On the basic knowledge of water-based ink system

Water-based ink is composed of four different chemical raw materials, they are:

·Color material-it is to transmit visual perception, so that we can see the color.

·Resin——It will transfer color to the surface of the object to be printed.

·Additives-it is to combine some raw materials to correct the performance of the ink.

·Solvent-it is to reduce the viscosity so that the printing ink is more easily transferred to the object, then dried.

Of course, the solvent for water-based inks must be water, but some suppliers still mix some flammable solvents, also known as water-based inks.

For today, the main function of ink is to present a message show a selling point, it is often a perfect picture, so the most important part of ink is ink.

The colorant is one of dyes pigments. Dyes are general color agents that can be found in food additives ballpoint inks. Although the printing effect is good it is easy to fade, some paper printing cardboard printing are still in use due to the low price.

Today's high-quality inks are chemically synthesized using pigments, with the exception of the famous carbon black large amounts of dioxide. In fact, the appearance characteristics of the pigment come the resin that carries it. The formulation of more than one hundred pigments to make ink can cover the spectrum of all colors, but in ordinary use, the typical ink formula is limited to about 50 kinds.

Several color material manufacturers in the world include BASF in Germany, some very small factories. The color material manufacturing is batch by batch, but the color system of each factory is slightly different. In the general four-color ink: blue, magenta, yellow, black, each set has a little difference, there is no real standard. In particular, the colors of the East West markets are different. Taking magenta ink as an example, the East prefers blue tones the West prefers yellow tones.

Pigment is an expensive component in printing ink, which will increase the cost because it requires higher resistance higher color strength.

The choice of the printed object will also affect the choice of colorants. For example, in a special case, we are required to make a blue ink, which will be printed on white cardboard, but the yellow kraft paper is used for proofing.

Another part of the ink formulation is the resin carrier transfer system. The main function of the resin here is to transfer the pigment the printing process to the object to be printed. The first step of these processes is to dissolve the resin in the solvent through the printing plate to the object to be printed. After the solvent is absorbed volatilized to dry, the resin will be left to carry the color. We have a lot of resins to choose , in fact it is impossible to use only one resin. Maybe we will consider the requirements of the printed matter to use different resins, such as: high temperature resistance, acid alkali resistance, high gloss...