Choosing Laboratory Dispersing Equipment That's Right for You
Printing inks are a complex recipe of ingredients, of which the most obvious are colorants. Packaging product-resistance requirements necessitate the...
Is There a Great Discovery in the Mess You're about to Trash?
Chance discoveries are common in the history of material science. Many discoveries have been the result of chance observations and accidents rather than...
Concern over Phthalates in Food Packaging
Plasticizers are used extensively to soften plastics, building products, blood bags, cosmetics, and personal care products, as well as packaging inks...
Ink Quality Control Is Complex, But It's Worth the Trouble
Inks are formulated with many different ingredients to produce unique recipes that provide color on your finished printed package. End-use properties,...
Increasing Your Flexo Press Speed a Notch or Two
Most flexo presses producing packaging run in the range of 300-1,000 fpm. Occasionally, a few customers want to increase their press speeds still further....
UV-Curable Jet Inks Are We There Yet?
Ultraviolet-curable inks and coatings have been used in packaging for 30 years. From their humble beginnings in the early 1970s, they now hold significant...
What Is the Role of Tack in Printing Inks?
Since the earliest attempts at transferring ink from one surface to another, the characteristics of a printing ink have been an important factor in print...
A Lesson in Amines Used in Water-Based Products
One of the key ingredients of many water-based inks and coatings are amines. Amines and ammonia are used in water-based products to control pH required...
Redefining Plasticizers in Inks and Coatings
The dictionary defines plasticizers as any of various substances added to plastics or other materials to keep them soft or pliable. For the purpose of...
History, Shellfish, Royalty, and the Color Purple
Understanding color is one of the keys to success in the printing industry. It also can be very interesting history. A dictionary defines purple as any...
Focus on Crosslinking in Fluid Ink Systems
Crosslinkers are an important class of additives ink and coating formulators use to enhance properties. These materials must be selected carefully to...
When R&D Is the Task, A Military Approach May Be Best
Like many others, I served in the US Army. Although I did not see any live action during the Viet Nam era, I did learn many useful procedures in the Army...
Antioxidants, Oxygen Scavengers, Free Radicals, and Packaging
Elemental oxygen exists in two allotropic forms: as an invisible gas composed of two oxygen atoms; and as a perceptibly blue form composed of three oxygen...
Food Packaging and Safety: 9/11 Continues to Resonate
It goes without saying the way we do business has changed since September 11. The destruction of the Twin Towers and the bioterroristic use of anthrax...
How Do You Measure Ink Film Thickness? Count the Ways
Almost every day I receive questions relating to ink or coating thickness determination. You would think it would be a simple matter, but it is not. Ink...
Dealing with Ink Adhesion on High-Slip Films
One of the most common problems with printing high-slip films is poor ink adhesion. Such films have low surface energies, and the levels of slip additives...
Perhaps It's Time to Redefine Packaging Odor Specs
Printing and laminating of flexible packaging materials may involve the use of various inks, coatings, and adhesives. These materials inherently contain...
A Brief Chemistry Lesson On Printing Ink Pigments
I have received various inquiries about pigments and pigment chemistry. I will try to answer a few of these questions as they relate to package printing...
Making Choices for Coating with a Laminating Adhesive
Work, like life, is full of choices. Some are major; some are the kind we face every day. Converters laminating two substrates together using an adhesive...
Electronic Ink Technology: New Players Aid Progress
Not only will these electronic inks be used on paper, but they can be printed and laminated to create many packaging products. More than a year ago, I...
Assessing the Potential for Ink Transfer and Migration
Potential transfer…depends on many factors, such as degree of cure, ink adhesion, pressure between cups, length of time in contact, etc.
Antimicrobial Additives and Coatings for Food Packaging
It seems as if every day we hear of some incident associated with food contamination. Recent outbreaks of contamination associated with meat products...
Jet Inks, Colorants, and Packaging What's Ahead?
The rapid growth of ink jet technology in various printing sectors forecasts their use in package printing. However, use of ink jet printing in packaging...
Water-Based Ink Adhesion and Web Temperature
Unlike solvent-based inks where binders are dissolved in the ink solvents, water-based inks comprise several binders, none of which are soluble in water.
Odd Shape? Odd Substrate? You Might Try Pad Printing
Although this column primarily covers conventional printing processes, I do occasionally receive questions about processes that are less common, such...
