Solvent Based Ink V.S Water Based Ink

The difference between solvent-based ink and water-based ink

First, let's take a look at their definitions.

What is solvent-based ink?

‌Solvent-based ink is an ink system formed by dispersing pigments or dyes in organic solvents or solvent-based polymer film-forming agents as carriers. ‌This ink is soluble in organic solvents, not water, so it can be diluted with organic solvents, and can be sprayed and printed on absorbent and non-absorbent surfaces, and the spray paint is not easy to fade.

What is water-based ink?

Water-based ink Water-based ink is referred to as water-based ink, and flexographic water-based ink is also called liquid ink. It is mainly made of water-soluble resins, organic pigments, solvents and related additives through composite grinding. Water-based ink is particularly suitable for packaging and printing products with strict hygiene requirements such as tobacco, alcohol, food, beverages, medicines, and children's toys.

Solvent-based ink and water-based ink have different specifications. So what is the difference between them?

1. We can replace most of the organic solvents with water to get water-based inks

2. The average drying speed of water-based inks is 1/5 of that of organic solvents

3. We can divide printable materials into absorbent and non-absorbent substrates

3-1. Absorbent substrates refer to materials such as paper and cardboard.

3-2. Non-absorbent substrates refer to films such as PE, PET, PP, OPP, aluminum foil, woven PP, etc.

The challenge of water-based inks is the time it takes for the ink to dry on non-absorbent substrates, because it requires more energy and more time to dry. However, on absorbent substrates, their surface tension is much higher than that of non-absorbent substrates, they can withstand higher temperatures, and they have higher permeability, so the drying problem of water-based inks is not as serious.

4. From an environmental perspective, water-based inks release much less VOCs.

Therefore, the pollution cost of water-based inks is much smaller than that of solvent-based inks.

Finally, you can produce water-based inks when your application can run on absorbent substrates at lower printing speeds. Or, when your application is to print fast and run on non-absorbent substrates, you can produce solvent-based inks.

iSuoChem supplies all types of resins, additives, and pigments for making different inks such as water-based inks, solvent-based inks, etc. Learn more Acrylic resin; Polyamide resin; CPP resin and some other water based ink resins.