Dating Water-Based Inks on Documents—Rollerball Pen Inks Containing Pyrrolidone

Valery N. Aginsky

doi:10.69525/jasqde.240

Dating Water-Based Inks on Documents—Rollerball Pen Inks Containing Pyrrolidone

Journal of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners

Volume 20 (2017): Issue 2

By: Valery N. Aginsky

Open Access

|Dec 2017

Abstract

The ink aging methodology that is based on measuring a gradual loss (due to evaporation and diffusion into paper) of high boiling solvents from ink on paper has been extensively published and its capabilities, limitations, and scope of applicability discussed in scientific literature. This paper describes an application of this ink aging methodology to the dating of the rollerball inks that contain the high boiling solvent 2-pyrrolidone (2-PD). This work is a continuation of multiple published works that studied natural aging on paper of both oil/glycol-based inks (conventional ballpoint inks) and water-based inks (rollerball and gel ballpoint pen, felt tip pen, stamp pad, and inkjet inks). The goal of this work was to study the natural aging of rollerball inks on paper by monitoring a gradual loss of 2-PD—a high boiling solvent that is used, along with water, for manufacturing Pilot® rollerball pen and other water-based inks. The results of this work show that, at normal environmental conditions, the rate of the loss of the solvent 2-PD from inks after their placement on paper, as well as from paper in close proximity (immediately next) to the inks’ strokes, may correlate with the age of the inks during up to 12 months following the application of the inks to paper (the natural aging curves “Content of 2-PD—Age of Ink” obtained for the inks tested in this study leveled off within less than 6 months, when single ink lines were tested, and within less than 12 months, when ‘thick’ layers of ink on paper, such as the areas of retracing and intersection of two ink lines were tested). It is important to note that the ink-aging analysis of the ink in the areas of retracing and intersection of two ink lines is only applicable for certain types of water-based inks, such as rollerball inks, that produce ink strokes homogeneously filled with ink within the confines of ink lines. Thus, a monitoring of the gradual loss (with age) of 2-PD both from ‘thick’ lines of inks on paper and from paper in close proximity to the inks’ lines allows one to distinguish between fresh (less than 12 months old) and old (significantly older than one year) entries written with rollerball inks.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.69525/jasqde.240 | Journal eISSN: 1524-7287

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Language: English

Page range: 11 - 30

Published on: Dec 1, 2017

Published by: American Society of Questioned Document Examiners

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© 2017 Valery N. Aginsky, published by American Society of Questioned Document Examiners
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 20 (2017): Issue 2