All kinds of printing inks must meet environmental protection requirements

Some large-scale ink manufacturers' products, especially gold, silver ink and white ink, will show off ink during printing and post-press processing. White ink is also prone to bad adhesion. Many packaging products are decorated with large color blocks. Therefore, discoloration directly affects the quality of packaging prints.

The requirements for the anti-blocking properties of inks are due to the high temperature in the workshop and the high humidity in the printing plants located in the south. However, the adhesion of printed matter is also related to the ink itself. Because the ink contains an oxidation promoter, it can easily cause adhesion of the printing ink layer. This made the southern printing company have more specific requirements on the anti-blocking properties of the ink. Environmental Requirements Many packaging and printing companies use toluene to adjust the viscosity of ink in order to reduce costs. The consequences are not only the residual solvents that affect the safety of the printed matter, but also the main reason for the solvent contamination of the gravure printed plastic flexible packaging.

The discharge of solvent-laden waste gas from the gravure exhaust gas discharge system causes environmental pollution. Toxic gases such as toluene can also affect the health of workers. Therefore, the problem of contamination of gravure ink by plastic gravure printing is a perennial problem in the gravure printing industry. In recent years, the state has formulated some relevant environmental protection laws and regulations. The printing factories pay more and more attention to the health of workers, which has increased the demand for various environmental protection inks in the printing industry. For high-concentration and low-viscosity inks with shallow gravure printing, benzene-free alcohol-soluble inks and water-soluble plastic gravure inks are the development direction of plastic gravure inks.

Requirements for water-based inks Water-based gravure inks have the advantages of reducing atmospheric pollution, facilitating safe production, and reducing potential safety hazards. From the standpoint of print quality, due to the slower rate of evaporation of water-based inks, highlights are better inked. However, the currently used inks still do not meet the solvent-based gravure ink standards in terms of printing performance and print quality. The main reason is that the surface tension of water is relatively high, which makes it difficult for the ink to wet with the printing material. The drying is slow and the printing ink color is not bright enough. At the moment, the water-based gravure printing ink is still not widely used in China. Therefore, there is a need for technical improvements in inks and resins to improve the drying and film forming properties.

At present, ink users have basic requirements for ink performance: a stable pH ink system. The ink must have a stable pH during the printing process and no need to detect or adjust the pH during printing. In the ink, the amine tends to solidify due to the volatilization of the amine, and even curing occurs on the printing plate. Therefore, improving the re-solubility of the ink becomes another requirement of the packaging printing factory. Requirements for alcohol-soluble plastic gravure inks Since water-based gravure inks are not yet fully capable of replacing toluene-based inks, the cost of packaging is too high. Therefore, packaging and printing companies hope that ink companies can develop alcohol-soluble gravure inks as soon as possible.

Alcohol-soluble composite plastic gravure ink has low odor, benzene-free characteristics, can effectively reduce the health of toluene ink damage and effectively solve the residual solvent on the quality of packaged food. The cost of alcohol-soluble inks is 20% higher than that of common solvent-based inks, and the greatest requirement for alcohol-soluble inks is to reduce costs.