Effects of Temperature Control on Gravure Packaging Inks

摘要

It is well known that variations in ink temperature cause a variation in color density and viscosity. The viscosity of almost all liquids decreases with increasing temperature. In this research project, three different ink temperatures were selected to measure the effects of temperature control on solvent and ink consumption and on printability. Two colors were selected (magenta and cyan) and two heat exchangers were constructed to cool and/or heat the ink. It was found that variations in ink temperature cause variation in solvent and ink consumption. As the temperature of the ink increases, solvent consumption and ink consumption increase, but print quality decreases. At higher ink temperatures, the pigment to solvent ratio is higher, thus printing with more ink particles and less solvent. A decreasing solvent to pigment ratio decreases drying time, thus wettability was the major printing problem. This research project proves that packaging printers may not only decrease ink and solvent consumption by reducing ink temperature, but may also increase print quality.