Specialized Industrial inks, coatings and colours

Current printing standards demand adaptable and high-quality solutions. We provide organic and inorganic colors, inks, paints, coatings, and shade arrangements for a wide range of applications, including pad printing, screen printing (screen printing inks, paints, and coatings), UV screen printing (UV screen printing inks, paints, and coatings), labeling, and packaging.

Our products are suitable for solvent-based, water-based, UV-based, PU-based, acrylic-based, and polyester-based ink systems.

Printing ink is a liquid or paste composed of pigments or dyes, resins, and additives. It is used to color surfaces to create images, text, or designs and is applied in almost every aspect of human activity. In most cases, a medium such as a thinner is added to achieve the desired printing consistency. Printing inks are selected based on the substrate being printed.

Our printing inks are widely used for printing cosmetic products, toys, mobile phone keypads, glass, ceramics, metals, thermoset materials, and promotional items, among many other everyday applications.

Printing Inks/Paints/Coatings and Technology Applied to All Types of Plastic, Metals and Glass 

 

Pad Printing Inks for Plastics and Metals

In pad printing, an image is transferred using a soft silicone pad onto the surface to be printed. The silicone pad lifts the ink from an etched image on a cliché or plate and then deposits it onto the substrate. Pad printing (also known as tampography) is a versatile printing method capable of transferring a 2-D image onto a 3-D object. This is accomplished using an indirect printing process that involves an image being transferred from the cliché/plate via a silicone rubber pad onto a substrate.

Pad printing is widely used for decorating products that are difficult to print using conventional methods. It is commonly applied across industries such as medical, automotive, promotional items, apparel, electronics, appliances, sports equipment, and toys. In addition to decorative printing, pad printing can also be used to apply functional materials such as conductive inks, adhesives, dyes, lubricants, and even food-related products like chocolates and edible colors.

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UV Screen printing inks on Cosmetic glass containers, Labels, Glass bottles, Plastics &  Cosmetic tubes

It refers to a commercial printing process that uses ultraviolet curing technology. The UV printing process involves special inks that have been formulated to dry/cure quickly when exposed to UV light.

 

Screen printing inks for plastic; PP, PE, PET, Acrylic, Nylon, PVC, ABS

Screen printing uses a fine material/mesh to transfer an image to another material. The mesh is stretched to create a screen and Two-Component ink  is pressed against the mesh in order to successfully print the image.  Actually, all pad printing inks can be used for screen printing as well by just adding the retarder instead of Thinner. 

 

  

 

Types of Inks applied on Various plastics: PP, PE, PET, Acrylic, Nylon, PVC, ABS 

 

1. Solvent-based inks

Solvent-based inks are predominant in the pad-printing industry. They dry very rapidly through solvent evaporation alone. Care must be taken when printing non-absorbent materials with these inks, as absorbency is required to give the best adhesion. They are available in gloss and matte finishes and perform particularly well with various thermoplastic substrates. A simple way to tell if a solvent-based ink is suitable for a particular plastic is to rub the solvent, used to dilute the ink, onto the substrate. If the solvent melts the surface of the plastic, chances are the ink will adhere very well.
 

2. Oxidation-drying inks 

In Oxidation-drying inks, the resin absorbs oxygen from the atmosphere and undergoes a polymerization process, producing a very tough, flexible, weather-resistant ink film. They have limited uses in pad-printing applications due to their slow drying speed, but they are excellent for printing onto metal and glass.
 

3. Two-part or Reactive (catalyst curing) inks 

Two-part or Reactive (catalyst curing) inks, used extensively in pad printing, also contain resins capable of polymerization. However, the required catalyst is either blended into the ink by the manufacturer or supplied separately and mixed in by the printer when required. Either way, these inks have a restricted shelf life once the catalyst is added.

Two-part inks cure very rapidly when heated. They are generally printed on difficult substrates such as metals, some plastics, and glass. They are particularly preferred when good chemical and abrasion resistance is required. Care must be taken when mixing the base ink with the catalyst. Manufacturers specify an exact weight to be added, so you must always weigh the components when mixing - no exceptions! Inaccurate mixing can give inconsistent adhesion and product-resistance characteristics.

Another important factor to be aware of with two-component inks is that after printing and prior to complete curing, the temperature of the printed ink film must not drop below 59°F (15°C).  Should this occur, the ink will cease curing and cannot be restarted. This may not be a problem if the curing may nearly be complete. However, if curing takes place in storage over a period of time, the ink film becomes vulnerable. A dry ink film is not necessarily cured. It takes time, temperature, or a combination of both to affect a complete cure. With two-component inks, curing typically takes five days at 68°F (20°C) or 10 min at 212°F (100°C). This information is available on the ink's technical data sheet, which, unfortunately, most users do not bother to read.
 

4. Baking inks 

Baking inks need a certain minimum temperature and time to cure. The cure time varies inversely with the temperature: the higher the temperature, the shorter the drying time. The flexibility of the ink film is another factor to consider with these inks. Ink films that must retain their flexibility require lower temperatures, for a higher temperature can cause brittleness.
 

5. Sublimation inks

Sublimation inks involve a special process where a solid turns into a gas when heated. When these inks are applied to an appropriate surface and then heated to the specified temperature (approximately 392°F or 200°C), dyes in the ink sublime, the surface of the material becomes porous, and the dyes pass into the material. This changes the color of the base material. Once the material has cooled, the ink is sealed into the surface. Pad printing is a suitable process for sublimation since the ink deposit must be kept to a minimum to prevent color bleeding. Applications include keyboards and other areas where abrasion resistance is critical. Care must be taken when selecting colors, as certain inks are sensitive to UV light and fade very quickly. The range of colors is very limited, and matching Pantone colors is almost impossible. Another limitation is that the substrate color must be lighter than that of the ink.
 

6. Ceramic and gas thermoplastic inks

Ceramic and gas thermoplastic inks are used quite successfully in the pad-printing industry. These inks are similar to the ones used in screen printing in that, at ambient temperatures, the ink is solid (like candle wax). It becomes fluid when raised to 176°F (80°C), which is accomplished in the ink reservoir and cliché.

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