UV ink industry rookie?

UV ink is a kind of rapid development of green ink, has the advantages of fast drying, ink does not freeze when parking, save the work site, no volatile solvents. Due to these attractive advantages, UV-curing inks have gradually replaced conventional inks in recent years, and the proportion in the printing industry is increasing. At present, domestic UV inks are developing at a very high speed and are becoming more and more widely used. Both the offset printing and flexo printing can use the latest UV inks. With the increasingly stringent requirements for the safety of food packaging, UV inks have become A development trend of gravure printing inks. UV inks are like rookies in China's ink industry and are rapidly emerging.

In spite of this, UV inks have to occupy a large share of the ink market in China. There are still many obstacles, mainly from the technical aspects, including ink manufacturers, equipment manufacturers, and chemical material suppliers such as surface additives. The development of related technologies. The problems with UV inks are mainly due to issues such as odor, substrate adhesion, high-speed production, and the cost most considered by the printing service provider. In fact, these problems have been affecting the development of UV inks since they were first applied in the printing field in the 1970s, and they still plague the entire industry.

For the rapid development of UV inks, many industry experts are very optimistic, but there are also some are not optimistic. This issue of BBS focuses on the various advantages and disadvantages of UV inks, the latest application technologies in the printing industry, and the various problems in its development prospects.

Lower cost, broad market for UV inks

For the promotion and application of UV inks, the industry’s most controversial issue is undoubtedly its cost. Some experts with positive opinions believe that with the development of new technologies, the market for UV inks will become more and more extensive.

Because the UV ink does not dry on the press, the printing process can be suspended for several days. The unit part only needs occasional cleaning. There is also no need to measure and control the viscosity of the ink because as long as the ink temperature remains constant, its viscosity is also constant. There is also no risk of fire and explosion, so there is no need to use expensive anti-static systems and fire suppression systems, which also means that printing companies can reduce the cost of insurance.

In flexo printing, the printing quality of UV inks can be comparable to that of rotogravure printing, but the cost of its pre-installation and printing preparation is much lower. UV prints are clearer, brighter and more glossy, and they are more resistant to mechanical, chemical, and temperature changes. It is generally not necessary to add additional protective agents or polishes. Because UV-curable inks have good adhesion to most substrates, there is no need to add some primer to enhance adhesion. In addition, UV inks can be printed on thinner substrates, such as films with grammage less than 1 g/m2, due to the higher pigment ratio and 100% dryable content. Almost all known substrates (including aluminum foil, PVC, other film materials, and metal foils) can be printed with UV inks. Because there is no solvent, there is of course no need for expensive solvent residue testing.

The solvent is not used in the UV ink, so the ink layer is thinner. Compared with the dry ink weight per square meter, the UV ink is at least half as much as the solvent ink, and therefore the thickness is at least 50% thinner. This is a very important factor for the printing cost per square meter. Because by weight, UV inks are much more expensive, so most people think that the price of packaging products printed with them will be much more expensive than printing with solvent-based inks. If we take the above factors into consideration, we can actually conclude that the average printing cost of UV inks is basically the same as that of solvent inks. Of course, products printed with UV cationic inks will be relatively expensive. However, cationic inks have a more stringent range of applications, including some special occasions (such as printing on aluminum foil or PVC). In these applications, it is necessary to use more expensive Special inks, primers and solvent-based varnish.

In terms of equipment support, with the advent of a low-price UV platform printing equipment, the use of UV ink has also played a great role in promoting.

With the use of UV flatbed printing equipment, we do not need to press the complicated processes such as printing and printing. Instead, we can directly print on rigid substrates, and they are not afraid of stacking. This printing device can print directly on any textured substrate. For the printing of POPs and signage, the use of such a printing device can save a lot of cost and time. In addition, flatbed printing equipment can print on glass, ceramics, copper plates, doors and windows, and leather. Many other companies are also looking for new ideas and intend to use this type of press to print on more unusual substrates.

The problem has not been solved, and the popularity of UV inks is hampered

Some experts who are not optimistic about the widespread use of UV inks believe that:

The price of UV inks is so high that it cannot enter the low-end market, so it cannot be universally promoted. Although UV inks have been used since the 1970s, the use of UV inks still has some limitations. The main difference is that the price is quite different from that of traditional inks (UV curing inks 100 to 200 yuan/kg, newspaper printing inks 10 Yuan/kg). Therefore, they can only be used in high-value-added production areas or high-efficiency application areas. Currently, research and product offerings are also concentrated in these fields, such as inkjet toners, flexo printing inks, high-grade packaging printing, and fiber colorants. , solder resists, etc.

In addition, the biggest problem that UV inks are technically facing is that the two requirements for high-speed printing and firm adhesion to printed substrates cannot be solved at the same time. The preferred solution for solving poor adhesion is to increase the viscosity of UV inks, but higher viscosity means lower printing speed.

The person in charge of Germany's Bolte Consulting Co., Ltd. analyzed: “Ink inks with higher molecular weight do not shrink easily under UV light, which is the main reason leading to weak adhesion, and it is not easy to eliminate odors. In fact, it has higher Molecular weight inks usually contain acrylic binders, have high temperature resistance, and can effectively promote curing.In actual production, ink suppliers have not actively tried to provide highly viscous inks because of the pursuit of high-speed printing. Printers have become accustomed to using low-viscosity inks."

The currently available methods for improving adhesion have some drawbacks. For example, the added solvents do not blend well with UV inks. In the European Union, printers also have to comply with laws regarding VOCs and must increase investment to control the volatilization of solvents. In short, UV inks can only occupy a certain market in printing inks only if they can better solve the problem of adhesion.

On the equipment side, since UV inks are cured using ultraviolet light, a UV device must be provided to increase the investment of the manufacturers. Under strong ultraviolet radiation, three oxygen molecules will become two ozone molecules. The processing of these harmful gases also requires the use of special equipment, which is no small cost investment for manufacturers.

The challenge comes from its own shortcomings

Of course, the development of UV inks is a trend, but it will take time to be widely used. Because there are many obstacles in terms of technology, equipment, materials, etc. However, once these problems are solved, UV inks will replace water-based inks in certain areas and become the most environmentally friendly and durable ink. With the European Union’s legislative restrictions on VOCs, the use of solvent-based inks has been restricted. Water-based inks have been used to enter the market with this good opportunity and have gradually become the new darling of the printing industry. However, printers are increasingly dissatisfied with water-based inks because their quality has not yet reached their expectations. At the same time, suppliers in various fields, such as inks, equipment, and raw and auxiliary materials products, have been working together to solve problems related to UV systems. Fortunately, some technologies have also been improved and developed to make radiation curing more efficient and less costly.

Source: Guangdong Packaging

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