Digital printing process

1. A printing system comprising:

a. an intermediate transfer member (ITM) comprising a flexible endless belt mounted over a plurality of guide rollers;

b. an image forming station configured to form ink images upon a surface of the ITM, first and second of the guide rollers being arranged upstream and downstream of the image forming station to define an upper run passing through the image forming station and a lower run;

c. an impression station through which the lower run of the ITM passes, the impression station being disposed downstream of the image forming station and configured to transfer the ink images from the ITM surface to substrate; and

d. a treatment station disposed downstream of the impression station and upstream of the image forming station for forming a uniform thin layer of a liquid treatment formulation onto the ITM surface at the lower run thereof, the treatment station comprising:

i. a coater for coating the ITM with the liquid treatment formulation; and

ii. a coating thickness-regulation assembly for removing excess liquid so as to leave only the desired uniform thin layer of treatment formulation, the coating thickness-regulation assembly comprising a rounded tip facing the ITM surface at the lower run,

wherein the rounded tip is urged towards the ITM and/or vice versa against liquid solution disposed in a gap between the rounded tip and the portion of the ITM surface facing the rounded tip at a force equilibrium so that the gap is maintained constant, and wherein a ratio between a magnitude of the gap and the thickness of the desired uniform thin layer is at least 0.1 and at most 10.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the rounded tip is a tip of a doctor blade.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the doctor blade is oriented normal to the ITM surface.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein (i) the rounded tip and the ITM surface are urged towards each other, by a backing roller having a soft outer surface; and (ii) the backing roller has a compressible surface which is compressed when the rounded tip is urged towards the ITM surface and/or vice versa so that the rounded tip penetrates together with the ITM into the compressible surface of the backing roller at a predetermined penetration depth.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the rounded tip penetrates the ITM such that a magnitude of penetration depth is at least 1 mm or at least 2 mm and/or at most 5 mm or at most 4 mm or at most 3 mm.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the rounded tip is urged towards the ITM and/or vice versa against liquid solution disposed in a gap between the rounded tip and the portion of the ITM surface facing the rounded tip at a force equilibrium so that the gap is maintained constant.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the magnitude of the gap is at most 0.8 microns or at most 0.6 microns.

8. The system of claim 5 wherein a ratio between the magnitude of the gap and a penetration depth to which the rounded tip penetrates the ITM surface at most 0.01 or at most 0.005 or at most 0.001 or at most 0.0005.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the rounded tip is a tip of a doctor blade and a radius of curvature of the rounded doctor blade tip is at most 2 mm or at most 1.5 mm or at most 1.25 mm or at most 1 mm.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein (i) the doctor blade is one of a plurality of doctor blades mounted on a circumference of a turret that is rotatable to facilitate replacement of the doctor blade urged towards the surface; and (ii) the spacing of the blades on the turret circumference is such that, during rotation of the turret to replace the doctor blade, the blade being replaced does not cease to be functional until the replacement blade commences functioning.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein a blade cleaning device is provided adjacent the turret to remove any deposit adhering to a doctor blade that is not currently functional.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the rounded tip is upwardly applied to a horizontally-oriented portion of the lower run of the ITM.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the rounded tip is vertically-oriented.

14. A method of printing comprising a. providing an aqueous ink and an aqueous treatment formulation, b. providing the system of claim 1 , the intermediate transfer member (ITM) thereof having a release surface; at the treatment station, applying the aqueous treatment formulation to the release surface of the ITM to form a wet treatment layer thereon; c. subjecting the wet treatment layer to a drying process to form a dried treatment film from the wet treatment layer and on the ITM; d. at the image forming station, depositing droplets of the aqueous ink onto the dried treatment film to form an ink image thereon; e. drying the ink image to leave an ink-image residue on the release surface of the ITM; and f. at the impression station, transferring the ink-image residue onto a printing substrate by pressured contact between the ITM and the substrate.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the ratio is at most 4.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the ratio is at least 0.25.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein the ratio is at least 0.25.

18. A printing system comprising:

a. an intermediate transfer member (ITM) comprising a flexible endless belt mounted over a plurality of guide rollers;

b. an image forming station configured to form ink images upon a surface of the ITM,

first and second of the guide rollers being arranged upstream and downstream of the image forming station to define an upper run passing through the image forming station and a lower run;

c. an impression station through which the lower run of the ITM passes, the impression station being disposed downstream of the image forming station and configured to transfer the ink images from the ITM surface to substrate; and

d. a treatment station disposed downstream of the impression station and upstream of the image forming station for forming a uniform thin layer of a liquid treatment formulation onto the ITM surface at the lower run thereof, the treatment station comprising:

i. a coater for coating the ITM with the liquid treatment formulation; and

ii. a coating thickness-regulation assembly for removing excess liquid so as to leave only the desired uniform thin layer of treatment formulation, the coating thickness-regulation assembly comprising a rounded tip facing the ITM surface at the lower run,

wherein the rounded tip is urged towards the ITM and/or vice versa against liquid solution disposed in a gap between the rounded tip and the portion of the ITM surface facing the rounded tip, wherein the rounded tip penetrates the ITM such that a magnitude of penetration depth is at least 1 mm, and wherein a ratio between a magnitude of the gap and a penetration depth to which the rounded tip penetrates the ITM surface at most 0.01.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the magnitude of penetration depth is at least 2 mm.

20. A printing system comprising:

a. an intermediate transfer member (ITM) comprising a flexible endless belt mounted over a plurality of guide rollers;

b. an image forming station configured to form ink images upon a surface of the ITM,

first and second of the guide rollers being arranged upstream and downstream of the image forming station to define an upper run passing through the image forming station and a lower run;

c. an impression station through which the lower run of the ITM passes, the impression station being disposed downstream of the image forming station and configured to transfer the ink images from the ITM surface to substrate; and

d. a treatment station disposed downstream of the impression station and upstream of the image forming station for forming a uniform thin layer of a liquid treatment formulation onto the ITM surface at the lower run thereof, the treatment station comprising:

i. a coater for coating the ITM with the liquid treatment formulation; and

ii. a coating thickness-regulation assembly for removing excess liquid so as to leave only the desired uniform thin layer of treatment formulation, the coating thickness-regulation assembly comprising a rounded tip facing the ITM surface at the lower run,

wherein the rounded tip is urged towards the ITM and/or vice versa against liquid solution disposed in a gap between the rounded tip and the portion of the ITM surface facing the rounded tip at a force equilibrium so that the gap is maintained constant and wherein a ratio between the gap and the thickness of the desired uniform thin layer is at least 0.1 or at least 0.25 or at least 0.5 and/or at most 10 or at most 4 or at most 2.