The magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) product is a water-based ink formulation with metal oxide nanoparticles. It is formulated for Kyocera and HP thermal inkjet print heads and can be adapted to work in other technologies.
The ink is for cheque printing vendors or companies wanting to bring cheque printing in-house to reduce costs. It features increased stability and extended shelf life due to its functionalised formulation. The metal oxide particles are stabilised in the base chemistry through the use of a surface treatment that is attached using strong chemical bonds rather than a weakly held coating, like in other ink formulations.
Todd Tritcak, Kao Collins chemist said, ‘One of the problems with these inks is that the particles settle over time. Our chemistry offers better stability.’
The ink stability is critical for the processing of the cheques. If the magnetic ink used for printing account and routing numbers on cheques is misread or unreadable, cheque processing is delayed, with resulting costs passed along to the company that printed the cheque. MICR ink can be used for printing verification coding.
