Eco-Friendly Water-Based Ink Printing

Example of Custom Flexible Packaging Printed with Water-Based Inks

Explore Our Custom Eco-Friendly Water-Based Ink Printed Packaging Solutions to Create Exclusive Packaging for Your Brand!

Advantages of Water-based Ink Printing

Safety of Food Packaging

Water-based ink has made a breakthrough in color material reform, using a mixture of water and alcohol instead of volatile solvents in traditional ink, thus effectively reducing solvent residues. After testing, the solvent residue of water-based ink products is 36% of solvent-based ink products, which significantly improves the safety of food packaging.

Environmental Protection Certification

The water-based ink process meets the national environmental protection requirements, and the concentration of VOCs emission is much lower than that of solvent-based inks. We have been tested by a third-party testing agency, the VOCs emission concentration of the water-based ink workshop is only 28.8mg/m³, which is far lower than the national emission standards, ensuring compliance with the standard of disorganized emission without the need for end-of-pipe treatment equipment.

Simplified and Efficient Production Process

Water-based inks do not require frequent addition of thinner or adjustment of concentration as traditional inks, making the production process simpler and saving time and cost. By using only a 1:1 mixture of water and alcohol as the adjusting agent, the printing speed is greatly improved and the color difference control is more accurate. Avoiding the dry plate phenomenon caused by too fast volatilization, which is common in traditional inks, reduces interruptions in the production process.

Workshop Environment and Production Equipment

In 2022, we completely rebuilt our aqueous ink printing workshop, investing RMB 20 million and purchasing 4 newly designed high-speed printing machines for aqueous inks, with production speed stabilized at 200 m/min, which comprehensively improves production efficiency and quality control. Meanwhile, we optimized the hot air system in the workshop, making the production process more energy-saving and emission reduction.

Advanced Manufacturing Equipment

Water-based Ink Printing Process

Water-Based Ink vs. Traditional Solvent-Based Ink

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Global Market Experience

Coffee & TeaPet FoodSnacksFrozen FoodCondimentGranola & CerealsMedicinal ProductsCosmetics

FAQ about Water-based Ink Printing

• Does water-based ink apply to everything?

  It can be applied on most of the packaging materials, for example, paper, plastic films, aluminum foils, and many others. However, some special ones-for example, high-gloss surfaces-have to be adapted or need surface treatment to some extent. It is highly recommended that small-scale tests should be done before use to ensure the compatibility between ink and material.

• How to maintain the water-based ink printing equipment?

  Highly recommended is frequent cleaning on all parts of the press, particularly ink tanks, plate rollers, doctor blades, in order to keep water-based ink printing equipment in the best conditions possible. It is important that after every printing job, cleaning must be done on ink tubes and printing cylinders to prevent the water-based ink from drying out. Also, check the lubrication system regularly and the ink control system for smooth operation of the equipment.

• Are water-based ink suitable for the food packaging?

  Water-based inks are according to safety standards appropriate for food, and the food contact material certifications show that inks are safe in printing food packaging. Also, the water-based inks that we provide have low solvent residues and are nonhazardous. Low solvent residue water-based inks meet international requirements for food contact materials.

• Are water-based inks suitable for high speed printing presses?

  Yes, water-based inks do work on high-speed printing presses. More precisely, our custom-engineered aqueous ink printing presses are where the optimized process ensures high productivity and steady production at speeds as high as 200m/min with consistent color and quality.

• What is the curing time of aqueous inks?

  The curing time for water-based inks depends on environmental temperatures and printing materials. Usually, if ambient conditions are right, drying takes a short period, say just a few minutes up to ten minutes. In practice, the drying speed of water-based inks is best hastened by either heating equipment or special drying equipment.

• How to ensure that water-based ink will not show color difference during the process of printing?

  Quality control and press setting adjustments regarding the uniformity and quality of water-based inks are other ways to secure color stability. The employment of laser plate making and dot aligning for minimizing discoloration can be critical to preserving color consistency in batch-to-batch production.

Zhongjia Printing: A Blueprint for Leading the Future in Green Production