Session 7: Printing Inks
Chair: Dr. Jack Baarends, Hexion Specialty Chemicals, BEThe printing inks industry generates innovative solutions especially for packaging and advertisement materials. As this session displays, these products are undergoing constant development. Examples are new materials for curable ink jet inks, waterbased binders for flexible packaging inks and solvents for printing inks. A fast growing segment, UV and EB technology offers a lot of advantages for the coatings industry. Process requirements will be discussed as well as new technologies for information displays.
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Tuesday Morning 9.00 – 13.00 h
Room Istanbul
7.1 9.00 – 9.30 h Legislative considerations for food contact coatings Dr. Rob Veraat, Keller and Heckman, BE When coatings are intended to come into contact with food they must comply with the food contact legislation. In the EU legislation exists on both the EU and member state level. This paper will discuss the following items: - Explanation of the EU food contact legislation - Explanation of the member state food contact legislation - How to demonstrate compliance - FDA, what is the difference with the EU legislation  | ||
| 7.2 9.30 – 10.00 h New materials for radiation curable ink jet inks Sebastien Villeneuve, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, CH Raw materials used in UV Curable Ink-Jet ink formulations are, not surprisingly, required to provide solid performance at three essential stages: as enablers of the ink dispersion and preparation, as vehicle of colour in the printing equipment and as part of the formed thin film, contributing to resistances. In Ink-Jet and particularly in UV curable Ink-Jet, systems are mandatorily very low viscosity formulations, with demanding criteria on visco-stability and dispersion stability. These criteria are best achieved if the ink system has optimal homogeneity.This makes selection of components a challenge and an opportunity; and is also an excellent example of inter-dependency between pigments, dispersants, resins, diluents, additives, etc. In this paper, Ciba and Sartomer have joined forces to study new materials offering formulators with new latitude to adjust the performance of their inks from manufacturing to printing and final items resistances requirements. | ||
| 7.3 10.00 – 10.30 h Next generation of waterbased binders for flexible packaging inks Steven Zijlstra, BASF Nederland, NL Flexible packaging print-shops are still predominantly using solvent based inks and at the same time legislation forces them to reduce their solvent emissions. Therefore printers need to either find alternatives for solvent-based inks, or to invest in incineration or other abatement techniques. The development of new water-based binders for flexible packaging inks makes it possible to convert an increasing part of the flexible packaging market from solvent-based to water-based inks. The latest developments in water-based resins for film inks will be presented. New developments suitable for both surface print as well as reverse print lamination applications will be reviewed. All developments have in common, a good balance between high resistance and good resolubility/printability properties. During the development, fundamental polymerization theory was applied in combination with practical application testing on lab-scale. As the ultimate proof, the new binders were formulated into finished ink and trialed on a production flexo machine. Printed material was evaluated against standard solvent-based production material. 10.30 – 11.00 h Networking: Refreshments & Coffee Break | ||
| 7.4 11.00 –11.30 h UV-Curable systems for sensitive applications Katia Studer, Ciba, Ch UV curing consists of a polymerization reaction that transforms a liquid resin into a solid film within a fraction of a second under the action of light: this technology is an effective alternative to conventional printing processes, which commonly involve the use of solvents, and simultaneously addresses economical and environmental concerns. However, some well-known UV-curing issues still remain to be tackled, e.g. migration of unreacted materials, a potential health hazard, in particular in indirect food contact applications, where components ould migrate from the packaging into food. It is of primary importance to find solutions to prevent migration, especially since there is a clear trend today toward reducing multi-layer packaging - for environmental reasons - and therefore material selection, curing conditions and printing processes need to ensure that packaging is suitable. This paper reports on the influence of curing conditions and otoinitiator migration, with a special focus on photoinitiator structure, UV dose and curing atmosphere. | ||
| 7.5 11.30 – 12.00 Developing a temperature control system for coatings in the printing industry Jann Neumann, Technical University Darmstadt, DE Inline finishing of printing products with coatings gets more and more important in the modern printing industry. In order to highlight print products within those of competitors, especially from low cost countries in Asia, it is necessary to use new technologies to create an added value on print products. Today the general tendency points from offline- to inline finishing. That saves time and money but it requires also high demands on process stability. For the coating of print products UV-lacquer and dispersion coatings are used. The inline coating process in a sheet fed offset printing machine is realized with one or two additional flexography printing units. The core element of these units is the anilox roller with the inking unit, mostly a chambered doctor blade inking system. The chambered doctor blade is fed by a pump, mostly a membrane or a peristaltic pump.The transfer process of varnish from the inking system to the substrate is affected by different influence factors. In addition to the cell geometry, volume and surface properties of the anilox roller, the rheological properties of the varnish are of certain relevancy. To prevent splashes or surface defection in the coated surface the viscosity range of varnish in the chambered doctor blade has to be in a close tolerance. It is a common knowledge that the viscosity of a fluid is depending on temperature. Usually, in the beginning of a work day the printing machine is cold and the varnish has to be heated to an optimal viscosity. During run time, the whole printing machine is warming up because of friction, for example in gears and the curing- or the drying units within the printing machine. This decrease the viscosity of the varnish. In that case the varnish has to be cooled to the optimal temperature. For this purpose several temperature Control-Systems are available on the market. Most of them are working with a double wall container in order to tempering a certain amount of varnish. It is a disadvantage of these systems that it takes to much time and energy for the heating up or cooling down a whole container of varnish. Especially when the varnish has to be changed for another circulation. Moreover in these systems the temperature is controlled inside the container and not inside the printing unit. | ||
| 7.6 12.00 – 12.30 h New technologies and trends for information displays Dr. Gerald Engel, Clariant International, DE Several new electronic technologies are in the phase of market introduction. Those devices allow to display information on increasingly larger and even flexible screens. For example, first electronic books based on e-paper-technology are already commercial, and digital screens for advertisement are being installed to replace traditional printed posters. It is therefore expected that such displays will compete with current printing applications in the field of publications, signage and others. The lecture will give an overview about these technologies, showing typical examples and their possible application fields. It will also highlight where printing methods can be used in the production of such electronic displays. | ||
| 7.7 12.30 – 13.00 h UV and EB technology in all printing processes – requirements Dr. Bernhard Küter, Institution for statutory accident insurance and prevention in the printing and paper processing industry, DE The Berufsgenossenschaft Druck und Papierverarbeitung (German institution for statutory accident insurance and prevention in the printing and paper processing industry) is a modern service provider. Part of this service is, of course, to offer its member companies professional advice on new developments in the graphic arts industry. Adopting a holistic view of production processes – such as the printing process – is a priority. This includes the technological safety of machines and peripheral equipment, as well as information and assistance for the safe handling of materials, in order to largely avoid work-related health hazards. An example of such a holistic view of a process is UV and EB technology. It encompasses the creation of a European UV and EB Protocol, promoting the reduction of solvent emissions, European research projects for optimizing working conditions and health protection in the whole UV and EB printing process, and compiling a practical guide for all UV and EB printing processes requirements. Printing Ink Committee:
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