UV Screen Printing Ink Innovation and Application

With the rapid development of digital printing technology, some people think that screen printing will be eliminated, but the technical innovation of UV screen printing ink makes the performance of various aspects of screen printing continue to improve, screen printing can be in the printing speed and adaptability to the printing materials It is comparable to digital printing. Today, UV screen printing inks can adapt to more and more special materials to ensure that the product's unique printing and decorative effects are superior to and beyond the printing category of four-color digital presses.

UV screen printing ink new varieties

In the early stages of developing UV inks, the choice of raw materials was greatly limited, which hindered the development and application of UV inks. But in the past 10 years, a large number of experimental studies have greatly expanded the performance of UV inks. Raw material suppliers have also noticed the potential benefits of the UV ink market. Now, UV ink manufacturers have thousands of raw materials to choose from. The joint efforts of raw material suppliers and ink manufacturers led many traditional inks, especially screen printing ink technology innovations, resulting in the emergence of a large number of new screen printing inks, such as: thermoforming UV inks; strong adhesion of multi-purpose UV The ink can be used for the printing of containers, POP (point of sale) images, labels, etc.; Thick ink UV ink, including flash pigment UV ink, thixotropic special effect ink, liquid substrate-forming, etc.; magnetic (magneticreceptive) UV inks; fire-resistant UV inks; high-coverage UV inks; water-resistant UV inks; special effects imitation metal UV inks; long-lasting UV light inks. Some new inks are introduced below.

Thermoforming UV ink

The research of thermoforming UV inks is in full swing. The inks have good adhesion and flexibility, can withstand stretching in thermoforming, and can be stretched by 8 inches or more in vacuum forming. Thermoformed UV ink formulations have been modified to withstand thermal bending, stretching, and other post-processing on a wide variety of substrates such as styrene, polycarbonate, acrylic, PETG (glycol modified PET), PVC, and some metal.

Thick ink UV ink

The in-depth study and understanding of the photoinitiator reaction mechanism has enabled the ink formulator to deploy more specific UV inks, including ink products that have a high pigment content and can form thick ink layers. Printers can now choose 60-line/inch coarse screens and screens with a thickness of 300 μm or more to print. The thick ink layer UV ink products available for selection also have thixotropic coatings and inks that can produce relief printing effects, and this ink is expected to have a significant increase in application.

Forming base liquid UV ink

The highly extensible resins and monomers used in the formulation of thermoformed UV inks can also be used to configure a new type of thick ink layer of UV inks - forming substrate liquid inks that include a type that can be referred to as liquid substrates. formula. In other words, after the ink is cured, it is both an image forming material and a printing material. Depending on the ink formulation used, pressure-sensitive or electrostatically adsorbed images can be produced after printing. This printing method, which eliminates printing materials, saves material and die cutting costs while also reducing turnaround time.

Magnetic UV ink

Another product that extends from thick ink UV ink technology is magnetic UV inks. The ink can be printed on a variety of substrate materials to make it magnetic, but this ink does not turn the image into a real magnet, but it can fix the printed image through the magnetic surface of the ink after curing. This type of ink is suitable for printing images that often need to be replaced, such as newspaper kiosks, shelving, combined mold displays, and the like.

Special effects UV ink

The thick ink layer UV ink technology has led to the development of several new inks with special effects. Flash UV inks combined with large particles of luminescent particles can produce glittering effects on the printed pattern. This type of ink requires a coarse mesh screen printing to enable the flash particles to pass through. Another newly developed ink is a long-lasting light-emitting ink that emits light for more than 14 hours. Other UV ink formulations use a series of colors of pearl-like, spark-like, or metallic-colored particles, which are used according to a rough classification of the substrate. High-pigment inks allow printers to consider printing on dark substrates to ensure good hiding power.

Fire Resistant UV Ink

Another research hotspot of UV screen printing ink technology is the fire-resistant UV ink. This ink is proposed for the safety of some consumers concerned about the printed matter. The ink and the substrate manufacturer cooperate to research the solution. Although UV inks have a relatively high flash point, UV inks decompose and burn once they exceed the combustion limit temperature. There are two ways to slow down the burning of UV inks. One is to use inhibitors in the ink to prevent burning, reduce or even eliminate the flame. Another method is to design a UV ink formulation that mimics a foamed fireproof coating. In the case of flame-proof or high-temperature flame-retardant coatings, the coating is strongly foamed and carbonized to block oxygen and prevent combustion and flame suppression. It is important to remember that fire-resistant UV ink alone cannot completely prevent fire, and the ability to swell the substrate is as important as the ability to suppress the flame.

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 a significant 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 needed 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 seems impossible to see where UV curing products will grow in the future. 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.

Increased competition has forced ink manufacturers to adopt innovative technologies to improve ink performance while developing new areas for UV screen printing. In general, the UV screen printing market has grown significantly thanks to the development of new UV inks. With the joint efforts of raw material suppliers and ink manufacturers to develop new products and formulate new performance standards, this development trend in the UV screen printing market will undoubtedly continue.