Water-based ink "can't beat" alcohol-soluble ink

In 2006, the new ink national standards will be introduced soon, which will rigorously stipulate and control benzene solvent residues and heavy metal content. The introduction of the standard will allow the development of environmental protection inks, especially benzene-free inks, which will be the fast track of rational development in 2006.

Now that the industry has mentioned environmentally friendly inks, water-based inks and alcohol-soluble inks are bound to be mentioned.

Ink and wash companies said that at present there are not several manufacturers of alcohol-soluble ink dare to say that their alcohol-soluble ink is not a bit of lipid solvents; alcohol-soluble ink, the use of ink does not meet the national conditions. The biggest advantage of mellow ink is that there are no special requirements for the equipment, and it will not bring cost problems to the manufacturers in the equipment transformation. According to the actual situation learned by the Journal, most companies are basically inclined to use alcohol-soluble inks in the selection of environmentally friendly inks. In such an era where environmental protection is the starting point for consumption, environmental protection inks, water-based inks, and alcohol-soluble inks are all the more vital for people in China. Is water-based ink really the fate of alcohol-soluble ink?

Alcohol-soluble ink is not a truly environmentally friendly ink, but a transitional product.

There are several types of environmental protection inks commonly used in the printing market, such as alcohol-soluble inks, UV-curable inks, and water-based printing inks. In fact, the definition of whether the green ink mainly depends on whether the product will cause environmental pollution in the production process, whether it will cause damage to the production personnel, and whether the product itself contains VOC, and what percentage is it. The alcohol-soluble inks on the market today are not real, 100% alcohols used as solvents, it is more or less the use of some lipids or other types of solvents as diluents. Some economically developed regions and countries assess whether they are environmentally friendly inks based on the percentage of alcohol solvents contained in each Kg ink. Generally, no more than 5% of them are environmentally friendly inks. The real water-based environmental protection printing ink uses only water as the solvent in the production process, even if it contains alcohol solvent within 5%, it must be edible alcohol (because ethanol is not listed in the VOC), it cannot be methanol, isopropyl alcohol, etc. , The printed matter meets the country's requirements for food, pharmaceutical and other packaging security.

Zhuhai Ruilong company head:

Alcohol-soluble inks are just a transitional product that eventually goes to water-based inks.

The alcohol-soluble inks sold on the market in China have only a handful of companies that use 100% alcohol to produce alcohol. Most of them are merely eye-catching. From the European side, it has recently been stipulated that alcohol-soluble inks are no longer acceptable. The few domestic companies that really dare to say that they are 100% alcohol-soluble inks are bold enough to say that they generally contain ester solvents, and some also have a small amount of benzene. Why do many ink companies desperately push alcohol ink? Because they all feel that the development of plastic water film is really too difficult.

In addition to the unquestionable advantages of environmental protection, ink is also superior to alcohol-soluble inks in terms of cost savings. From the aspect of ink consumption, 100,000 bags, if printed with normal inks, have an amount of 1 ton, but with ink, a maximum of 600 kg is sufficient.

In terms of printing speed, plastic ink gravure printers such as Songde and Huaying can reach 100 to 200 meters per minute, because their oven length is 1.2 meters, and some even reach 2 meters or more. The length can fully meet the application requirements of plastic ink. If the ink has a good drying equipment on the printing machine, the printing speed can be adjusted according to the requirements of the printing factory, which means that you love how much faster fast. Printing speed is completely guaranteed.

Mr. Qian, Professor, Department of Printing and Packaging, Wuhan University: In terms of transport costs, solvent-based inks are transported as dangerous goods. The cost is self-evident, and some companies are trying to evade the relevant inspections and transport alcohols. Ink is always evasive, and the related inspection department plays a game of cat and mouse, which virtually increases the cost of transportation.

Hanghua ink Mr. Chen: The environmental protection of Chinese ink is to be carried out sooner or later. Water-based ink is an important development direction of environmental protection. As long as the problem of poor coloring power and heavy smell is well solved, the advantages of wide application range and high cost-effectiveness will be achieved. Gradually emerged, and will be more in line with market demand.

Jiangxi Four-dimensional Luo: This is an international trend. Since foreign flexographic printing has been used in large areas, there should be no problem in the use of gravure printing machines. In addition, we consider the environmental protection of the country and the physical safety of front-line employees. Economic considerations, on the one hand, save costs and on the other hand increase the competitiveness of enterprises. Alcohol-soluble inks now use nearly half of the solvent per ton. In ink, the solvents used are all water. Why promotion is slow? It is mainly the wrangling between the competent authorities. If it is really implemented, it will soon be pushed away. Why do not large and medium-sized enterprises apply, the main equipment is very difficult to transform, the cost is too high, the old equipment can not be used after the transformation.

There are many insurmountable obstacles in the application of water-based gravure printing inks, and the overall promotion has practical difficulties

The application of water-based gravure inks to plastic film printing is still in its infancy. This is mainly due to the fact that water-based inks cannot completely achieve the performance of solvent-based inks in gravure printing because of their adhesion, printing speed, and gloss. Gravure alcohol-soluble composite plastic ink has low odor, benzene-free characteristics.

Since water-based gravure inks cannot fully replace toluene-based inks, the ink industry has been working hard to develop environmental health-related injuries and solvent residues that affect the quality of packaged foods. In Europe and the United States, this development has become a trend. In Asia, such as Singapore, South Korea and other countries, toluene ink is being eliminated, will be replaced by alcohol-soluble gravure ink. Alcohol-soluble inks have been widely used in the domestic gravure printing industry. It can be foreseen that in the near future, alcohol-soluble inks will occupy a major share of China's flexible packaging ink market.

Shanghai Jie Longjiang:

I think alcohol-soluble ink has an advantage.

In fact, we have tried gravure plastic inks and feel that there are many problems. The cost of gravure printing plastic ink is high. My cost is not the price of ink only, but the overall cost. The quality of the product, gravure plastic ink is also worse, use is not very convenient, do not adapt to existing equipment, I use gravure plastic ink, printing speed can only open up to tens of meters, and alcohol soluble ink can reach 200m ,In the ink configuration management plastic ink and ink is not easy to dissolve ink, there is the corrosion of the machinery, because everyone is more understanding of the alcohol-soluble ink, any existing equipment can be used, there is no transformation of equipment, in The effect of composite printing is also better than that of ink. The most important thing is that the customers are all recognized and cost accounting is acceptable.

Printing companies have the most say. Standing on our standpoint, of course, they would not like to use ink and wash. At present, there are many problems in the use of ink painting in our process. There are problems in terms of cost and product quality. The first, when used in ink, was incompatible with other inks. I used ink and other inks could not be used. The second one is that we cannot reach the drying capacity of our current equipment. The third one is that if ink is used, all gravure must be re-made. This will make it very inconvenient for the printer to work. Of course, the general trend, ink and wash is still a promising product, but it will take some time, at least three or five years ago, mainly based on alcohol-based ink.

China's big factories and small factories should have the same attitude toward ink and wash. Unless customers have requirements and do not require them, they will not actively use ink and wash.

A certain packaging and printing company in Fujian: In terms of printing effect, alcohol-soluble is better than water-soluble, and once used plastic ink, there are many problems in printing quality and printability. In terms of printing quality, the effect of plastic ink is difficult to meet. Our factory is mainly engaged in the packaging of candy foods of some well-known manufacturers in the country. Although it can be printed, it does not meet the requirements of customers and it is useless. The main reason is that the brightness is not reached, and the sense of hierarchy is not good. In terms of printability, the requirements for plastic inks are relatively high, and there are also problems with films that have a relatively large shrinkage. At the level, poor transferability.

A well-known packaging and printing company manager in the South: We did not use it. We also tried ink painting. However, the customer is not satisfied. Now the customer does not require it. The solvent-based ink has good color and customer satisfaction. Why would we not do it?

Tianlong Ink Co., Ltd. Mr. Feng: The main difficulty is that the cost of the resin is high, because there are special requirements for the resin. In addition, when used, the speed is too slow, only 30 ~ 40m, this will cause a waste of equipment, can not plan to come.

Water-based gravure ink is also difficult to replace solvent-based inks in the short term

At present, the application of water-based inks in cartons and certain papers has matured, but the printing of plastic films and coated papers is still affected by factors such as drying speed. It is still in the initial stage of development and it is still difficult to replace solvent-based inks in the short term. Alcohol-soluble plastic gravure ink has low odor, benzene-free characteristics, which can effectively reduce the residual solvent on the quality of packaged food. Alcohol-soluble plastic gravure inks are gradually being promoted, but the compatibility with gravure printing machines and the quality of printed products still need to be improved. In the absence of mandatory laws and regulations, it will take time to realize water-based inks. It is a wise move to use alcohol-soluble ink as a transition.

Huizhou Baobo company Mr. Huang: If the cost can be reduced, water-based ink can replace the alcohol-soluble ink. For now, the cost of alcohol-soluble ink is still relatively high. In addition, the ink is now mainly used in flexo presses, and the status of the domestic printing press, solvent-based ink is more suitable for existing printing equipment. Therefore, ink and wash ink still needs efforts in supporting equipment. We will pay close attention to the technological development of ink-and-wash applications, and we will not rule out the application of them in due course.

Hainan Hyundai Company: Our company makes bags for many famous companies, such as Xu Fuji and Li Bai. Ink saves solvent money, but it also increases the cost of the application, such as electrical energy, which is almost offset. The only good thing is environmental protection. However, I don't know if it is not resistant to high temperatures. When the packaging bag is sealed and heated, it is not easy to deink, and there is no discoloration. Because we did not try it out, we could not find a successful application case. However, solvent-based inks have basically solved these problems. We will try it out now to see the actual results. We are now more concerned about adhesion and saturation, and there is a problem with brightness.

Reprinted from: Guangdong Packaging