Mysterious printing label ink analysis

With the development of economy, the wide application of labels on commodities has led to the rapid development of the label printing industry. However, at present, people know much less about label printing inks than about the label materials, printing methods, etc. Label printing inks need to be recognized and explored as a mysterious field.

There are many types of label printing inks. According to the different solvents used, they can be divided into three categories: water-based label printing inks, solvent-based label printing inks, and UV label printing inks: (1) Water-based inks are safe, hygienic and non-polluting, and comply with environmental protection requirements. It is beneficial to human health; but there are also drawbacks, such as slow drying rate, low color saturation, poor stability, etc. It is not appropriate to print large areas on the ground, and long-term placement is prone to precipitation and delamination. (2) Solvent-type label printing inks have strong adaptability to label materials, stable performance, and high printing quality; however, there are environmental pollution problems, and some volatile solvents are harmful to the human body. (3) The UV label printing ink has excellent performance, reliable quality and wide application range; but the price is high, and it requires special drying equipment, and also has certain requirements for supporting materials.

When choosing the label printing ink, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the types of printing materials, printing methods and printing conditions, customer's special requirements, post-press processing technology, the use of the label and the conditions of use, cost and other factors. The properties of label printing inks mainly include hue, fineness, saturation, glossiness, adhesion, viscosity, and drying properties. These properties have an important influence on the printing process and print quality.

The impact of the printing shop environment on ink performance and print quality is mainly reflected in the following two aspects:

(1) The viscosity and dryness of the ink are sensitive to the ambient temperature. When the temperature rises, the ink viscosity decreases, and the drying speed becomes faster.

On the contrary, the ink viscosity increases and the drying speed becomes slower. In addition, the humidity of the environment has an influence on the dryness of the ink. Too high humidity in the workshop is not conducive to the drying of the ink; if the workshop is too dry, it is easy to cause printing failure due to static electricity.

(2) The hygienic condition of the printing shop is also very important. Therefore, the printing shop should be kept clean, dust-free and well ventilated and exhausted.