PHASE-CHANGE DIGITAL ADVANCED LITHOGRAPHIC IMAGING INKS WITH AMIDE GELLANT TRANSFER ADDITIVES

An ink composition useful for digital offset printing applications includes a colorant and a high viscosity thickening agent. The ink is formulated to incorporate a gellant into the ink set to help meet the requirement of two different viscosity or temperature pairs at two different stages of the ink delivery process. In lithography imaging a bulk ink is first transferred onto an anilox roll and then onto the imaging cylinder blanket. The first transfer from bulk ink to anilox roll requires the ink to have a low viscosity while the transfer from roll to imaging blanket requires a high viscosity. The addition of the gellant will increase the viscosity difference within the allowable temperature range thus increasing process latitude and robustness.