Liquid toners are manufactured in the KADY® Mill.

A liquid toner is a dispersion first and a print technology second. Pigment, resin, and charge-control additives have to be wetted into a dielectric carrier and reduced to a fine, stable particle field before the fluid ever sees a development nip. Coarse agglomerates print as dirt. Unwetted pigment drifts in color strength from drum to drum. A batch that looked mixed in a slow tank separates, settles, or charges unevenly once it is diluted to working strength.

Kady International has listed this duty for years: liquid toners are manufactured in the KADY® Mill. The mill pumps the concentrate through radial slots in a high-speed rotor and drives it into the staggered slots of a close-clearance stator, at tip speeds up to 9,000 feet per minute. Impact and attrition wet the pigment, break clusters, and distribute resin and additives through the carrier. Upper and lower propellers keep the batch moving back into the head so the draw-off matches the charge.

Send the pigment, the resin, and the carrier. Call 207.883.4141 or send us a RFQ.  We will match the head, seals, and batch size to the toner concentrate, not to a generic ink mill.

What the Toner Concentrate Has to Survive

Liquid electrophotographic toners, and the related liquid color concentrates used beside them, are less forgiving than a conventional paste ink.

• Carrier, not water. The continuous phase is typically a dielectric hydrocarbon fluid. Pigment and resin still have to wet. A blade that only stirs the tank will leave dry color and resin fisheyes.
• Particle size is the product. Development, transfer, and image noise all move when the dispersion still holds agglomerates. The mill has to deagglomerate, not just blend.
• Charge-control additives. They only work if they coat the particle population evenly. A local overdose is a charge defect, not a mixing inconvenience.
• Dilution later. Many plants disperse a concentrate, then let it down. If the concentrate was never finished, dilution does not fix it. It spreads it.
• Contamination and solvent loss. Iron pickup, leftover color, or an open tank changes both the image and the solids.

How the KADY Head Builds the Dispersion

The dispersion head is a slotted rotor running inside a slotted stator. Material is forced through the rotor and thrown against the stator face. That is concentrated impact and attrition, with hydraulic shear in the same pass.

• Wet-out. Carrier and resin solution are driven across the pigment surface instead of riding over a lump.
• Deagglomeration. Clusters break at the rotor-stator face. Auxiliary propellers return the batch through the working zone instead of leaving a dead layer under the head.
• Resin and additive distribution. The same recirculation carries binder and charge-control agents onto the wetted pigment.
• One vessel when the formula allows. Wet-out and dispersion can finish in the mill, which cuts a transfer of a concentrate that is mostly expensive color and resin.
• Premill ahead of a media step. When the image spec still needs a polish grind, a KADY pass reduces what the media mill has to do and how much concentrate sits in a second machine.

Tip speed, clearance, and propeller feed are set to the concentrate. A soft resin grind and a hard pigment agglomerate are not the same duty. Variable-frequency drives hold energy where the particle spec needs it. Jacketed vessels keep a hydrocarbon carrier inside the temperature window.

Prove it on your pigment and carrier. Kady offers free testing. Call 207.883.4141 or start at free testing and bring the color, the resin, and the fluid.

Where the Mill Fits the Process

• Pigment concentrates. Dry color wetted into resin and dielectric carrier before let-down.
• Resin solutions and varnishes. Binder cut into the carrier so the pigment stage starts from a real solution, not a swollen lump.
• Finished liquid toner bases. Pigment, resin, and additives brought to a uniform concentrate in one working zone.
• Color changes. A head and vessel that can be cleaned, so the last cyan is not the start of the next black.
• Related liquid imaging fluids. Dielectric inks and liquid color dispersions that share the same wet-out and particle-size problem.

Stainless wetted parts are standard. Special alloys, seals, and closed covers are available when the carrier or the cleaning solvent requires them. Vacuum capability is an option when dissolved air or foam becomes part of the defect.

From a Bench Concentrate to a Production Drum

The Model L lab mill uses the same rotor-stator principle as the production line, so a wet-out or premill result on a small toner charge is meant to correlate to the larger KADY mills. Production follows the volume and the solids.

• Lab mills for formula work and drawdowns.
• Top entry mills for batch concentrates and color changes.
• Bottom entry mills when viscosity, discharge, or vessel geometry calls for it.
• Continuous flow mills when pigment, resin, and carrier are metered into a running stream.
• High-speed production mills for full-scale dispersion and premilling.
• Refurbished mills, rebuilt to factory specs and shipped with a new-machine warranty, when the duty is proven and the capital budget is tight.

What to Have Ready Before You Call

• Pigment type and whether the duty is wet-out, deagglomeration, or premill ahead of media.
• Resin, carrier fluid, and any charge-control package that has to be in the same pass.
• Target solids, viscosity, and the particle or drawdown spec you already measure.
• Batch size or continuous rate, and how often the color changes.
• Seal, alloy, and solvent limits you already know you need.

Put the Concentrate Through the Head

KADY® International has designed and built high-speed rotor-stator mills in Scarborough, Maine since 1949. The mills disperse, mill, and homogenize fluid and solid systems, and they are running in more than forty countries.

Talk to sales and engineering about a liquid toner concentrate. Call 207.883.4141, or contact Kady. Ask for a lab trial if you want the pigment run before you commit to a mill.