Ink

Environmentally Friendly Materials

Inks

The printing industry has taken to one colour more seriously than the others......green........one way that packaging products can be designed with greater green awareness is to use ink that is as earth friendly as the packaging material itself.

Components of Ink

• Pigment  - Colour of Ink
• Vehicle – Substance to ensure uniform coverage – petroleum, water, soy or vegetable in
• Additives – Improves inks performance and avoid ink set-off  - waxes and distillates

With Government legislation being introduced such as the European  Union’s  EN 134323 which specifically includes the contents of ink ,  the packaging industry has sought to reduce its environmental footprint through its use of petroleum based inks. These inks are made from a non-renewable source and release high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) which can have negative long and short term health affects to employees that are employed within the printing industry, and reduce the quality of the indoor air quality.

Environmentally Friendly Inks

Vegetable and Soy Based Inks

Vegetable based inks are made from a combination of renewable resources such as flax, soy, canola or safflower. Although some such as soy based inks may contain a small percentage of petroleum used to increase the speed of drying, the VOC’s emitted into the air range from 2 to 15% . Many inks are a combination of several of the vegetable oils as reliance on one product can have environmental impacts. Soybean production is a major source of deforestation in the Brazilian Rainforest, and the US crops are produced from genetically modified seed, which may have an unforeseen environmental impact.

Water Based Inks

Water based inks can be used for the manufacture of a wide range of printing applications. They do not contain ozone depleting chemicals such as CFC’s, HCFC’s, hydrocarbons, volatile substances or heavy metals such as lead Working with water based inks however require a more labour intensive process  and a longer drying process, commercial applications  need to be heat set.