Offset PANTONE spot color ink color characteristics and applications (a)

The PANTONE color standard certification of the United States is a unified description of colors in a digital language. It provides a convenient and fast color scheme and color standard for the packaging and printing industries and ink manufacturing industry. In the developed countries of the ink industry in the world, the color of packaging, publishing and printing inks has widely adopted the United States PANTONE unified spot color standard, which not only facilitates the user but also stabilizes the quality. The rapid development of the packaging and printing industry puts forward new requirements for the design of color, so it is particularly important to ensure the consistency and stability of the color of batches of printed products.

In order to cater for the development of the market, ink manufacturers and packaging and printing companies need to understand the basic characteristics and deployment methods of spot color inks, and should be able to apply them to meet the market's color requirements for packaging and decorating prints, so that our customers can Companies have an advantage in fierce market competition and continue to expand market share. Let us first understand the difference between PANTONE spot color ink and common ink

1. PANTONE basic color ink color characteristics

PANTONE base color is a pure primary color ink, which is formulated with a single percentage of a single pigment (or colorant) with a very high color concentration and color purity. PANTONE's 14 basic colors are no exception.

Basic Color Name Pigment Index Number Pigment Content (%)

PANTONE Warm Red C PR-57:1 21.00

PANTONE Orange 021C PO-34 17.10

PANTONE Red 032C PR-11 17.60

PANTONE Shooting Blue C PB-61 17.00

PANTONE Blue 072C PB-1:2 17.00

PANTONE Blue Purple C PV-3 22.10

PANTONE inks use a single pigment to formulate the basic color, which has the outstanding features of pure color, vivid color, high concentration, small color difference, and high color matching precision.

2. Color characteristics of ordinary color offset inks

At present, the domestic sheet-fed offset inks produced by major ink companies are roughly divided into two categories: resin offset inks and bright-fast resin offset inks. Due to the different formula design of each manufacturer, the color density of the ink is different; because of the difference in the manufacturer's sales area and usage habits, and there is no uniform color standard, although the color is complete, the ink concentration is not uniform. In view of the above situation, PANTONE basic color ink can be used when selecting printing ink with high color requirement. At present, nearly 10 offset printing ink manufacturers in China have passed the PANTONE chartered certification. It is very convenient to purchase PANTONE basic color inks in the country. Just press the PANTONE color card's color guide to match colors, and the color of the printing ink can be guaranteed.

3. PANTONE basic color ink and ordinary color ink performance comparison

1) Dryness of ink

Offset printing inks are mainly dry fixed and oxidized conjunctiva dry two ways. Solid drying is generally referred to as initial drying, meaning that the prints do not stick to each other after the ink is transferred to the paper, and the time consumed is called the initial drying time. Drying of the oxidized conjunctiva refers to the process of chemical change of the ink film from the gel to the solid from the initial drying of the ink to the complete drying. The time consumed is called the drying time of the oxidized conjunctiva. The drying speed of these two drying methods is directly related to the formula design of the ink. Ordinary resin offset printing inks have a slower fixation and drying time than oxidized conjunctiva. They are not suitable for blending PANTONE spot color inks, and the bright fast offset inks can be adapted to PANTONE spot color inks.

2) Ink concentration

PANTONE basic color ink concentration is higher, ordinary ink requires two printing dark color on the ground, if the use of PANTONE basic color ink, not only can be completed at once, and the performance of "dark ink shallow printing" effect, not easy to stick dirty, suitable for smoke Printing of wine, cosmetics, poker and other packaging boxes. The general resin offset printing ink has a low concentration and a slow drying speed, and is not suitable for dispensing PANTONE spot color inks in field printing. The concentration of the three primary colors of the fast-curing ink basically meets the PANTONE color concentration requirement.

3) Other performance evaluation

PANTONE basic color formula design has greater flexibility, according to the different paper and post-print processing formula design, especially for the high wear resistance of the cigarette bag products, PANTONE basic color ink can also add 3% ~ 5% of fluorine-containing polymer compounds, so that the wear resistance of the ink is significantly increased without affecting the concentration of ink.

The basic color ink can also adjust the ink viscosity, fluidity and dryness according to the ink absorption and surface smoothness of the paper. Drying is mainly controlled by the use of organic acid salts to regulate the ink's middle and bottom drying speeds. At the same time, phenolic antioxidants can also be used to make non-skinning inks. In short, the high concentration and high purity of PANTONE's basic color ink pigments give us great flexibility in formulation design.

In addition, in the quality standards for common resin offset inks and bright fast-setting resin offset printing inks that have been formulated by the country, more consideration is given to the direct use performance of the products, and there is insufficient emphasis on the flexibility and adaptability of the redeployment of the inks. In the deployment of PANTONE light-colored ink, the main color ink is often impure, such as the use of transparent white ink dilute, but does not meet the requirements of the PANTONE standard color and lead to color cast, which is inevitable.

In summary, the characteristics of PANTONE basic color inks and general color inks are somewhat different. We can use special inks to adjust weaknesses according to the characteristics of various types of inks and deploy spot color inks more scientifically and economically.