Waterborne ink encounters technical barriers

After more than 10 years of technical improvement, the ink-and-wash system has successfully resolved most of the original difficulties, such as difficulty in use, ink storage, substrate limitations, corona treatment, and surface tension. However, there are still some technical problems in water-based inks that have not yet been solved, which hinders their further expansion.

Drying time is still the most important issue in ink applications, and unless the press is equipped with enough drying equipment, the printing speed will be affected. In addition, since the ink is soluble in an alkaline solution, the application of the ink in a highly magnetic environment is limited, and the application of the ink on a frozen food package still does not have the resistance of the solvent ink. Although the distance is rapidly shortened, the water component in the ink The high surface free energy of the ink makes it difficult to wet and print on many substrates.

The main application fields of environment-friendly water-based inks are flexo printing and gravure printing. In the United States, 95% of flexographic prints and 80% of gravure prints use ink. Flexo printing is still in its infancy in China and currently accounts for only about 3% of the printing industry.