Why develop Environmentally Friendly Water-based Latex Ink?

In the advertising decoration industry, due to the large number of inkjet printing materials, in order to achieve good imaging, most inkjet printing materials such as PVC / PET / PP, coated paper, HDPE nonwoven paper, etc. still need to be pre-coated or otherwise pre-coated through traditional equipment when printing. Method treatment (such as corona) to ensure the consistency of the material and good imaging, fastness, etc. This kind of pre-coating brings an increase in the process and cost. Especially in some small batches and personalized printing, pre-coating greatly reduces the efficiency of inkjet printing and weakens the advantages of inkjet printing. How to achieve coating-free printing or online pre-coating is a long-term research and exploration topic in the inkjet industry.

UV ink is a type of ink that has developed rapidly in recent years, especially in the advertising and sign industry, and is widely used. However, the printing process will be filled with a pungent smell; it has strong migration properties and is banned in some food and drug labeling industries. If the curing is incomplete, even if the printed product is left for a long time, it will continue to release, and you can smell the odor. Long-term exposure to these odors is harmful to the human body. With the strengthening of people's environmental awareness and the continuous improvement of national environmental protection policy requirements, people are more looking forward to environmentally friendly, odorless and harmless inks that can print on non-absorbent materials.

1. Development of Hongsam Jetall Environmental Friendly Water Based Latex Ink

The first generation of latex pigment Ink

It is under this background that water-based latex pigment ink has gradually developed and progressed. Since it is a pure water-based ink, it is odorless, non-toxic and environmentally friendly. Hongsheng Digital has started related research and development work since 2006. The first generation of latex pigment ink It solves the problem of printing on some materials such as coated paper, PVC and other materials, but this method of increasing the ink absorption capacity of the material by increasing the medium temperature has great limitations. Currently it is mainly used in digital proofing of coated paper, leather transfer printing, PET film printing, etc.

The second generation of latex pigment ink

With the advancement of materials and the development of printing technology, Hongsam Digital continues to invest in research and development, and launched the second generation of latex pigment ink in 2020. By combining OP ink (optimizer) with new white and color inks, it can be achieved without the need for printing at room temperature. The media is pre-coated in advance to print almost all kinds of non-absorbent, semi-absorbent dark and light materials, which greatly broadens the scope of use of water-based ink.

2. Printing Principle

As shown in the figure above, latex ink is divided into OP (optimizer) ink and color ink. OP ink and color ink are sprayed from the printhead and react quickly on the surface of the media, combine to form images, and are dried at a suitable temperature to complete the printing process. OP ink has the function of locking color ink droplets and producing fastness during the printing process.