Low Migration UV-curable inkjet printing inks for packaging applications

For packaging applications involving food or beverage, food safety is very important. In analogue printing technologies, UV-curable inks are used for indirect food contact applications. These UV curable low migration (LM) inks are typically based on using multifunctional polymerisable compounds and photoinitiators with a relatively high molecular weight, thereby limiting the risk of migration.

For inkjet printing, however, this ideal scenario does not work, mainly due to viscosity limitations. The development of LM UV-curable inkjet inks was not established merely by gently redesigning analogue printing inks. A low viscous ink formulation was developed, based upon the use of a combination of specific polymerisable compounds and photoinitiators, resulting in a very high degree of crosslinking and low amounts of migratables.