The hottest water-based ink ushers in a new era of

Water based ink ushers in a new era of green printing

modern carton products require not only beautiful and applicable printing, but also more and more healthy attributes. With the improvement of people's awareness of environmental protection, the urgent need for "green" printing consumables is growing. Ink is an important part of printing materials. Water-based ink is abbreviated as water-based ink. It is made of water-soluble resin, organic pigments, surfactants and related additives through compound grinding

the environment-friendly ink market is developing rapidly. At present, the main application fields of environment-friendly ink are flexographic printing and gravure printing. These two printing methods can be applied to carton products, of which the outer packaging carton of food, the outer packaging carton of tobacco and alcohol, and the outer packaging carton of children's toys account for a considerable proportion

in recent years, flexographic printing has developed rapidly all over the world and is considered as "the best and most promising printing method on earth" in developed countries in Europe and the United States. 95% of flexographic printing and 80% of gravure printing in the United States use ink. Flexographic printing is still in its infancy in China, accounting for only about 3% of the printing field at present. In flexographic packaging and printing, water-based inks are mostly used at home and abroad. From 1995 to the end of 1998, China has introduced more than 130 combined flexographic printing production lines in just a few years, which are distributed in more than 20 provinces and cities across the country. There are nearly 200 narrow width flexographic printing production lines in China, and the annual demand for water-based ink is more than 100000 tons

in flexographic packaging and printing, water-based inks are mostly used at home and abroad. It is gratifying that the ink industry in China has not only continued to grow steadily in recent years, but also has a bright future. At present, the per capita consumption level of printed matter in China is less than 1/20 of that in developed countries. The per capita consumption of paper and paperboard has hovered around the 50th to 60th in the world in recent years, and the per capita share of ink has a greater gap compared with the world's advanced level. This gap just shows that China's market has great development potential, which will be gradually activated with the sustained and stable development of China's national economy, forming a huge driving force to promote market development. With the gradual popularity of green packaging and environmental protection packaging, many cigarette factories, distilleries, pharmaceutical factories, cosmetics and food enterprises are preparing to adopt flexographic printing carton packaging, and the proportion of flexographic printing in the printing field, especially in the carton printing field, will gradually increase. It is estimated that flexographic printing will reach about 15% in the printing field by 2010, and the annual demand for water-based ink is more than 100000 tons

China's water-based ink was first developed and successfully put into production by Tianjin ink factory. There are more than 12000 carton factories of various sizes in China, which will not be repeated here. For example, if 10% of high-grade cartons are printed with water-based ink, each household needs about 1000 tons of water-based ink every year. It is urgent to vigorously develop, develop and produce high-grade water-based inks. This product can not only be used in carton printing, but also be widely used in flexo and gravure printing fields such as gold, silver paperboard, coated paper, whiteboard, plastic film, corrugated paper, self-adhesive paper, paper packaging, books and magazines

advantages and disadvantages of water-based ink

great "green" advantages. Because water-based ink does not contain volatile organic solvents, it greatly reduces the emission of organic volatiles, thus reducing air pollution, improving the environment of printing operators, and is conducive to the health of employees. It can completely eliminate some toxic and harmful substances in solvent based inks, eliminate the harm to human body and the pollution of packaged goods, and improve the overall environmental quality. It is especially suitable for packaging and printing products with strict sanitary conditions, such as cigarettes, alcohol, food, beverages, drugs, children's toys, etc. In addition, it can not only reduce the fire risk and hidden danger caused by static electricity and flammable solvents, but also reduce the residual toxicity on the printing surface, and it is convenient to clean the printing equipment

the shortcomings of water-based inks, whether imported or domestic, are not resistant to alkali, ethanol and water, slow drying, poor gloss, easy to cause paper shrinkage and other disadvantages. To achieve alkali resistance, ethanol resistance, water resistance and improve gloss, only flexible UV ink can be used. This not only increases the printing cost, but also increases the printing process. For example, some automatic beer packaging production lines use alkaline lubricants with a pH value of 9~10. The water-based ink can't bear it and will fade when touched. In addition, drinks and beer in summer should not only be put in the refrigerator, but also need to be soaked in ice water for a long time, which water-based ink can't bear

in addition, problems also include: it is difficult for water ink to wet and print well on polyethylene and other substrates; The drying time is still the most important problem in the application of ink. Unless the printing machine is equipped with sufficient drying equipment, the printing speed will be affected; The gloss of ink is lower than that of solvent based ink, which greatly limits the use of ink in occasions with high gloss requirements

how to make ink products safer and healthier

through nearly 10 years of technological improvement, the ink system has successfully solved most of the original difficulties, and gradually grew. This is a unique solution for polar 1 - using composite transverse plate springs to replace the traditional coil springs to mature. Under the premise of environmental protection, safety and health, how to meet the best printing and post-processing adaptability of ink products and improve economic benefits is a topic that relevant enterprises consider

improve the performance of ink

at present, the performance that ink users require to improve lies in the ink system with stable pH. the ink manufacturing industry must develop ink with stable pH in the printing process, that is, there is no need to detect and adjust pH in the printing process; Re solubility is another important research field. During the evaporation of amine, the resin tends to solidify and even fix on the printing plate

recently, ink manufacturers have improved the performance of the resin to make it more soluble, which means that the printing system can operate for a longer time before cleaning, that is, to improve the production efficiency. The application of ink requires continuous improvement in the application performance of polyethylene substrate. The ink manufacturing industry is expected to improve the surface resistance of ink prints, especially in oil and grease resistance, as well as better heat and freezing resistance. Recently, in Europe and North America, product innovation is mainly driven by meeting user requirements. 4. Place the test pieces well. The specific requirements for ease of use come from users, which will also be the driving force of new product development

keep up with the environmental protection situation

in order to achieve more stringent environmental protection management goals, printers are always looking for new methods of solvent ink printing operation process to meet the government's regulations. At present, the printing industry focuses on strengthening the treatment of emissions in the process of solvent ink printing. The usual practice is to use "incinerator" to absorb and incinerate VOCs within ± 2% of the set value. Other more creative is to apply the treatment system of microorganisms or bacteria that take VOCs as food. All these methods rely on efficient absorption and transmission of VOCs to systems that can neutralize it, either by incineration or by microorganisms