy for the development of digital inkjet printing on aerospace surfaces with excellent final print quality.
The study has been published in Progress in Organic Coatings, Volume 158, September 2021.
