5 Important Trends in Digital Ink Formulation

As we kick off a new year in digital printing and ink formulation, I thought it would be interesting to look at 5 important trends in ink formulation as I see them.

Let's take a look...

1. The Use of Bio-based Raw Materials and Eco-solvents

This is a trend that I don’t see going away. At Ink Intelligence one of our primary functions is todevelop new ink systemsfor our clients. In almost all cases, companies are asking for moreenvironmentally safe formulations或基于原料a bio-source. It could generally be agreed that using bio-based materials means that:


But most ink developers say that they want to usebio-based materialsbecause they want to get more business! How do you ask? By packaging theirink systemsin a way that is attractive to the buyer.



NAPIM’s Bio-renewable Content (BRC) program identifies the use of such bio-derived renewable resources in printing ink formulations and creates a rating program based on the level of BRC used. Below is a table which highlights some of the bio-based raw material that we see used in ink and coatings.

Product	起源	Usage
Binders
Cellulosic resins, including CAP, CAB and Nitrocellulose	Wood pulp/cotton	Binder
Hemicellulose	植物	Binder
Gum Arabic	Trees	Thickening agent, Binder
Gum Dammar	Trees	Thickening agent, Binder
Gum Rosin	Trees/Plants	Binder
Tall Oil Rosin	Trees	Binder
Wood Rosin	Trees	Binder
Alkyds	植物s/vegetable oils	Binder
Polysaccharides	植物s	Binder
Polyurethanes	Castor Oil	Binder
Casein	Animal Milk	Binder
Natural Rubber	Trees	Binder
Soy Protein	植物s/Soybean	Binder
Starch	植物s	Binder
Shellac	Trees (insect)	Binder
Polyester Acrylates	Linseed oil	Binder/Oligomer
Epoxy Acrylates	SoyBean	Binder/Oligomer
Solvents & Additives
醇	植物	Solvent
Butyl and ethyl lactate	植物	Solvent
水	地球	Solvent
Castor Oil	植物	Preservative
Linseed oil		Drying oil/plasticizer
Bees Wax		蜡
Carnauba		蜡
Castor Oil Polyol		Plasticizer

» Continue reading to explore other trends in digital ink formulation!