Zink (printing)
{{Short description|Full-color inkless printing technology}}
File:Polaroid Zink printer.jpg
File:Zink Pictures coming out(Take_2) (3308814950) (cropped).jpg Wasabi PZ310 Zink printer]]
File:Polaroid Socialmatic Camera (16676057800).jpg
Zink (stylised as ZINK, a portmanteau of zero and ink) is a full-color printing technology{{cite web|url=https://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/09/01/100169862/index.htm|author1=Erick Schonfeld |author2=Chris Morrison|publisher=CNNMoney|title=The next disruptors - September 1, 2007|access-date=2016-09-04}} for digital devices that does not require ink cartridges and prints in a single pass.{{cite web|url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/zink-inkless-printing-with-colorless-color|publisher=IEEE Spectrum|title=Zink: Inkless Printing With Colorless Color - IEEE Spectrum|date=30 October 2009|access-date=2016-09-04}}
The printing technology and its thermal paper are developed by Zink Holdings LLC, a U.S. company, with offices in Edison, New Jersey, and Billerica, Massachusetts, and a manufacturing facility in Whitsett, North Carolina. Zink Holdings makes all the paper, and makes a printer for printing labels and other designs on rolls of Zink zRoll. It licenses its technology to other companies that make compact photo printers, and combined camera / compact photo printers. Key licensees include HP, Lifeprint, Prynt, and C&A Global.
The Zink technology started as a project inside Polaroid Corporation in the 1990s, which spun out Zink as a fully independent company in 2005.
Technology
The paper has several layers: a backing layer with optional pressure sensitive adhesive, heat-sensitive layers with cyan, magenta and yellow dyes in colorless form, and an overcoat.
The color addressing is achieved by controlling the heat pulse length and intensity.{{Cite web|url=http://computer.howstuffworks.com/mobile-photo-printer2.htm|title = How Ink-free Mobile Photo Printers Work|date = 24 June 2008}}
The color-forming layers contain colorless crystals of amorphochromic dyes. These dyes form microcrystals of their colorless tautomers, which convert to the colored form by melting and retain color after resolidification.{{cite book|author1=Peter Bamfield|author2=Michael G. Hutchings|title=Chromic Phenomena: Technological Applications of Colour Chemistry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l0YMzskti8gC&q=amorphochromic&pg=PA114|year=2010|publisher=Royal Society of Chemistry|isbn=978-1-84755-868-8|page=114}}{{cite web |title=The Missing Ink |url=https://www.theengineer.co.uk/issues/10-march-2008/the-missing-ink/ |access-date=22 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181222165247/https://www.theengineer.co.uk/issues/10-march-2008/the-missing-ink/ |archive-date=2018-12-22 |date=11 March 2008}}
The yellow layer is the topmost one, sensitive to short heat pulses of high temperature. The magenta layer is in the middle, sensitive to longer pulses of moderate temperature. The cyan layer is at the bottom, sensitive to long pulses of lower temperature. The layers are separated by thin interlayers, acting as heat insulation, moderating the heat throughout.{{Cite web|url=http://www.freepatentsonline.com/EP1399318.html|title = Thermal Imaging System}}
Zink Holdings LLC
{{ infobox company
| name = Zink Holdings LLC
| logo = Zink Holdings logo.png
| industry = Consumer electronics, Photography
| predecessor = Polaroid
| hq_location_city = Billerica, Massachusetts{{cite web|last1=Kirsner|first1=Scott|title=Chasing the Polaroid magic in a digital age|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/02/13/there-still-magic-polaroid-technology/iAUQm9DWWmyQ1gF0o3IsaN/story.html|website=Boston Globe|publisher=The Boston Globe|access-date=29 April 2017}}
| hq_location_country = United States
| website = {{URL|https://zink.com}}
}}
Zink Holdings LLC is a technology company headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts {{cite web|last1=Kirsner|first1=Scott|title=Chasing the Polaroid magic in a digital age|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/02/13/there-still-magic-polaroid-technology/iAUQm9DWWmyQ1gF0o3IsaN/story.html|website=Boston Globe|publisher=The Boston Globe|access-date=29 April 2017}} (formerly Bedford, Massachusetts), {{cite web|url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/zink-imaging-closes-35-million-124200830.html|publisher=finance.yahoo.com|title=ZINK Imaging Closes $35 Million in Series B Financing Led by Genii Capital and Expands Executive Team With the Addition of Co-CEOs - Yahoo Finance|access-date=2016-09-04}}{{cite web|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=35415047|publisher=bloomberg.com|title=ZINK: Private Company Information - Businessweek|access-date=2016-09-04}} founded in 2005.{{cite news|url=https://techcrunch.com/2011/12/06/zink-raises-35-million-aims-to-popularize-ink-free-printing/|work=techcrunch.com|title=ZINK Raises $35 Million, Aims To Popularize Ink-Free Printing | TechCrunch|access-date=2016-09-04}} It develops what it calls "ZINK Zero Ink technology" and "ZINK Paper". Zink’s Research and development labs and headquarters are in Billerica, with a paper manufacturing plant in Whitsett, North Carolina{{cite web|last1=Kirsner|first1=Scott|title=Chasing the Polaroid magic in a digital age|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/02/13/there-still-magic-polaroid-technology/iAUQm9DWWmyQ1gF0o3IsaN/story.html|website=Boston Globe|publisher=The Boston Globe|access-date=29 April 2017}} (using staff and facilities previously used by Konica Minolta).{{cite magazine|url=https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2155298,00.asp|first = Patrick | last = Hoffman |magazine=PC Magazine|title=Zink to Step-Up Production of Inkless Printing Paper|date = 6 July 2007 | access-date=5 September 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://www.geek.com/news/zink-imaging-finalizes-konica-minolta-manufacturing-purchase-566950/|first = Matthew | last = Humphries |publisher=Geek.com|title=Inkless Photo Printing | Computerworld|date = 9 July 2007 | access-date=5 September 2016}}
Zink started as one of two major new technologies being developed inside Polaroid Corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the 1990s, with 100 researchers working on it. Polaroid Corporation spun out Zink as a fully independent company in 2005,{{cite web|url=http://www.computerworld.com/article/2552233/enterprise-applications/inkless-photo-printing.html|author=Mark Hall|publisher=computerworld.com|title=Inkless Photo Printing | Computerworld|date=20 August 2007|access-date=2016-09-04}} with 50 of its staff moving to it. Zink first unveiled its technology in January 2007, at IDG's DEMO 07 conference.{{cite web|url=https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2245855,00.asp|publisher=pcmag.com|title=ZINK Promises Ink-Less Printing | News & Opinion | PCMag.com|access-date=2016-09-04}}{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR5j0eUF5Wk|publisher=DemoConferences|title=DEMO 07: ZINK Imaging, LLC. - ZINK Digital Imaging Technology|date = 19 February 2007 | access-date=5 September 2016}}
Zink makes all the paper, along with a printer for printing labels and other designs on rolls of Zink zRoll; and licenses its technology to other companies that make compact photo printers, and combined camera / compact photo printers that print photographs onto mostly 2×3” (about 5×8 cm) sheets of Zink Paper.{{cn|date=July 2021}} Alps Electric manufactures the Zink print engines, and Foxconn and Lite-On build Zink-based products for major consumer-products companies.{{cn|date=July 2021}} Key licensees include HP, Lifeprint, Prynt, and C&A Global.
Products
{{Main|List of Zink cameras, printers and paper}}
References
{{refs}}
External links
{{commonscatinline}}
- {{oweb|https://zink.com|Zink Holdings LLC}}
- [https://spectrum.ieee.org/behind-the-scenes-at-zink-where-color-magic-happens Behind the Scenes at Zink: Where Color Magic Happens]