Zinc printing technology

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The zinc printing technology , English zinc printing technology , "Z-ink" stands for " Z ero I nk" (in German: "zero ink") is a process for photo printers that works without ink, since the color pigments are already in the zinc -Paper are located.

The “zinc” paper consists of three superimposed emulsion layers made of crystals of the basic colors of the subtractive light mixture : yellow, magenta and cyan. The color pigments are activated by thermal impulses of different temperatures and exposure times, in order to bring the original white crystals into their effective color.

The layer sequence of the "zinc" paper currently on the market is as follows:

  • yellow emulsion (activated by a short heat pulse of 200 ° C)
  • magenta emulsion (activated by a medium heat impulse of 150 ° C)
  • transparent carrier layer
  • cyan emulsion (activated by a long heat pulse of 100 ° C)
  • Base carrier, white (PVC?)
  • Adhesive coating
  • Masking paper

All patents for this are owned by ZINK Imaging , a subsidiary of Polaroid , the inventor of instant photography. The "zinc" technology came onto the German market for the first time in July 2008 with the pocket-sized PoGo printer from Polaroid. It enables mobile printing, directly from cell phones or digital cameras, but only with limited image quality.

Since the "zinc" process works without ink cartridges , the devices can be built particularly compactly. In addition to the external PoGo printer, mobile phones with built-in printers should also come onto the market.

Device manufacturers are Polaroid, Canon , HP , Huawei , Tomy , Brother and Dell .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mini printer from Polaroid: Expensive and bad , test.de from January 22, 2009, accessed on October 8, 2018

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