American Ink Jet Corporation is Published by The Society for Imaging Science and Technology.

BILLERICA, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 21, 1999--

American Ink Jet is proud to announce the publication of two technical papers, "The Problem of Catalytic Fading with Ink Jet Inks" and "Optimization of Ink Jet Inks Using Nonlinear Programming" in the Society for Imaging Science and Technology's publication, Recent Progress in Ink Jet Technologies II.

The first paper explores the problems and solutions in manufacturing inks to minimize the catalytic fading of an image produced using ink jet inks. As stated in the paper, "catalytic fading commonly refers to the fact that a given dye may fade faster when it is in contact with another dye as a result of an image area containing more than one set of inks". Components, such as hydrogen donors, in both ink and media, can act as photocatalysts causing a chain reaction of degradation amongst the dyes within an image area resulting in the fading of an image. Solutions include; instituting fading experiments under both a nitrogen and oxygen atmosphere, selecting appropriate UV absorbers and promoting dye aggregation.

The second paper discusses the specifications that are required for the "functionality" of ink jet inks. Small variations in ink component materials can drive a manufacturing batch of ink out of specification. Optimization of ink jet inks involves adjusting the concentration of certain components. American Ink Jet's manufacturing & engineering team has mapped out a mathematical and nonlinear program procedure to calculate and account for these variant interactions where the property of ink depends on more than just one component. As stated in the paper "the program is an effective tool in guiding manufacturing engineers in their selections of adjustments to bring an ink back into specification and to assist in reducing the number of iterations".

"The publication of these papers are a testament to American Ink Jet's manufacturing and R&D team's commitment to advancing technologies in ink jet ink development and production", said Michael Andreottola, President & CEO of American Ink Jet Corporation. American Ink Jet's R&D efforts have resulted in patent-pending light-fast technology which produced lightfast, dye based inks rated by Henry Wilhelm for 30-35 years(a) and more recently, by using its custom sub-micron purification and filtration process, AIJ manufactured a pigment ink filtered down to less than .5 microns. The purification process produces a narrow particle distribution resulting in a pigment ink with a remarkable stable dispersion that produces crisp black text and virtually eliminates clogging problems. As a result of the advanced pigment technology, water-resistant capabilities match or exceed alternate black pigment inks on the market.

Recent Progress in Ink Jet Technologies II is the 7th book in IS&T's "Recent Progress" series. Viewed by many including IS&T and its members as the "main archival publication in this field", the book is an accumulation of technical papers from 1996 to 1998 given through IS&T on world ink jet technologies. The book is available through IS&T in paper format or on CD. The advantage of the CD will be that any subject referenced in a chapter that refers to another paper in the book is linked. A reader can automatically be linked to the reference by clicking on the highlighted material. The book can be ordered at anytime through IS&T's web site, www.imaging.org and will begin shipping in July 1999.

American Ink Jet, an ISO 9001 certified manufacturing company, is committed to developing and manufacturing the highest quality, technically advanced, ink jet inks for the global ink jet-printing marketplace. The company maintains multidisciplinary research and development staffs who apply Calibrated Color Chemistry (C3) technology in producing inks for the ever evolving ink jet market. Based in Billerica, Mass., American Ink Jet's homepage is www.amjet.com.

(a) Technical note to editors:

The Wilhelm Imaging Research, Inc. display-life predictions given here were obtained by subjecting images to accelerated glass-filtered fluorescent light fading tests conducted at 75(Degree)F and 60% RH, and are based on a "standard" indoor display condition of 450 lux for 12 hours per day. The predictions are given in years of display required for specified, easily noticeable, fading, changes in color balance, and/or staining to occur. The figures given here apply only to the UV Gold Inks when used in combination with the UV Gold Paper and printed with an Encad NOVAJET(TM) printer.