Development trend of environment-friendly inks: water-based inks and UV inks

Water-based ink

Water-based ink is gradually favored by China's flexible packaging industry because of its characteristics of being non-toxic, odorless, easy to use, easy to operate, and green. At present, the application of water-based ink in China is still based on flexo printing, mainly used in food, medicine and tobacco packaging.

It is precisely because of the unique advantages of water-based ink that its production volume and usage are increasing year by year. According to incomplete statistics, the annual production of water-based ink in China reached more than 9,000 tons in 2004, and will increase at a rate of 2% in the future. . And if the technology is applied properly, ink printing in the adhesion, gloss, brightness, abrasion resistance, printability, composite processing, high-speed printing and other Fangli no less inferior to solvent-based ink.

UV ink

UV ink refers to the use of ultraviolet light of different wavelengths and energies to form ink and dry-explode ink under the irradiation of ultraviolet rays. UV ink film has good mechanical and chemical properties, it has fast drying speed, good gloss, colorful, water resistance, solvent resistance, and good wear resistance. Chinese soft packers commonly use UV inks in combination with water-based inks to increase printing speed and produce good gloss. At present, the output of UV inks is not much. In 2004, the output was less than 1,000 tons. However, 20% of soft pack plants will consider the use of water-based UV inks in the future. This is a new research direction in the field of UV inks. It uses UV inks such as water and ethanol as diluents, which can still hold on VOCs. Lower the toxicity even further.

Reprinted from: China Ink Web