In the world of superwide format, solvent-based inks have dominated in the transition from analog screen printing to digital printing technologies, but that is quickly changing.
Increasingly, sign and display manufacturers are focusing their attention on UV-curable inks, and for good reason.
According to IT Strategies and other market research, the market for high-end solvent printers is flat, while UV flatbed and roll-to-roll printers are growing at a CAGR in excess of 25%.
By 2011, according to IT Strategies, there will be more installed superwide format printers using UV-curable inks than solvent-based systems.
The advantages of UV over solvent are clear. While solvent inks are less expensive, UV-curable inks typically yield more media coverage per litre.
Because solvent inks penetrate the media and UV inks sit on top of and bond to the media, coverage (square feet per litre) can be as much as 30% to 50% higher than solvent.
UV inks offer considerable environmental advantages over solvent inks as well, one reason EFI, a leader in the transition from solvent to UV-curable printing with its VUTEk brand has so aggressively pursued its development.
Inks supporting VUTEk PV200, PV320, QS2000, QS3200, and QS3200r models:
- Contain up to 33% naturally-derived monomers and oligomers derived from renewable resources such as plants or biomass.
- Contain virtually no volatile organic compounds (VOC’s)
- Do not contain heavy metals such as antimony, arsenic, cadmium, chromium (VI), lead, mercury, and selenium
- Are not toxic, known to be carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction, and comply with the Exclusion List for Printing Inks and Related Products (October 2006) issued by the European Printing Ink Association (EuPIA)
- Are not considered a hazardous waste under the US waste regulations (RCRA)
What’s more, the use of naturally-derived and organic substances in the ink increases the overall biodegradability of the printed matter.
UV-curable printing has also opened up a new world of printing direct-to-rigid substrates which has both economic and environmental benefits. Printing to rigid substrates is not only faster, but it is more cost-effective.
Where it might require five steps to produce a rigid display on a roll-to-roll printer, including mounting and lamination, direct-to-rigid printing reduces the process to two steps with as much as a 40% reduction in time and cost.
Printing directly to rigid substrates is also better for the environment, more likely to produce a recyclable product by eliminating the need to use acrylic adhesives and polyester or PVC laminates which make even recyclable card stock no longer able to be recycled.
Still prefer to stay with solvent?
EFI VUTEk’s BioVu solvent inks offer an environmentally friendly alternative. In an entirely new approach to solvent-based inks, BioVu inks are the first solvent-based inks made from a renewable resource (namely, corn).
Although more limited in terms of substrates than UV-curable inks, BioVu inks deliver all the benefits of traditional solvent inks without the compromises inherent in eco-solvent and aqueous inks.
Scott Schinlever is Vice President & General Manager EFI Ink Business
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