1. UV curing ink:
UV curable (UV) ink refers to the ink that uses ultraviolet light of different wavelengths and energies to film and dry the ink under UV irradiation. Using different UV spectra, different energies can be generated to polymerize the monomers in different ink binders into polymers, so the color film of UV ink has good mechanical and chemical properties. The main advantages of UV ink are no solvent; Fast drying speed and less energy consumption; Good gloss and bright colors; Water and solvent resistance, and good wear resistance.
Photoinitiator in UV ink is a kind of compound that is easily excited by light. After absorbing light, it is excited into free radicals, and the energy is transferred to photosensitive molecules or photo crosslinkers to make UV ink undergo a photocuring reaction. At present, UV ink has become a mature ink technology, and its pollutant emission is almost zero. In addition to being solvent-free, UV ink also has the advantages of not being easy to paste, clear dot, bright ink color, excellent chemical resistance, and low consumption.
2. Water-based ink:
The biggest difference between water-based ink and solvent-based ink is that the solvent used is water instead of organic solvent, which significantly reduces VOC emissions, can prevent air pollution, does not affect human health, is not easy to burn, has stable ink ability, bright colors, does not corrode plates, has simple operation, low price, good post-press adhesion, strong water resistance, and rapid drying, so it is especially suitable for food, beverage, medicine, and other packaging and printing materials, It is recognized as an environmentally friendly printing material in the world and the only printing ink approved by the American Food and Drug Association.
3. Water-based UV ink:
Water-based UV ink is a new research direction in the field of UV ink. The viscosity of prepolymer in ordinary UV ink is generally very large, and it needs to be diluted with active diluent. At present, the diluent acrylates have different degrees of skin irritation and toxicity. Therefore, while developing low viscosity prepolymers and low toxicity active diluents, another development direction is to study water-based UV inks, that is, using water and ethanol as diluents. At present, water-based UV ink has been successfully developed and applied in some printing.