Basic practices in flexographic print ink usage will increase your competitive power in terms of your costs and printing quality you will make.
The inks to be used prevent fluidity and sudden viscosity changes at an average degree of 25 C as well as reducing your costs by reducing the use of solvents, preventing color fluctuations in printing and providing comfort in printing control.
- If the ink to be used is mixed with a pneumatic hand mixer after the package cover is opened, it helps you determine the printing viscosity and reduces your solvent consumption.
- After mixing with the mixer, the pigment, resin, solvent and additives in the ink become brand new ready-to-use ink.
When the viscosity of the ready-made ink is measured with the din cup, the result is the real viscosity of the ink.
The mixed solvents put into the ink in printing are to provide proper fluidity in printing.
In order to ensure the proper fluidity in printing, firstly, the fluidity is obtained by pouring the mixed solvent into the ink alone. It means to reduce the additives (adhesion, scratches, etc.) in the ink.
This will cause the effects of the ink on the film in printing metrics to be irregular with automatic viscosity or manual solvent additions depending on the viscosity change during operation.After the mixing of the original ink and the viscosity measurement, 10-15% varnish and 10-15% mixed solvent are added to the ink initially in order to adjust the working viscosity. Settings are made.
After the first sample is taken at the printing speed, according to the controls, if the color is dark according to the design, varnish is added and the color is opened. If it is desired to achieve viscosity, that is, fluidity, 5% mixture solvent is added. (depending on the design to be printed, whether the machine is on and off varies according to the chamber condition. The preferred viscosity range in Flexo printing varies between 17-22 seconds and 12-15 seconds in Rotogravure)