Ink compositions and their preparation

Claim 1

A composition useful as a printing ink or useful for the preparation of a printing ink, comprising a substantially homogeneous system of the components: (1) from about 4 to about 90 weight % of polymeric material of at least one linear, water-dispersible polymer having carbonyloxy linking groups in the linear molecular structure wherein up to 80% of the linking groups may be carbonylamido linking groups, the polymer having an inherent viscosity of from about 0.1 to about 1.0 measured in a 60/40 parts by weight solution of phenol/tetrachloroethane at 25° C. and at a concentration of 0.25 gram of polymer in 100 mL of the solvent, the polymer containing substantially equimolar proportions of acid equivalents (100 mole percent) to hydroxy and amino equivalents (100 mole percent), the polymer comprising the reaction products of (a), (b), (c) and (d) from the following reactants or ester forming or esteramide forming derivatives thereof; (a) at least one difunctional dicarboxylic acid; (b) from about 4 to about 25 mole percent, based on a total of all acid, hydroxyl and amino equivalents being equal to 200 mole percent, of at least one difunctional sulfomonomer containing at least one cationic sulfonate group attached to an aromatic or cycloaliphatic nucleus wherein the functional groups are hydroxy, carboxyl or amino; (c) at least one difunctional reactant selected from a glycol or a mixture of a glycol and diamine having two --NRH groups, the glycol containing two --CH 2 --OH groups of which (1) at least 15 mole percent based on the total mole percent of hydroxy or hydroxy and amino equivalents, is a poly(ethylene glycol) having the structural formula H--OCH.sub.2 --CH.sub.2 --.sub.n OH, n being an integer of from 2 to about 20, or (2) of which from about 0.1 to less than about 15 mole percent based on the total mole percent of hydroxy or hydroxy and amino equivalents, is a poly(ethylene glycol) having the structural formula H--OCH.sub.2 --CH.sub.2 --.sub.n OH, n being an integer of between 2 and about 500, and with the proviso that the mole percent of said poly(ethylene glycol) within said range is inversely proportional to the quantity of n within said range; and (d) from none to at least one difunctional reactant selected from a hydroxy-carboxylic acid having one --C(R) 2 --OH group, an aminocarboxylic acid having one --NRH group, and an amino-alcohol having one --C(R) 2 --OH group and one --NRH group, or mixtures of said difunctional reactants; wherein each R in the (c) or (d) reactants is a H atom or an alkyl group of 1 to 4 carbon atoms; (2) from none to about 70 weight % of pigment material; (3) from about 0.01 to about 90 weight % of water; and (4) one or more acetylacetonates of the formula M[CH--(COCH 3 ) 2 ] n wherein M is a polyvalent metal and n is the chemical valence of M, the weight ratio of polyester to total acetylacetonates being from about 10,000/1 to about 10/1.