Talking about environmental protection ink

The head of offset printing ink technology of the printing material company has been engaged in the printing industry for many years, and is responsible for solving printing technology problems for customers and has in-depth knowledge of printing consumables such as ink and fountain solution.

Many printing customers are also interested in green inks, and they are very concerned about whether this ink will become the market-leading future. The following questions and answers may increase everyone's understanding of environmental inks and find inspiration from them.

1. Are the inks available in the market "standard in lead content"?

The first thing to define is what the standard is. EN71? ASTM? Or other standards? Both EN71 and ASTM are relatively common standards, but there are actually many others (for example, 94/62/EC and EU ROHS, etc.). Some of the strict requirements not only test the lead content of the ink, but also take the entire box for testing.

The "lead content" is just a general term. In fact, it should be the correct content of heavy metals, including: lead, antimony, arsenic, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, There are eight types of Mercury and Selenium.

There are two more interesting facts:

i. Metallic inks, such as gold inks and silver inks, are of a standard heavy metal content.

Ii. The heavy metal content of most printing inks is standard and not just environmentally friendly.

2. What is the difference between environmental inks and common inks?

To answer this question, first understand the composition of the ink. The ink is caused by pigments, additives (e.g. driers), resins, alkyd alkyds and oils (e.g. mineral oil, soybean oil, flaxseed oil).

The environment-friendly ink means that in the ink formulation, the components of the oil are vegetable oils, such as soybean oil, flaxseed oil, and other natural oils. The names are Bio, Soy, Eco and Oko.

Other aspects are no different from ordinary ink.

What customers are most concerned about is the hue. Is the hue printed with eco-friendly ink the same as ordinary ink? The answer is the same, or even better. Because of the use of natural oils, pigments are more capable of expressing colors in environmentally friendly inks, and are more easily achieved when the ink balance is adjusted.

3. Where are the various types of environmentally friendly inks?

Most of the green inks available on the market are named after which raw materials, such as Bio, Soy, Eco, Oko, etc.

It is only the proportion of vegetable oil used. The definition of Soy ink is that 20-30% of the flat ink components contain soybean oil, and the others are mineral oil. Bio ink is defined as completely free of mineral oil, ie 100% is vegetable oil.

4. Will the price of environmental protection ink be very expensive?

Basically, the price of environmental protection ink is about the same as ordinary ink.

Because natural oils (such as flaxseed oil) are all abundant resources, unlike crude oil/mineral oil, there is a certain limit and the price will not be too volatile.

5. Is there ample supply of environmentally friendly ink? Will it be out of stock?

In fact, environmental ink (such as: Bio ink) has been in Europe for more than 15 years, and its production and supply are the same as ordinary ink. Some manufacturers will go in the direction of environmental protection when producing new series of inks, so supply will not be a problem.

6. Are there eco-friendly ink fountain inks or printing inks?

There are 100% vegetable inks used in printing ink and printing ink oil supply, mainly European brands.

7. Will there be any problems with the use of environmentally friendly inks and the use of ordinary inks?

Eco-friendly inks can be applied to any printing press without any modifications or special cleaning agents. Basically, customers can fully use environmentally-friendly inks. Even if they are to convert inks, their handling is the same as ordinary inks.

All in all, most users or manufacturers use inks containing vegetable oils as environmentally friendly inks. Naturally, it is a matter of course that heavy metal content should meet international standards.

In fact, one of the more important is the content of Volatile Organic Compound (VOC). VOCs are volatile organic compounds that pollute the air and cause great harm to humans. The EPD is drafting legislation to regulate the VOC content in printing inks.

Afterwards, we may consider this point when purchasing green printing inks.

Reprinted from: Graphic Arts, Issue 268

Author: Yung Wei