UV screen printing ink innovation and application of common sense (2)

New Application of UV Screen Printing Inks

Recent technological innovations have enabled ink manufacturers to produce UV inks with good adhesion, durability, flexibility, and water resistance. Recent advances in UV ink technology have had an important impact in the following markets and application areas.

Application on POP posters

In the past, only multipurpose POP inks showed good adhesion on a variety of substrates including paper, cardboard, styrene, stretched polyvinyl chloride, and even some hard-to-adhere polyolefins. However, a few years ago, the emergence of single-component UV inks completely changed the situation, the ink is well attached to polyolefin materials (PE, PP), and has good performance characteristics, such as in the label printing The excellent ink film flexibility and water resistance exhibited in such fields. This new type of ink eliminates the use of additives and reduces the waste of similar two-component inks. It also reduces ink inventory and improves economic efficiency.

Application on the container

The greatest advancement in UV screen printing ink technology should be in container printing. In the past, a variety of additives and ink systems were required to accommodate different types of plastic containers, and plastic containers for HDPE, LDPE, PET, PVC, PP, and other materials can now be decorated with one-component, non-additive inks. These inks provide better hiding power and chemical solvent resistance, while also eliminating the use of additives and catalysts.

Application on hygroscopic plastics

The development of multifunctional monomers is one of the latest developments in UV ink technology, and ink manufacturers are using it to solve the problems of printing hygroscopic plastics, such as polyethylene labels and HDPE materials. These substrates are prone to moisture absorption, and water vapor forms a fine barrier layer between the ink and the surface of the substrate, affecting the adhesion of the ink. Therefore, the ink layer on these materials is easy to wear and peel off. The use of inks formulated with this new type of multifunctional monomer greatly enhances its water resistance on the hygroscopic material, the curing speed is faster, the gloss of the ink layer is higher and firmer, and the ink layer is almost completely water resistant.

UV screen printing ink development

As raw materials continue to be developed, it does not seem to be clear where future UV curing products will develop. In the early years, UV inks added various additives in order to improve performance. The printers had to play the role of chemists in order to obtain good ink performance. But today, ink manufacturers can develop products based on customer needs and use more advanced technologies in ink production. Raw material suppliers also develop raw materials based on the needs of the ink designer, unlike the first few types of raw materials that were available to designers.