Pigments and Oligomers for Inks - Moving Towards the Best Combination

The formulation of UV curable printing inks depends on several complex factors. If the individual
components of the ink are not complementary, then performance problems can arise. One critical combination is that between the pigment and the oligomer. In a new approach to improve understanding of pigment/oligomer interactions, the resources of a pigment manufacturer and an
oligomer manufacturer have been combined to investigate the problem. Initial screening of process yellow pigments and several oligomer types highlighted performance variations which were then examined in more detail. All three stages of the study demonstrated a thematic consistency, which is reported in this paper