Domestic UV Ink Market Scan (I)

UV inks have been used more and more widely in the printing industry. In foreign countries, UV inks are basically used for CD and hose printing. It can be said that UV ink has infiltrated into various kinds of printing, especially plastic printing. It replaces the traditional solvent type ink and guarantees high quality prints. The world's most advanced presses are also equipped with UV curing devices. It can be seen from this that UV inks will be a direction for ink development.

The status of domestic UV ink

With the development of UV curing technology, its advantages are constantly optimistic. In recent years, domestic UV inks have developed at a very fast rate and have become more and more widely used. UV inks can be divided into two major categories for their use: UV printing inks and UV printed circuit board inks. Among them, UV printing inks for the printing industry currently cover all fields of plain printing (offset printing), embossing (including flexographic printing), gravure printing, screen printing, and ink jet printing; and UV printing circuit board inks are mainly used in electronics. Industry Printed Circuit Board (PCB).

1.UV offset printing ink

UV offset inks have a high solids content, and the ratio of pigment to binder before curing is similar to that of ordinary offset inks, and thus were first applied in offset printing. The use of UV inks in offset printing can eliminate the need for dusting to facilitate the cleaning of the printing environment, and avoid the troubles caused by powder spraying to the post-press processing, such as the effect on the coating and coating effects, and can be carried out. Connection processing. UV ink can also prevent the occurrence of ink skinning phenomenon, which solves the worries of the offset printing machine when it stops, and at the same time it can obtain higher ink curing speed.

In packaging printing, many products need to be printed on a large area, and the color saturation of the printed matter is very demanding. This requires a large amount of ink to be printed during actual printing. In this case, the problem of ink drying becomes very important. The drying of the ink affects the production efficiency. Use UV offset printing ink to solve this problem. UV offset printing inks are characterized by their vivid colors and good abrasion resistance, making them ideal for packaging, printing, and book cover and record sleeve printing.

UV offset inks cure without penetrating problems, not only can be printed on paper, but also can be printed on non-absorbent printing materials, such as printing cards, etc. This is the field that ordinary offset inks can not touch. In addition, UV offset inks are also widely used in direct mail, business forms and other ticket printing.

In foreign countries, the largest market for UV inks is offset inks. China's UV offset printing ink started late, but the development momentum in the past two years is very rapid. From 2002 to 2004, the production volume of UV offset printing inks doubled each year. According to the inaccurate statistics of the Radiation Hardening Committee of the China Photographic Society, in 2002, the domestic production of UV offset inks was only 232 tons. In 2003, it was 662 tons, and in 2004 it reached 1,459 tons, and its output became second only to the UV network. The second largest UV ink for printing inks, and the gap between UV screen printing inks is getting smaller and smaller. With the advantages of UV offset ink being gradually recognized by the printing industry in China, its output will surpass UV screen printing ink in the near future and become the largest UV ink.

2.UV embossing ink

UV embossing ink is mainly used for label printing, but also for packaging printing, such as hose printing.

In flexo printing, people pay more attention to less downtime, higher performance, more friction, better print quality and more vivid colors. Products printed with UV flexo printing inks have a high resolution, a small dot spread, a bright ink color, and a good resistance to prints, which improves the quality of water-based ink printing. Therefore, UV flexographic printing inks are mainly used for printing high-end products.

When water-based UV inks appeared, the problem of UV inks failing to meet the safety requirements of water-based inks in food packaging products was solved, so that UV inks could also be used for food packaging printing.

At present, most flexographic printing presses are equipped with a UV curing device and many types are available. UV inks have broad development prospects in flexo printing, especially in the field of narrow flexographic printing.

3.UV gravure printing ink

In the field of gravure printing, UV inks have been selectively used. There is no volatilization of solvent inks, but the technology and cost have been correspondingly increased. With the growing demand for environmental protection and the increasingly stringent safety requirements for packaging prints, especially food packaging, UV inks will become a trend for gravure printing inks.

4.UV screen printing ink

The advantage of UV ink in screen printing is very obvious. Because it is solvent-free, it can only be cured under UV light. It will not cause headache blocking problems due to solvent evaporation on the screen, and it can also make wire. The screen prints a 25 to 30 μm thick ink film and cures instantaneously under UV light.