When we developed AQUAFUZE, we set out to solve ink flaws, avoiding water-soluble components that degrade too quickly.
In large format printing, the development of inks and ink technology has always been a balancing act. Print service providers have traditionally been forced to choose between durability, flexibility, print speed, media compatibility and environmental impact. Each ink type, whether eco-solvent, latex or UV, comes with its own compromises.
With AQUAFUZE, Fujifilm has introduced a new approach to ink chemistry that combines the best of water-based and UV-curable technologies while solving many of their long-standing limitations. This is not simply an improvement – it’s a materials science breakthrough that could reshape how the industry thinks about inkjet production.
In this article, Shota Suzuki, one of the lead developers behind AQUAFUZE ink technology, elaborates on the thinking, chemistry and technical hurdles that led to this innovation.
My journey started with chemistry
My background is in synthetic organic chemistry, specialising in the development of new materials for industrial applications. I never started out thinking I’d work in inkjet, but the materials science perspective I was able to bring has been critical in tackling some of the toughest challenges in inkjet R&D.
One of the biggest of these challenges was stabilising UV-curable materials in a water-based system. That’s something the industry has been trying to crack for years. Water and UV monomers don’t naturally mix – they’re chemically incompatible. Bringing them together in a stable, printable and curable form took us nearly a decade of research at Fujifilm’s R&D centres in Japan.
When we started developing AQUAFUZE, we deliberately set out to avoid the compromises we saw in existing ink technologies. Some water-based UV systems on the market rely on water-soluble photo-initiators and monomers, which are prone to degradation and can shorten shelf life. Others, like latex inks, require very high curing temperatures, limiting media choice and increasing energy costs. Traditional UV-curable inks, while durable, don’t offer the same health and safety requirements in terms of odour and safety labelling that today’s customers expect. So, in developing AQUAFUZE, we knew we had to take a fundamentally different materials science approach – develop a stable, water-based UV-curable ink that avoids water-soluble components, cures at low temperatures, and eliminates the need for primers or optimisers. That’s what sets AQUAFUZE apart.
AQUAFUZE uses a stable, water-safe UV emulsion
We drew on knowledge from other areas of Fujifilm, including our work on thermo/pressure sensitive recording materials. This cross-disciplinary thinking led us towards emulsion design as the starting point.
At the heart of AQUAFUZE is a proprietary UV-curable emulsion. Traditionally, UV-curable monomers are extremely sensitive to water, leading to degradation or premature cross-linking if not properly handled.
Our breakthrough came when we developed a custom dispersant system. This system allows us to contain UV-reactive materials in such a way that they remain isolated from water until the exact moment of UV curing. This level of control meant we could achieve the storage stability and print performance we needed, all while using low-energy LED UV lamps for curing.
A chemistry-led choice: Avoiding water soluble initiators
One of the critical decisions we made was to avoid water-soluble photo-initiators and monomers entirely. Other attempts to develop water-based UV ink systems have relied on these, but from a chemistry standpoint, I was concerned about the risks.
Aside from being relatively expensive, water-soluble photo-initiators and monomers tend to react too easily with water, which raises issues around premature decomposition and shelf-life instability.
Instead, in a true industry first, we focused on developing non-water-soluble photo-initiators and monomers. We worked hard to develop a dispersion process that would keep these initiators and monomers stable and uniformly distributed throughout the ink. This decision has paid off in long-term ink stability and highly reliable curing performance – both of which were non-negotiable for the large format print market.
