Types of polyurethane inks

In line with the development of the flexible packaging printing industry, there are many types of environmentally friendly inks on the market at this stage: benzene-free alcohol-soluble ink, polyurethane ink, water-based ink (acrylic system), UV curing ink, soybean ink, single solvent ink etc.

Their advantages are:
01 Significantly reduces harmful components in ink;

02 Significantly reduces the harm to operating technicians and the natural environment in the ink production and application process;

03 It is beneficial to the recovery, treatment and reuse of packaging waste;

The various classes are as follows:

Phenyl-free alcohol-soluble ink:

The connecting material is alcohol-soluble polyamide resin, does not contain toluene, but contains a small amount of ketone solvents, which is more suitable for flexible packaging printing that needs to be boiled. Generally speaking, it is only a substitute for benzene-soluble plastic evonik additives for gravure printing ink.  This type of ink is an ordinary alcohol-soluble plastic gravure ink introduced in the early stage of the benzene-free boom in the packaging and printing industry.

Acrylic water-based ink:

The biggest advantage is that it does not contain volatile organic solvents, does not pollute the natural environment, and does not harm the health of ink manufacturers and packaging and printing operation technicians. The shortcomings are that the gloss of the ink layer is relatively poor, the drying speed of packaging and printing is relatively slow, and packaging and printing The adaptability is weak, and considering the above factors, acrylic water-based inks cannot completely replace solvent inks.

UV light curing ink:

After the UV ink is coated, it can be quickly dried and cured under UV light irradiation, and the hardness of the ink layer is high. Compared with other types of ink, it has the advantages of environmental protection and energy saving, high solid content and less VOC content. It has great advantages in high-speed inkjet printing and lithographic printing industries, but in the flexible packaging gravure printing industry, compared with solvent ink , UV ink still has many deficiencies: first of all, the price of UV ink is relatively high, the investment in UV printing process production line is large, and the demand for natural environment conditions in the printing production workshop is relatively strict, which is also difficult for UV ink in different packaging and printing industries. A major factor for large-scale implementation: Second, the adhesion fastness and durability of UV inks on many substrates are not very satisfactory.

Soy Ink:

Soybean ink is an ink made of soybean oil instead of traditional petroleum solvent. It has the advantages of low V0C content, green environmental protection, and no harm to operators and the natural environment. In the newspaper industry in other regions, packaging and printing companies have begun to use soy ink. The disadvantage of soybean ink is that the drying speed is relatively slow, and it is mainly printed in the publishing and packaging of dry newspapers and magazines.