Kyocera today announced the KC-91, a new protective overcoat that can be applied to Kyocera’s thin-film thermal printheads commonly used in dye-sublimation printing applications such as the self-service digital photo printing machines increasingly found in public locations. The newly-developed KC-91 overcoat provides an approximately 50% reduction in frictional resistance over Kyocera’s conventional overcoat which is made possible through Kyocera’s proprietary assessment technology as well as improvements in the overcoat materials and film-formation conditions. The result is a reduction in the occurrence of ‘wrinkles’ in the dye-sub ink ribbon, even if the applied energy is increased by 20%, compared to conventional overcoats.
The absolute value of the frictional resistance between the printhead and ink ribbon is also reduced by a maximum of 30%. Furthermore, resistance to adhesion of residues (burnt deposits of ink or ink ribbon back-coated agents) has been increased by approximately six-fold, contributing to improvements in both print speed and print quality. Kyocera thermal printheads (up to a maximum A4-size) featuring the KC-91 protective overcoat will be sold starting Tuesday, February 7, 2012.
