With environmental consciousness on the rise, sustainable printing is given higher priority and the flexographic printing industry is rising to the occasion and demand of the consumer market. The ink industry is under tremendous pressure to supercharge its water-based inks for a sustainable printing solution. In this blog post, we will tell you everything that you need to know about water-based Flexographic printing inks.
As the world progresses towards sustainable living, consumer demands are shifting and because of that flexographic printing industry’s dynamic is also changing. Businesses are therefore under pressure to improve packaging quality regarding their printing inks.
The flexographic industry’s environmental efforts are to use water-based printing inks. If you are a business and you are looking to transition to a more sustainable inking solution, here’s everything you need to know about water-based inks.
Problem: The Primary Challenge
The main challenge facing producers is that water-based ink comes in lower-quality prints compared to other types of solvent inks.
Although, the flexographic industry is very versatile in terms of the kind of substrates being used. Printing presses can also print high-resolution graphics on any substance such as silicone, ceramic, plastic, cardboard, etc.
Water-based inks take longer to dry, which delays the production time and also slows down the printing press speed.
The Solution: Water-Based Flexographic Inks
Water-based inks become a viable option when your business prints on absorbent substances rather than non-absorbent substances.
For printing press owners who work with non-absorbent substrates, they can use water-based technologies and solutions to overcome this primary problem with:
- Surface print uses abrasion resistance, water resistance, and heat resistance properties.
- Reverse print uses has protective layer
- Lower-level bonds with laminated application for water-based products.
What are the Benefits of Water-Based Flexographic Inks?
There are numerous advantages of water-based flexographic inks apart from being environmentally friendly and sustainable. They overcome the key challenge of dryness and are also host to other benefits such as:
- They are Ideal for soft hand techniques.
It is a condition where the surface of the substrate remains smooth and without leaving visible and rough marks of the ink’s texture.
- They are the best inks for high-speed roll-to-roll yardage printing solutions as well.
- Water-based flexographic inks have a superior ink penetration which improves coverage.
What are the Disadvantages of Water-Based Flexographic Inks?
Water-based flexographic printing inks also come with some disadvantages that you should be aware of:
- Difficulty in drying or curing.
You must have the technology that has perfect drying capacity as the temperature required to eliminate the solvent is high.
- Water-based ink has a limited shelf or pot life
They last 4-12 hours usually. More than that it will evaporate and then the quality will be compromised.
- Water-based ink needs to be cleaned from the screens to prevent clogging.
Although we know that at this hour, the benefits alone won’t help to pace this industry forward the conscious and sustainable printing solutions would slowly but surely become a norm.
With time and technology, we know that more and more developments will take place to improve print quality, production speed, and efficiency, among other factors. Therefore with time, we will see more and more opportunities for businesses and the printing inks industry to have the capacity to make the transition to more eco-conscious printing solutions with Flexographic printing inks.
Aside from water-based inks, Zinks provides other printing ink options that you can look into such as solvent-based Inks and Offset Inks.
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