UV Inks
For over 25 years, Technigraph has relied exclusively on UV-cured inks which use a strong ultra violet light source to cure, or dry, the inks after application. Conventional printing inks, by contrast, are solvent-based, and contain Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) which are dangerous to both the environment and to the workers who breathe them in.
We use UV inks for all of the printing and decorating processes done at Technigraph - including screen printing, pad printing, and Eco-Frost™ spray frosting and coatings. Beyond the environmental advantages, UV inks are appealing for other practical reasons:
- Rapid curing. UV inks exposed to UV light can cure in one to three seconds, and fast cure rates translate into fast operating speeds for equipment. This allows UV inks to be used on high-speed presses that can apply multiple colors in successive passes with no interruptions.
- Less downtime. UV inks dry only when they are exposed to the light “cure,” so they will not dry on the screens, pads or nozzles of the decorating / spray frosting equipment. Since the operator doesn’t have to stop the print run to clean the mesh or nozzles, you get excellent, high-speed throughput with UV inks. With solvent-based inks, long print runs are usually interrupted because the solvent inks dry during the run and clog the equipment.
- Excellent color value. UV inks range in color value from transparent to translucent, and offer a very clean range of colors. UV inks also have a very fine pigment grind, so the non-drying inks can be pushed easily through high mesh counts for very detailed graphics and small type.
Some UV inks are not compatible with some packaging substrates. But with our decades of experience using environmentally-friendly UV inks, we can explore all the options available to make UV inks work for your printing and spray coating needs.