UV ink market has a bright future

(Energy Curing Technology: A Bright Future)
It is predicted that by 2005, the market for UV-curable inks will increase from 1.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2001 to 1.5 billion U.S. dollars. In the United States, the value of the printing industry using UV inks and coatings is approximately $150-200 million per year, and the amount of ink and paint used is roughly equal. Of course, the extent of growth depends on the development of the branch market. The annual growth rate ranges from 4 to 20%, and the growth rate of most companies can reach 7 to 12%. Some areas, such as inkjet printing, screen printing, and In areas such as flexo printing, due to the current low market share, the growth rate is also relatively large and can reach 20%.

Market share For the moment, web offsets account for the largest share of the market. They can use UV-curable inks in the production of direct mail, business forms, folding cartons and credit cards. Narrow flexo printing has been used in a large number of UV inks and coatings, and most of the wide flexo printing has not been involved in this area, mainly because wide flexo is used to produce food packaging, many printers believe that UV inks and coatings It may affect people's health and cannot be used in food packaging. However, Flint Ink stated that they have made great progress in the development of odorless UV flexo inks that can be used in printed food packaging. In addition, in wide-format printing, expensive equipment and lack of user-friendliness have hindered the widespread use of UV inks and coatings. The application of UV technology in medium width printing equipment is relatively successful. Although there are still such problems, one thing is for sure. In the field of offset printing and flexo printing, the application of UV inks and coatings is increasing. This does not include gravure printing. In the field of gravure printing, UV technology has been selectively used, but the technology and cost have also increased accordingly.

At present, some publishing printers use UV and EB (electron beam) technology to print and coat UV-coating technology, labeling, and packaging carton printing. UV coating is also used in the production of multi-layer brown paper bags. The main raw material. Energy-curing products are now entering every corner of the market and are of great economic importance. Mike, Marketing Manager at Sun Ink, said: "If the performance and quality characteristics of Energy-Curable (EC) products are not needed, they are not yet possible. To provide services to users at a lower cost.” Paul Flint Ink’s technical manager, Paul, agrees: “UV technology is suitable for such a large-volume and low-cost industry in the packaging industry.”

The electron beam solidified electron beam EB cures a market share of approximately 30 to 50 million U.S. dollars, accounting for almost 13% of the entire energy curing market. Compared with UV-curable drying systems, EB equipment is expensive and covers an area that is relatively large, so the growth rate is relatively slow, although the price of equipment has decreased by a certain degree, from 1 million five years ago to 30. Million, but the chemical materials they use remain unchanged, and they are still relatively expensive. Tony Bean, the manager of the solar ink's energy curing department, told the user: "We should not only look at the cost of printing from a certain component or material, but It should be considered from the overall process to see if it will bring benefits to the company.”

In the field of electron beam curing, Sunbeam, introduced by Sun Chemicals, is a kind of LE (low energy extracting) electron beam coating. It is recognized by the FDA (Food and Drug Association) that it can directly contact with food. Can be used in the soft packaging, paper packaging, multilayer kraft paper bags and food containers inside the direct contact with the food part of the coating. They believe that although the EB coating market, which can be directly in contact with food, is not an important market, it has great potential.

Ultra-Adaptive In the early 1990s, UV Chemicals provided a new technology to meet the changing adaptability. Its formulation is almost 100% solids, contains no volatile solvents, and will not cure during the curing process. Very few volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted. They are less wasteful and do not need to worry about dealing with harmful flammable and explosive materials. It is an environmental protection technology. In many countries where environmental importance is more important, governments and associations encourage companies to use them. UV/EB technology.

However, environmental protection is not its main advantage. In addition, it can provide bright colors, strong abrasion resistance, can be applied to most substrates, and can be used for short-lived printing. , And can greatly increase the speed of the printing press. Because its chemical composition is 100% solid, the coating is relatively uniform and the drying is relatively uniform. UV chemical products only undergo a drying reaction under the action of UV photons, so the ink can stay on the printing press for a long time, or it will not solidify and dry after a long time shutdown, which allows the operator more time to deal with the problem.

According to Johnson, marketing manager at UCB Chemical Group, “Printers are a direct driver of the growing market share of energy-consolidation (EC), they can directly benefit from fast printing and saving raw materials. In addition, EC presses are very easy to install. And setting, the ink can quit overnight, this efficient printing process and environmental protection are equally important."

Johnson said: "The color of EC prints is brighter and the levels are more abundant. The image has a leaping effect." Today's print buyers, especially those who purchase packaging products, want the products to look more distinctive. More attractive, and UV is the best way to achieve this.

UV flexo printing For flexo printing, especially flexo printing with narrow webs, UV inks have a broad prospect. Most flexo presses are equipped with UV devices and they come in many varieties. At the same time, in flexo printing, environmental protection is not the biggest problem. They pay more attention to less downtime, higher performance, higher friction resistance, better print quality, and more vivid colors. Flexo printing with UV ink gives you better dot definition than water- and solvent-based inks, and you don't need to use only four-color inks like traditional printing. You can choose one, two, or A greater number of inks are printed without restriction.

The free radical system is the core technology occupying about 95% of the market, and the cationic system accounts for a very small market share of 4%, while EB only accounts for about 1% of the market. Mike, production manager of Akzo Nobel ink company, explained that the small share of the cationic system was attributed to the higher ink price. Its price was twice that of the free radical system, but from a certain point of view, the cationic system can eliminate Odor, in addition, for different materials or film adhesion properties are also better, especially for those softer materials or thermoformed materials.

The radical flexo ink has been greatly improved over the past year. Its viscosity is very low. The intensity and durability of the color are improved. The use of an attached squeegee can avoid the flow and rheological properties of aged inks. Troubled. The conventional UV inks may suffer from insufficient supply of holes and ink due to high viscosity.

LA label printing company has been awakening the production of UV ink for seven years. They use the Webtron 1000 eight-color printing press to produce printing. The printing length per minute ranges from 500 to 600 feet. The company's ink department manager Ed believes that The performance of inks has been considerably improved over the years. The flowability of the ink is improved, the viscosity is lowered, and the adhesion of the ink is improved. Therefore, sufficient ink density can be obtained by printing on an anilox roller with a relatively high screen number and a small amount of ink. Good results. UV flexo ink can further improve its fixing performance, because it does not volatilize the solvent, and the viscoelasticity of the water-based ink and control of the pH and its drying will cause some problems, so the UV ink is irreplaceable.

However, dust and dirty particles are a big problem. Because the viscosity of UV inks is greater than that of water-based inks, it is easy to stick to printing plates, so a clean environment is extremely important. If flexographic printing is to grow, new markets need to be developed, so UV flexo inks must meet market standards. UV flexo printing is superior to offset printing in the printing of folding cartons because it has an additional on-line coating function and is favored. Especially for larger print jobs, it is easier to dry.

Hybrid ink technology

Ink technology continues to advance, and most ink manufacturers can provide Hybrid ink technology. It can be applied to traditional printing presses. In-line coating can be achieved without special coating rollers, eliminating the need for conventional UV coating. The drawbacks of the process. During the printing process, dusting devices are generally used to prevent the top and bottom prints from sticking to each other. However, when UV glazing is performed, the coating is uneven due to the presence of dusting particles, and fine wrinkles appear. Therefore, a two-layer coating apparatus was proposed, which was first coated with a conventional water-based ink and then UV-coated. However, the application of UV coatings on high humidity printing inks will cause poor gloss of the printings. This is mainly due to the fact that the coating oil is rapidly dried under the UV light source, but the ink in the lower layer is not yet dry, so the ink will be generated. Shrinkage, causing darkening of the gloss. The new Hybrid ink can be dried with one or two UV lamps during the printing process of the printing press to cure the ink film and then UV coating to increase the gloss of the printed product. This technology combines the advantages of both UV ink and UV coating.

Another advantage is that the printing quality of this new type of ink is better than that of traditional inks. The smell of the two is the same, but it is more expensive, but if you compare it with other complicated processes that achieve the same effect, you can see its cost and Not too high. It is even more important that the on-line process can ensure a quick change of print and increase production efficiency.

Quality Graphics has been using this composite ink for eight months. It uses a Mitsubishi 40-inch six-color printer with an hourly print speed of 140-1600 pages. The results show that people are very willing to use this type of ink. Ink, approved for this ink. Sun Chemical engineers are very happy to say: "We only need to put this composite ink into the ink fountain. It's easy to boot." Currently, 90% of Quality Graphics's are traditional inks. It is hoped that the proportion of new inks will increase in the next year, and strive for 40% of the proportion.

Future Challenges Although ink manufacturers value the price of ink needed for printing and printing, not the cost of a pound of ink, users still want to be able to reduce costs. UV inks also have some drawbacks, so people also hope to improve the performance of UV inks.

There is no doubt that the prospect of free radical drying technology is broad. For the EC ink market, this is exciting. This technology will continue to develop. Users will also be happy to use this technology. When UV and EB are introduced After giving it to everyone, it is considered good. It is only a matter of time.