UV ink advantages and development

UV ink, as its name suggests, is a specially formulated ink that uses ultraviolet (ULTRAVIOLET) light wave sensitization to make the ink film and dry. The mechanism of UV ink drying and film formation is a chemical change. Different UV spectra were used to generate different energy and different prepolymers (Oligomers) and different monomers (MONOMER) were polymerized into polymers (POLYMER). Therefore, the UV ink film has good mechanical and chemical properties.

Comparison advantages of UV inks and traditional inks

In general, UV-drying inks have greater abrasion resistance than conventional solvent-based or epoxy-based inks. The best example is the symbol on each key on the computer keyboard, which are all printed with UV ink. A well-known large company once experimented with using a mechanical "finger" to repeatedly punch a keyboard printed with UV ink and a traditional ink-printed keyboard. As a result, the keyboard symbol printed by traditional ink was about 1-2 million times. It wears out, and UV ink printed keyboard symbols wear out only about 13 million times. The abrasion resistance of UV inks is 1300% of that of traditional inks. Not only that, but also its drying speed is greatly improved compared to conventional inks, from the original 7 minutes to 15 seconds, saving 96%. time.

UV inks also have extremely high solvent resistance after drying. This solvent resistance results in part from the high crosslink density (macromolecule weight) of the crosslinked dry ink layer. The higher degree of cross-linking makes it impossible for the molecules to separate and dissolve from each other under the effect of the solvent. In addition, UV inks can also be used with some solvent-resistant chemicals.

For the purpose of comparison, we look at the situation after replacing the epoxy ink with UV ink. First, do not mix the ink before use. Second, of course, it is time-saving because the epoxy-based ink needs to be dried for a long time under a certain high temperature condition, and the UV ink is almost instantaneously dried. This is accompanied by the additional advantage of reducing the damage of the ink layer caused by heating. UV inks also save a lot of drying workshops.

There is also a drawback to the formulated epoxy ink. Its stability is poor. After mixing for a while, it will condense in the ink fountain. You must stop and wash the ink fountain. This leads to a waste of time and a drop in productivity. However, UV inks are different, and its stability is very good. It can be said that condensation does not occur. UV inks have more characteristics than traditional inks.

Of course, there are specific factors to consider before converting the ink used. Such as the conversion to UV ink equipment problems, measuring instrument problems. If the surface properties of the substrate are low, the surface must also undergo photochemical treatment to ensure the ink adsorption. This will require additional new quality control equipment. In this way, it is recommended that you do a holistic overall plan before the conversion.

UV-type inks have the property that their viscosity changes drastically with changes in temperature, and this viscosity change greatly affects printing suitability and print film thickness. In general, when the ink temperature decreases, the viscosity increases and the film thickness increases. The viscosity of the ink becomes too high, the permeability of the screen is poor, and the occurrence of foaming and pores are a result of many prints. Therefore, keep the room temperature as constant as possible when printing. Generally 18-25 鸆 is appropriate. A part of the ink absorbs moisture when the humidity at the printing site is high, and problems such as thickening and gelation occur. At this time, please use an air conditioner or a dehumidifier to handle the problem.