Printing Inks

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions with their answers from Printing Inks.

What surfactant or combination would you recommend for wetting and penetration of water-based overprint varnish coated paper and board stock?

BYK-346 and BYK-333 are silicone surfactants and will improve the substrate wetting of water-based inks and overprint varnishes on various substrates. BYK-3450 and BYK-3451 are silicone surfactants providing a significant reduction in surface tension. Silicone-free recommendations are BYK-381 and BYK-DYNWET 800.

What additive can be used to improve the substrate wetting of an UV curable acrylate-based ink on aluminum oxide surface?

For better substrate wetting of UV inks we suggest the usage of the following products: Silicone-containing: BYK-377, BYK-3760, BYK-UV 3510 Silicone-free: BYK-381 in higher dosage

Do you have a defoamer recommended for UV inks?

Silicone defoamers for UV ink application are BYK-1799 and BYK-088. Silicone-free recommendations are BYK-1752, BYK-1790 and BYK-1791. First recommendation for UV-screen printing inks is BYK-1797.

Do you have a silicone-free defoamer for water-based systems?

BYK-016 was especially developed for printing inks used in food packaging applications and is silicone-free.

We are making solvent-based PVC ink with aluminum paste for film printing. What additives should we use for better wetting of aluminum with PVC?

You can achieve better wetting of the aluminum pigment with DISPERBYK-108 or DISPERBYK-192.

Which product can you recommend to stabilize organic pigments in waterbased inks?

We recommend DISPERBYK-190 for aqueous pigment concentrates (resin free), for resin containing concentrates we recommend DISPERBYK-193.

How can I improve the rub resistance of my matt and gloss waterbased OPV?

We recommend AQUACER 530 for high gloss OPV and AQUAMAT 272 N for semigloss to matt OPV.

Can you recommend any additives to prevent settling of inorganic and metal pigments?

RHEOBYK-7410 ET is our first recommendation for solvent based inks. Depending on the polarity it might be necessary to test a different additive. The dosage is approximately 0.1.-0.2% in most systems.

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