Water-Based Inks Are Prone to Three Types of Performance Changes — Flexible Packaging Printers Should Keep This in Mind!
Water-based inks are Newtonian fluids, so their stability is relatively poor, which is mainly manifested in the following three aspects.
①Pigment sedimentation. Before use, the ink in the ink drum must be stirred evenly, and during printing the ink in the ink trough must also be stirred frequently to prevent pigment sedimentation from causing a certain difference between the printed color and the standard. An effective way is to use a fully enclosed doctor blade, so that the ink remains in a stirring and flowing state under the operation of the ink pump.
②During storage and use, the volatilization of stabilizers in the ink composition causes the pH value to decrease (tending toward weak alkalinity). During use, the stabilizers in water-based ink volatilize easily, causing the ink to tend toward weak alkalinity, which increases its surface tension and instead reduces its adhesion to the plate surface, affecting transfer performance and drying speed (the more the ink tends toward alkalinity, the faster the drying speed). This can cause incomplete printed images and text during printing; especially when printing screen plates, because the ink dries too quickly, printed dots are lost or the screen plate becomes blocked.
③During use, the volatilization of water causes the viscosity of the ink to increase and its flow properties to weaken. Some printing equipment uses a single doctor blade system for ink supply, requiring the ink to have a certain viscosity and fluidity within a relatively suitable range. When the viscosity and fluidity of the ink during use exceed the requirements for printing, the transfer performance of the ink is affected, and “color difference” appears on the surface of large solid areas of printed products.
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