Advantages of Water-based Ink
1.Good for Environment
As a new type of packaging and printing material, the biggest advantage of water-based ink is that it does not contain volatile organic solvents. Its use reduces the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOC), which does not harm the health of manufacturers and printing operators. It improves environmental quality and is therefore known as environmentally friendly ink.
The biggest characteristics of water-based ink are that it does not pollute the environment, has no impact on human health, is not easy to burn, and is safe. It can not only reduce the toxicity remaining on the surface of printed matter, making printing equipment easier to clean, but also reduce the risk of fire caused by static electricity and flammable solvents. Therefore, in this sense, water-based ink is a new type of "green" packaging printing material.
In addition to the environmental advantages, water-based inks also have better printing characteristics. The ink has stable properties, does not corrode the plate, is easy to operate, is cheap, has good post-printing adhesion, is highly water-resistant, and dries quickly (the printing speed can reach 150-200 meters/minute).
In addition to being used in gravure printing, water-based inks are also suitable for flexo printing and screen printing, which have great development potential. However, due to the high boiling point of water in water-based inks, slow evaporation, and slow drying of printed matter, hot air drying equipment is required.
Moreover, some ink printed matter may also absorb moisture due to excessive environmental humidity, resulting in anti-sticking. In addition, the gloss of the printed matter Relatively speaking, it's a bit worse.
2. Composition of water-based ink
Water-based ink is composed of water-based polymer emulsion, pigments, surfactants, water and other additives.
Disadvantages of water-based ink:
The effect of water-based ink printing is mainly reflected in the following three aspects: low adhesion, poor gloss, and slow drying. We will analyze them one by one.
1. Water-based ink has low adhesion
The bonding strength is closely related to the surface tension of the material. For example, the surface tension of PE and BOPP is 32 dynes, while the surface tension of water is 70 dynes.
Therefore, usually water-based inks cannot be printed on plastic films. With the development of corona technology, the surface tension of plastic films can be increased to 38, which can well meet the printing requirements of water-based inks, and it is also scratch-resistant and water-resistant after printing is dried.
Therefore, water-based ink is indeed a little worse than ink in terms of adhesion, but it can be achieved through some auxiliary means, so the problem of low adhesion can be solved.
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2. Water-based ink has poor gloss
Glossiness is a natural disadvantage of water-based inks, but this disadvantage has gradually narrowed and is not as obvious as some people say. In order to solve the problem of glossiness when producing water-based inks, various manufacturers have done a lot of work in color, such as now using After several years of hard work, we can see that the improvement effect is very obvious.
3. Water-based ink dries slowly
Water-based ink evaporates water, and solvent ink evaporates solvent. There is an essential difference between the two, so the evaporation of water is definitely slower than the evaporation of solvent. However, with the technological advancement of various high-speed flexographic printing machines, the printing speed can be Reaching 450 meters/minute, the drying speed has been greatly improved. It can be said that there is no longer the problem of slow drying.
4. Water-based ink must be more expensive than ink?
This is determined by the raw materials of the two inks. Although water-based ink uses less ink than solvent-based ink due to the same printing area, the actual ink consumption of the combined ink is not the same.
No more than solvent-based inks, and the larger the printing area, the smaller the gap between the two inks. In addition, because solvent-based inks pollute the environment and harm the operator's health, these are the reasons why we choose water-based inks. Even if it increases the cost, it is acceptable.
Water-based inks are used to print color labels and stickers. They are characterized by affordable prices and good characteristics. It is worth getting to know more about water-based inks before you buy them.
In inkjet printing, water-based inks are often used. This is an aqueous solution of organic substances, with the help of which you can achieve increased realism in the transfer of shades. This effect is particularly noticeable when printing on glossy paper. At the same time there is a wide coverage of the color range. Therefore this kind of inks is recommended to create high quality labels designed to produce a vivid effect on the consumer.
Water-based ink is available in small containers with a narrowed spout and also sold in jars with a wide neck. The second option is the most convenient and practical for constant use.
water-based ink is a good alternative to the ink used in the original cartridge. At the same time there is practically no difference in color.
Compared to other types of ink, water-based ink has a long life. At the same time, the ink dries more slowly in the cartridge. With Water-based Ink, you don&#;t have to deal with regular cleaning of label printing machines. If soiled, it is sufficient to rinse the nozzles for further use.
With good quality, availability of purchase, water-based ink still has some disadvantages. This is due to the ambiguous characteristics of water-based inks.
Insufficient resistance to water, ultraviolet rays. Because of these disadvantages, such inks can not print promotional materials, leaflets for distribution on the street. Under the influence of sunlight the picture is burned out, and in contact with water the picture is smeared.
It cannot be used for double-sided printing on a thin sheet of paper. Printing inks are capable of being absorbed into deep layers of paper, so prints may remain on the other side of the sheet.
The above disadvantages of water-based inks can be called conditional, because they do not play an important role for all consumers. In addition, manufacturers are constantly improving the materials for printing, applying new technologies and improving the characteristics of the ink in terms of moisture resistance, UV resistance, brightness and other indicators.
Contact us to discuss your requirements of water based pigment ink. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.