UV inkjet - a catalyst for industry change

The continuous progress of printing equipment and consumables has brought us many surprising new results. Although UV inks are nothing new for inkjet printing, it has become a catalyst for industry change. There are several reasons why we say this:

UV inks can be printed directly on a variety of substrates. Its ability to bring many printers with UV inkjet printers, usually flatbed printers, directly into a vast new market. In fact, many markets and products have made great strides in the past few years with the special capabilities of UV-curable inks. The successful printing of UV inks on leather, glass, wood, metal and other substrates greatly expands our possibilities for innovation and profitability.

Another powerful advantage of UV inks is that it can be quickly dried under UV light. It is because of this process that UV light has become a key factor for high-speed production of inkjet printing. Especially in the field of sheet-fed printing (such as printing of packaging products), the speed of ink drying by evaporation is very slow.

However, UV inks also have their own weaknesses. First of all, this kind of ink is very expensive. Moreover, the price of inkjet printers is higher than that of solvent printers, which may cause some trouble for those printing companies that want to purchase new equipment. Another weakness of UV inks comes mainly from the development of inks. Many companies that are currently using UV inkjet technology hope that this ink can achieve higher adhesion and durability on a variety of substrates. Of course, ink developers have also made strenuous efforts to achieve this goal in recent years.

With the continuous development of ink technology, many problems that people are initially worried about have been effectively solved by improving the formula. One of the most typical examples is the advancement in stretchability of certain UV inkjet inks. Once the desired stretch properties are achieved, UV ink jets can be used on many products that require folding and bending, such as body stickers. This breakthrough directly led to the increase in the number of UV roll-to-roll printing units installed worldwide. All in all, the continuous advancement of technology has enabled UV inkjet inks to gradually occupy the market areas previously dominated by solvent-based ink technology.

With the gradual warming of the environment and sustainable development issues, many companies have gradually adopted UV inkjet ink as an environmental protection option because it does not contain or emit volatile organic compounds commonly found in solvent-based ink systems. The recent emergence of LED-UV curing technology makes UV inkjet the ideal choice for professional imaging companies to control emissions and energy usage.

The development of ink technology is a dynamic process, and it is difficult for us to design a fixed target for it. But what is certain is that with the continuous advancement of technology, the durability, color quality and adhesiveness of inks will surely continue to increase. Although breakthrough ink systems are just around the corner, we still have to choose between UV, solvent and aqueous systems. Therefore, one of the things you should do now is to understand the advantages and disadvantages of various inks and choose a suitable ink system according to your needs.