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The principle of ECO-solvent Ink and printing application

2019-11-11

Inkjet printers are inexpensive and have good print quality. They are one of the most popular printers on the market in recent years and are widely used in the inkjet printing industry. Inkjet ink is one of the important elements of inkjet printing technology. At present, green printing has become the common consensus in the industry. The choice of environmentally friendly weak solvent ink as printing ink is of great significance for energy saving and environmental protection.

Inkjet ink overview

1. Composition and classification of inkjet ink

The composition and function of the inkjet ink are shown in Table 1. According to the type of coloring agent, inkjet ink is mainly divided into dye-based ink and pigment-based ink. The dye-based ink has bright color, soft color and fine particles, but the light fastness is poor, and it is easy to fade and deteriorate. The color of pigment ink is although Not as bright as dye-based inks, but its color fastness can be as long as six months or even a year. Inkjet inks are mainly classified into solvent-based inks, aqueous inks, and uncoated inks and weak solvent inks developed in recent years, depending on the solvent used.

2. The principle of action of weak solvent ink

Low-solvent ink, also known as environmentally friendly solvent ink, has the English name ECO-solvent Ink, which is environmentally friendly, uncoated substrate and outdoor weather resistant. The principle of action is that the ink is transferred to the substrate through the nozzle of the micro-piezoelectric print head, wherein the solvent penetrates into the substrate, and as the solvent evaporates, the binder and the colorant in the ink are fixed on the surface of the substrate. Form an image.

3. Performance characteristics of weak solvent ink

Weak solvent inks have evolved from aqueous inks and solvent based inks. Compared with solvent-based inks, the weakest solvent inks have the greatest advantage of being environmentally friendly. Compared with water-based inks, weak solvent inks have high precision and are suitable for a wide range of media and can be widely used indoors and outdoors. The performance comparison of each type of ink is shown in Table 2. To summarize the performance characteristics of weak solvent inks, there are four aspects.

(1) Environmentally friendly

The weak solvent ink is made of alcohols, ethers, and alcohol ether solvents which are extremely corrosive or non-corrosive. These solvents are non-toxic and have low odor, which make up for the shortage of solvent-based inks and are more and more accepted by people. And widely used.

(2) Good outdoor weather resistance

The weak solvent ink is between the water-based ink and the solvent-based ink, taking into account the advantages of both, and avoids the disadvantages of both, and achieves a better balance of performance. Among them, the weak solvent pigment ink uses a special binder resin and is colored with high-performance pigments, which makes it excellent in outdoor weather resistance. It has been recognized and respected by other types of inks, and weak solvent dye inks are weak. Solvent pigment inks are brightly colored and have strong adhesion on most substrates, but their outdoor weatherability is inferior to that of weak solvent pigment inks.

(3) High printing accuracy

In addition to focusing on the choice of environmentally friendly solvents, the weak solvent inks also add special additives to make the diffusion of the ink better, which makes it easier to achieve high-precision output.

Weak solvent inks are commonly used on high-precision Epson nozzles, featuring fast inkjet printing speed and high printing accuracy. For example, the Mimaki JV3 inkjet printer can print up to 1440dpi. Therefore, the weak solvent ink not only has an advantage in outdoor advertising, but also has strong competitiveness in the field of indoor advertising and photorealism that requires fine images.

(4) A wide range of substrates

The weak solvent ink not only maintains the advantages of high printing accuracy, but also overcomes the limitations of other inks for narrow application of the substrate. The weak solvent pigment ink is mainly suitable for body stickers, outdoor light sheets, billboards, leather, wallpaper, PVC, etc.; weak solvent dye ink is mainly suitable for gold and silver cardboard, transparencies, adhesive (PET), canvas, indoor Photo adhesive, transparencies, glass, ceramic tiles, etc.

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