United States Patent [191 [1 1] 4,163,675 Hirano Et Al
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United States Patent [191 [1 1] 4,163,675 Hirano et al. ' [45] Aug. 7, 1979 [54] AQUEOUS INK COMPOSITION FOR [56] References Cited WRITING INSTRUMENTS U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS [75] Inventors: Katsumi I-Iirano, Kuwana; Takeshi Re. 28,605 11/1975’ Alburger .............................. .. 106/19 Teranishi, Nagoya; Kunio Kosaki, 3,519,443 7/1970 Kaplan et al. ....................... .. 106/22 Nagoya; Kazuhiko Honda, Nagoya, Primary Examiner-Carman J. Seccuro all of Japan Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Sughrue, Rothwell, Mion, [73] Assignee: Pilot Ink Co., Ltd., Nagoya, Japan Zinn and Macpeak [57] ABSTRACT [21] Appl. No.: 921,151 An aqueous ink composition, suitable for use in writing [22] Filed: Jun. 30, 1978 instruments including an ink passage made of a plastic material, consisting essentially of water, a water-soluble [30] Foreign Application Priority Data dye and a naphthalene derivative as essential ingredi ents and a glycol or a polyglycol as a moisture-retaining Jun, 30. 1977 [JP] Japan ................................ .. 52-78188 agent, a very small amount of a surface active agent as [51] Int. Cl.2 .................... .. C09D 11/16; C09D 11/18 a penetrant, an anti-mold agent and other additives as [52] US. Cl. ......................... ., ........... .. 106/22; 106/25; optional ingredients. The naphthalene derivative im 260/29.6 B; 260/29.6 EN parts affinity for the plastic material. [58] Field of Search ............. .. 106/22, 25; 260/29.6 B, 260/29.6 I-IN 8 Claims, No Drawings 4,163,675 l 2 AQUEOUS INK COMPOSITION FOR WRITING ' SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION INSTRUMENTS An object of the present invention is to provide an aqueous ink composition suitable for writing instru BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 5 ments including an ink passage made of a plastic mate 1. Field of the Invention rial. This invention relates to an aqueous ink composition. It has now been found that the incorporation of about More particularly, this invention relates to an aqueous 0.1 to about 10% by weight of a speci?c naphthalene ink composition for use in writing instruments including derivative in an aqueous ink makes it possible to in an ink passage made of a plastic material. crease the af?nity of the aqueous ink for the plastic 2. Description of the Prior Art material and to render the plastic material readily wetta There are many examples of writing instruments in ble without markedly decreasing the surface tension of which an ink passage is made of a plastic material. Plas the aqueous ink. Accordingly, when the aqueous ink of tic molded articles are frequently used as nibs, feed the invention is employed in a writing instrument, the elements or ink reservoirs in marking pens, as feed ele writing does not blot on paper, and an interruption of ments or ink reservoirs in fountain pens, and as tips, feed the ink flow, which occurs due to the lack of af?nity of the ink for the plastic material of the ink passage of the elements or ink reservoirs in ball-point pens for aqueous writing instrument, is obviated. inks. ' The above-described object of the invention is Most plastic materials intrinsically have low af?nity 20 achieved by an aqueous ink composition consisting for water, and are difficult to wet with aqueous inks. ' essentially of water, a water-soluble dye and a naphtha This frequently causes an interruption of ink ?ow in ink lene derivative of the following general formula (I): passages made of a plastic material. If a part which requires the presence of an extremely narrow ink flow channel, such as a nib or a feed element, is made of a 25 (5),» (I) plastic material, the channel width cannot be made A narrow to the same extent as in a ?brous bundle, and, C therefore, the capillary action in such a channel is B weaker than in a ?brous bundle, thus, the tendency toward an interruption in ink flow increases. Accord 30 wherein S represents —S03M or —COOM in which M ingly, an “ink swallowing phenomenon" tends to occur represents H, an alkali metal atom or NH4; m is l, 2, 3, in a writing instrument including such a plastic part or 4; and A, B and C, which may be the same or differ whereby ink drops into the reservoir when the writing ent, each represents ,—H, -—0R1, instrument has been left with the nib turned upside— down or when the instrument has been subjected to 35 impact. As a result, the ability to write instantaneously after the occurrence of such a phenomenon becomes impossible, or inking failure tends to occur during writ ing. In a fountain pen including an ink cartridge made of a plastic material such as polyethylene, when the ink has —NO, —NO; or —NEN+, in which R1 and R2, which been partly consumed to form a space within the car may be the same or different, each represents —H, tridge, the wetting of the inner wall of the cartridge _CnH2n+l, with the aqueous ink becomes poor. Hence, there is a tendency for the ink not to flow in the direction of the nib, but to remain within the cartridge. 45 Heretofore, the following techniques have been em ployed to use an aqueous ink in a writing instrument containing a part made of a plastic material. (1) A surface active agent, as a wetting agent, is incor 50 porated into the plastic material itself. (2) A surface active agent is incorporated into the ink to increase the affinity of the ink for the plastic material. (3) The surface of the plastic material is roughened by in which R3 represents —H, —CnH2,,+|, —NOZ, treatment chemically or with ozone. 55 —NHZ, —OH or —COOH and n is a number of l to 9. When technique,(l) above is used, the surface active agent is frequently extracted into the ink when ink is DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE contacted with the plastic material for long periods of INVENTION time. Thus, blotting occurs frequently with such an ink. Suitable dyes which can be used as colorants in the If a surface active agent is added in an amount suffi 60 present invention are water-soluble dyes, e.g., having a cient‘to wet the plastic material as in technique (2) solubility in water of about 10'-3 mole/l or more, prefer above, the writing tends to blot on the paper to a great ably about 10"2 mole/l or more, at 20° to 25° C., which extent. ' _ _ are generally classi?ed as acid dyes and direct dyes. The ln technique (3) above, roughening the surface of the water-soluble dye is used in an amountof about 1 to plastic portion of the writing instrument involves dif? 65 about 15% by weight, preferably 3 to 10% by weight, culties. Treatment of a line channel in the nib or feed based on the total weight of the ink composition. element is time-consuming, and complete treatment is Speci?c examples of suitable water-soluble dyes extremely dif?cult to accomplish. which can be used are acid dyes such as Tartrazine (CI 4,163,675 3 4 19140), Quinoline Yellow (CI 47005), Eosin (CI 45380), l-Naphthol-S-sulfonic acid Acid Phloxine (CI 45410), Erythrosine (CI 45430), Sun Z-Naphthol-l-sulfonic acid (oxy Tobias acid) set Yellow FCF (CI 15985), Acid Violet 5B (CI 42640), 2-Naphthol-3-sulfonic acid Patent Blue AF (CI 42080), Brilliant Cyanine 6B (CI 2-Naphthol-4-sulfonic acid 42660), Acid Brilliant Blue FCF (CI 42090), Naphtha Z-Naphthol-S-sulfonic acid lene Green VSC (CI 44025) and Acid Blue Black 10B 2-Naphthol-6-sulfonic acid (Schaffer’s acid) (CI 20470); and direct dyes such as Paper Yellow GG 2-Naphthol-7-sulfonic acid (F acid) (CI Direct Yellow 131), Direct Scarlet 4BS (CI 29160), 2-Naphthol-8-sulfonic acid (Crocein acid) Congo Red (CI 22120), Violet BB (CI 27905), Direct Sky Blue 5B (CI 24400), Phthalocyanine Blue (CI (5) Naphtholdisulfonic Acids: 74180), Black G (CI 35255) and Deep Black XA (CI Direct Black 154). The CI number in the description l-Naphthol-2,4-disulfonic acid above indicates the identi?cation number in the Color 1-Naphthol-2,5-disulfonic acid Index, 3rd Ed., The Society of Dyers and Colorists, l-Naphthol-2,7-disulfonic acid Bradford, Yorkshire (1971). 15 1-Naphthol-3,6-disulfonic acid (Violet acid) The naphthalene derivative of the general formula (I) l-Naphthol-3,7-disulfonic acid is employed in the ink composition of this invention in 1-Naphthol-3,8-disulfonic acid (eacid) an amount of about 0.1 to about 10% by weight, prefer l-Naphthol-4,7-disulfonic acid ably 0.3 to 7.0% by weight, and most preferably 0.5 to 1-Naphthol-4,8-disulfonic acid 3.0% by weight, based on the total weight of the ink 20 l-Naphthol-6,8-disulfonic acid composition. Amounts less than about 0.1% by weight Z-Naphthol-lA-disulfonic acid do not produce any appreciable effect as shown by the Z-Naphthol-1,5-disulfonic acid experimental results given hereinbelow. On the other 2-Naphthol-l,6‘disulfonic acid hand, if the amount of the naphthalene derivative ex 2-Naphthol-l,7-disulfonic acid ceeds about 10% by weight, the solids content of the ink 25 2-Naphthol-3,6-disulfonic acid (R acid) increases, and solid tends to precipitate, with the result 2-Naphthol-3,7-disulfonic acid that ink ?ow through a capillary ink passage of a writ 2-Naphthol-4,8-disulfonic acid ing instrument is impaired. 2-Naphthol-6,8-disulfonic acid (G acid) Those naphthalene derivatives of the general formula (I) which are present in the acid form and are only 30 (6) Naphthol-trisulfonic Acids: sparingly soluble in water are used dissolved in the form of a salt in water together with basic substances such as l-naphthol-2,4,7-trisulfonic acid alkali metal hydroxides, alkali metal carbonates or am 1-Naphthol-2,4,8-trisulfonic acid .