Near-Infrared Chemistry Increased-Load Adaptive-flow Ink and Software System

The Army has strong demand for the development of near infrared reflectance (NIR) inks compatible with digital ink jet printing machines for rapid deployment of region specific camouflage. Currently, there is a capability gap for the production of inkjet digitally printed camouflage colors and patterns that have manageable NIR properties. Therefore, new developed camouflage can only be readily tested for daytime conditions. During Phase 1, Easy Group showed successful inkjet on NYCO samples that met and exceeded Army Phase 1 requirements by NIR measurements performed from the Army’s Camouflage Evaluation Facility. And, thereby proved feasibility of its new technology, called NIR Chemistry Increased-Load Adaptive-flow (NICIA) Ink and its Software System. In Phase 2, Easy Group is proposing to extend its Phase 1 groundwork to a complete laboratory prototype inkjet digital printing solution that can accomplish full mix-color camouflage inkjet printing with NIR capabilities. As such it enables the Army to dramatically improve time, cost, efficiency and region specific camouflage evaluation capabilities, and increase success in military specific missions. Commercial market opportunities for the innovative technology have also been identified in the textile and digital printing markets, the security ink and specialty ink and coating markets.