Innovative Wetting and Dispersing Additives for Radiation Curing Flexo Inks

The importance of curing inks and varnish with UV as basis for an almost emission free and economic printing has rapidly increased over the past years. Compared to the ink penetration or heat drying at conventional processes the following advantages are reached:
- solvent free
- non-absorbent substrates can be printed
- quick curing, immediately stackable, immediately overprintable, no powder spray
- the curing zone is short, the curing takes place in a split second
- the inks cure only in the range of the UV-light
- UV-cured inks and varnish are chemical-resistant (also MEK), smudge proof and scratch
resistant
- With UV as a 100%-system a high gloss can be reached
Only this short numeration already shows that a big jump ahead has been done for the printer and his customers with the UV-technology compared to the conventional curing technology and it can not be renounced on this technology for example at the manufacturing of labels. Particularly for curing of inks on non-absorbent surfaces like metal, plastics coated paper, glass etc. UV plays an important role for the simplification of the process flow.