Water-based ink application and development

Water-based ink is abbreviated as ink. It is a water-based printing ink prepared by chemical process and physical mixing of aqueous polymer emulsions, organic pigments, surfactants and related additives. As it is used as water instead of traditional ink, it accounts for 30%~ 70% of toxic organic solvents make the ink no longer contain volatile organic solvents, so it has no adverse effect on the health of workers in the printing process, no pollution to the atmosphere, and eliminates the hidden dangers of flammability and explosion in the workplace. , improve the security. This unique advantage of ink and wash ink meets increasingly stringent environmental regulations and is increasingly favored by the packaging and printing industry worldwide, and it has gradually expanded into the press and printing industry.

First, water-based ink favored in the application

In the flexo package printing, the vast majority of the current domestic and international use of water-based ink printing, flexible water ink is widely used, is an important factor in the rapid development of flexographic printing. Due to the absence of volatile organic solvents, water-based inks greatly reduce the emission of VOCs (organic volatiles), thereby reducing air pollution, improving the environment for printing operators and contributing to the health of employees. It can completely eliminate certain toxic and harmful substances in solvent-based ink, harm to human body and pollution of packaged goods, and improve the overall environmental quality. It is especially suitable for the requirements of hygienic conditions such as tobacco, wine, food, beverages, medicines, and children's toys. Strict packaging and printing products, in addition it can not only reduce the risk of fire caused by static electricity and flammable solvents and hidden dangers, but also can reduce the residual toxicity of the printing surface, and printing equipment is easy to clean, so water-based ink is called a new type Green printed material.

1. Application of water-based ink

Water-based inks are also called liquid inks. Although China's application of ink and wash ink is late, it is still developing rapidly. China's water-based ink came out in 1975. It was first developed and put into production by Tianjin Ink Factory. At that time, gravure printing service was mainly used. At that time, gravure printing ink was improved from benzene solvent to gasoline-based solvent, although it was more toxic than benzene ink. Improvements, but flammability has not improved. Therefore, it was proposed that the gravure printing ink be further improved to a non-toxic, non-flammable water-based ink, which was called water-concave ink at that time. Since the ink is made of a rosin acid amine salt as a main binder. The connecting material is not stable in an aqueous medium, so the ink is easily lost in the storage, thinning, slow drying, poor water resistance, easy to cause paper shrinkage and other defects. China's gravure printing and flexographic printing have been limited, and they have to use imported high-grade water-based inks, which virtually increase the printing cost and limit the development of China's printing industry.

In the 1990s, with the rapid development of our country’s economy, people’s awareness of packaging aesthetics and awareness of environmental protection have continued to increase. From 1995 to 1998 in our country, we introduced more than 130 modular flexo production lines in more than 20 provinces and cities in the country in just a few years. Of these, 90% are narrow-format flexo presses, which are now 30 per year. The number of stations around is increasing, and there are also many imported high-end tri-color and four-color water-based ink printing slot machines for color printing of corrugated paper.

At present, there are about 230 flexible machines in China, which are calculated using 10 tons of ink per year, with a total usage of 2300 to 2500 tons. The ink consumption of the gravure printing press has exceeded the amount of solvent ink and reaches 3,000 tons. The ink consumption of the flexographic carton machine exceeds 10,000 tons. The total national ink consumption is about 15,000 to 16,000 tons per year. In China, there are nearly 200 narrow-width flexographic printing production lines, which require more than 100,000 tons of water-based ink each year. With the widespread use of ink in the packaging and printing of corrugated boxes, water-based inks have considerable market potential. Each province in China has an average size of more than 1,000 carton factories. If 10% of manufacturers use water-based inks to print high-grade cartons, the annual demand for water-based ink in each province will reach more than 2,000.

1. With China's accession to the WTO and the strengthening of environmental protection awareness and the improvement of the quality of domestically produced flexo presses, domestic flexo printing will surely have a great development. The amount of medium and high-grade ink used for flexo printing will increase year by year. The amount of 10 million tons has been increasing. According to relevant department statistics, there are currently more than 130 flexo production lines in China, and the number is increasing around 30 units per year. The market for water-based inks is vast.


Developed countries have gradually replaced traditional solvent-based inks with water-based inks since the 1970s. In recent years, flexographic printing has developed rapidly worldwide. Because of its obvious advantages in improving the environment, etc., it has been agreed by the European and American developed countries that flexographic printing is "the best and most promising printing method on the earth." In the United States alone, 95% of flexographic prints use ink and 80% of gravure prints use ink. At present, in the US market, the sales of ink and wash inks are more than double the sales of solvent-based inks, which means that ink has become the main ink used for printing.

Second, the development of water-based ink

Water-based inks are mainly made of water-soluble resins, organic pigments, solvents and related additives by compound grinding.

1. Solubility resin

Water-soluble resins or water-dispersible resins are water-based ink binders, which have a great influence on the ink viscosity, adhesion, gloss, drying, and printability. In China, rosin modified maleic acid resin is often used as the connecting material to make ink. However, this type of ink can only be used for printing general carton boxes, and can not meet the requirements of gloss and water resistance required for medium and high-grade packaging printing. The urethane resin has good stability.

However, the printing adaptability and solubility are slightly inferior. Others include styrene-modified maleic acid resins, water-based amino resins, and polyvinyl alcohol and carboxymethyl cellulose. These polymer fingers generally contain -COOH (carboxyl). Hydrophilic groups such as -OH (hydroxy) and -NH2 (amino) are treated with a specific process to become a completely water-soluble resin that can be used as a binder for aqueous inks. However, there are still some unsatisfactory places, and they have different influences on the printing suitability, gloss, and water resistance of aqueous inks.

The water-soluble acrylic modified resin is used as the connecting material of the water-based ink, and its gloss, weather resistance, heat resistance, water resistance, chemical resistance, and contamination resistance have significant advantages, such as direct dissolving dissolution or high synthesis. The molecular emulsions also exhibit excellent performance. Made of ink using this resin, the product can reach the quality level of foreign advanced products.

2. Additives for ink

In order to improve the performance of water-based inks, it is necessary to add various additives, and the additives used in water-based inks are more important than solvent-based inks. Commonly used water-based ink additives are the following:
1 Defoamer: used to eliminate the foam in water-based inks, the amount is generally 1% to 2%.
2 Stabilizer: It mainly prevents the ink from coalescence and mold during storage and transportation, reduces the viscosity of the ink and adjusts the pH of the ink. Generally, it uses ammonia or ethanolamine and other additives.
3 other additives: dispersants, preservatives, leveling agents, slip agents and cross-linking agents. By using these additives scientifically to improve the weakness of aqueous inks, the stability of aqueous inks can be improved.

3. Solvent used in ink

The solvent used for water-based inks must have:
1 Dissolve the resin to give ink;
2 adjust the viscosity to give printability;
3 Adjust the drying speed.
In particular, water-based inks are also required to have non-toxic properties, and thus its solvents are mainly purified water and small amounts of alcohols such as water, ethanol, butanol, isopropanol, and the like. These solvents can help water enhance the ability to dissolve the resin, improve the dispersion of the pigment, and accelerate the penetration and inhibit foaming.

4 ink production process

The first step is to grind and prepare the color paste: the water-soluble resin, pigment, auxiliary agent and solvent (water) are mixed, stirred and dispersed by a high-speed disperser, and ground into a backup color paste.
The second step is to formulate the ink: The standby colorant, auxiliary agent, and solvent (water) are mixed and stirred evenly. Through grinding and dispersing, they have sufficient fineness, luster and coloring power, and the filter package is an aqueous ink product.
$Page break $

Third, the scientific application of water-based ink

1. The adaptability of ink and paper

Water-based inks are fluids with a certain degree of viscosity, and papers are highly absorptive of water solubility. When the ink is distributed on the printing plate, the pressure exerted by the printing plate and the wet printing is applied on the surface of the paper while being pressed into the pores of the surface of the paper, the capillary force formed by the continuous pores in the paper is infiltrated with the inside. The transfer of the ink from the printing plate to the paper interacts with each other, and the ink is solidified and dried on the paper product.

Paper and ink are the two most commonly used and basic materials. In printing, the paper first determines the ink requirements for the paper, the surface physical properties of the paper, and the acid, alkalinity and viscosity of the ink. When the ink layer formed on the printing plate is transferred to the cardboard, it is necessary to pay attention to the contact between the printing plate and the paper, resulting in poor contact, resulting in poor ink transfer, and the printed image will not be accurately reproduced. The pressure is too large, the plate is easy to shift, the image is not clear, and the printing plate and the paper must maintain good contact, in order to reflect the good printing effect. The ink's acceptability to the surface of the paper is also very important. Receptive reaction The degree of wetting of the paper by the ink and the amount of ink under pressure and adhesion of the printing ink layer during normal operation. To ensure high-quality printing, it is also required that the paper should have good smoothness and elasticity, the water content of the paper should be low, the humidity in the southwest of China is large, the humidity of the paper is excessive, the humidity in the printing environment is too high, and the viscosity of the ink is too low. Excessive ink volume and other factors can cause poor quality of printed products, affecting printing effects and quality accidents.

The fluidity of ink is relatively affected by humidity. The effect of fluidity at 25°C is relatively small. The lower the humidity is, the higher the viscosity is. The high viscosity of printing on a large area of ​​the paper can reflect better results and the ink layer is thickened. Bright colors but easy to bleach, otherwise, the opposite. In the printing process, the viscosity of the ink is too large, and at the same time, the phenomenon of plucking may also occur. When the viscosity of the ink is too low, ink will be generated, the ink viscosity will be properly adjusted, and the surface tension of the ink on the paper and the gloss of the contact point will be improved. Viscosity, and reduce the chance of paper ink breakage.

Aqueous flexographic ink is a kind of liquid ink, and it is also a kind of film-forming substance. It can stick pigment particles of various colors on the surface of paper. When the ink is transferred to the surface of paper, the connecting material penetrates into the interior of the paper, and the ink pigment particles They become tightly connected to each other, and continuously reduce the pulling force generated by the capillary force in the paper, and at the same time quickly dry, solidify and firmly fix the surface of the paper.

If the quality of the paper is relatively loose and the surface is too rough, the amount of ink permeation is large and the fibers are easily released. The printing effect is obviously worse than the paper with tightness and good tissue formation, and the gloss is low. In the printing process, the ink layer on the printing plate is not entirely transferred to the paper. Actually, it is based on the transfer of ink and separation of two layers. One layer is held on the printing plate, and the first layer is attached to the surface by paper. Going away, in the above comprehensive situation, the paper does not have the adhesive strength to adapt to the surface strength, the ink does not have a good viscosity, but too strong too low will not work, the transfer of the ink film and the printing of the paper will be difficult to carry out normally. The ability to transfer, peel, and transfer between the ink layer and the paper on the plate is difficult to grasp and control. The surface strength of the paper is poor, and the viscosity is low, and vice versa.

2. Printing of Ink on Corrugated Cardboard

Water-based inks have been used in the flexo printing of corrugated paperboards for quite a long time abroad, and they have been used in China for more than 30 years. Corrugated board printing is made of lead printing (embossing), offset printing (flat printing), rubber version water washable printing, development of flexible flexographic water ink printing. Flexopress water-based inks also evolved from rosin-modified maleic resin (low grade) to acrylic (high grade). Printing plates also transition from rubber plates to resin plates. Printing presses have also evolved from single- or dual-color machines with large drums to three- or four-color high-speed flexo presses. The mesh wheel is also gradually developed from a 150-200 mesh metal roller to a 200-300 mesh ceramic roller. With the increasing quality of prints and the ever-changing printing technologies, the quality and use of water-based inks are very important. Before discussing the use of water-based inks, we first

Carbon fiber Rear Hugger is made from high quality 3K carbon fiber with sulfate.

Custom fomulated Epoxy Resin to provide excellent flexibility.

UV protective coating and hand-polished to a perfect finish.

Easy installation. Most of our carbon products are direct bolt-on replacement of OEM parts. We have thousand kinds of Carbon Fiber Motorcycle Parts which can buy from us directly,such as front fenders,heat shield,exhaust covers,upper fairings,tank covers ,rear huggers,side panels,carbon fibre products for motor,etc.

Carbon Fiber Motorbike Rear Hugger

Carbon Fiber Motorbike Rear Hugger,Motorcycle Rear Hugger,Motorbike Parts Rear Hugger,Motorbike Components Rear Hugger

C&L INDUSTRIES CO., LTD. , http://www.carbonfiber-product.com