Zink (stylised as ZINK, a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsprinting Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...

technology for digital devices that does not require ink cartridges and prints in a single pass. The printing technology and its

thermal paper A thermal column (or thermal) is a rising mass of buoyant air, a convective current in the atmosphere, that transfers heat energy vertically. Thermals are created by the uneven heating of Earth's surface from solar radiation, and are an example ...

are developed by Zink Holdings LLC, a U.S. company, with offices in

Edison, New Jersey Edison is a township located in Middlesex County,in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated in Central New Jersey within the core of the state's Raritan Valley region, Edison is a commercial hub, home to Menlo Park Mall and Little India. It ...

, and Billerica, Massachusetts, and a manufacturing facility in

Whitsett, North Carolina Whitsett is a town in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 590 at the 2010 census. History The Daniel P. Foust House, Foust-Carpenter and Dean Dick Farms, Holly Gate, Low House, William Rankin and Elizabeth Whart ...

. 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 Polaroid is an American company best known for its instant film and cameras. The company was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land, to exploit the use of its Polaroid polarizing polymer. Land ran the company until 1981. Its peak employment was 21,0 ...

in the 1990s, which

spun out ''Spun Out'' is a Canadian television sitcom created by Jeff Biederman, Brent Piaskoski and Brian K. Roberts for CTV. It premiered on March 6, 2014 and ended on October 3, 2015, with a total of 26 episodes over the course of 2 seasons. Premise T ...

Zink as a fully independent company in 2005.

Technology

The paper has several layers: a backing layer with optional

pressure sensitive adhesive Pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA, self-adhesive, self-stick adhesive) is a type of nonreactive adhesive which forms a bond when pressure is applied to bond the adhesive with a surface. No solvent, water, or heat is needed to activate the adhesiv ...

, heat-sensitive layers with cyan, magenta and yellow dyes in colorless form, and overcoat. The color addressing is achieved by controlling the heat pulse length and intensity. The color-forming layers contain colorless crystals of amorphochromic dyes. These dyes form microcrystals of their colorless

tautomer Tautomers () are structural isomers (constitutional isomers) of chemical compounds that readily interconvert. The chemical reaction interconverting the two is called tautomerization. This conversion commonly results from the relocation of a hyd ...

s, which convert to the colored form by melting and retain color after resolidification. 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.

Zink Holdings LLC

Zink Holdings LCC is a technology company headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts (formerly Bedford, Massachusetts), founded in 2005. 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 (using staff and facilities previously used by

Konica Minolta is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo, with offices in 49 countries worldwide. The company manufactures business and industrial imaging products, in ...

). Zink started as one of two major new technologies being developed inside

in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the 1990s, with 100 researchers working on it. Polaroid Corporation

Zink as a fully independent company in 2005, with 50 of its staff moving to it. Zink first unveiled its technology in January 2007, at

IDG International Data Group (IDG, Inc.) is a market intelligence and demand generation company focused on the technology industry. IDG, Inc.’s mission is centered around supporting the technology industry through research, data, marketing technol ...

's DEMO 07 conference. 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.

Alps Electric is a Japanese multinational corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, producing electronic devices, including switches, potentiometers, sensors, encoders and touchpads. The company was established in 1948 as Kataoka Electric Co., Ltd. and ch ...

manufactures the Zink print engines, and

Foxconn Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., trading as Hon Hai Technology Group in China and Taiwan and Foxconn internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer established in 1974 with headquarters in Tucheng, New ...

and

Lite-On Lite-On (also known as LiteOn and LiteON) is a Taiwanese company that primarily manufactures consumer electronics, including LEDs, semiconductors, computer chassis, monitors, motherboards, optical disc drives, and other electronic components ...

build Zink-based products for major consumer-products companies. Key licensees include HP, Lifeprint, Prynt, and C&A Global.

Products

References

External links

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Zink Holdings LLC

Behind the Scenes at Zink: Where Color Magic Happens
Computer printers Instant photography Polaroid cameras Printing materials Coated paper Photography equipment