Does water-based ink contain mineral oil?
Date: Jul 26 2024 From: Star Color
Due to the significant harm of mineral oil to the environment and human health, many countries have strict testing standards for mineral oil in ink based on environmental factors. Water based ink must be completely free of mineral oil to meet the requirements. So, does the actual production of water-based ink contain mineral oil?
For HuiZhou StarColor, the water-based ink we produce does not contain mineral oil. We can analyze it from the composition of water-based ink.
Composition of water-based ink
Water based ink is a uniform paste like substance mainly composed of binders, pigments, and additives. Among them, the binder provides the necessary transfer performance for the ink, while the pigment gives the ink color. The binders for water-based ink are mainly divided into two types: water diluted and water dispersed. There are many types of resins that can be used for the former, such as maleic acid resin, purple glue, modified cordyceps with maleic acid resin, polyurethane, water-soluble acrylic resin, and water-based amino resin. The water dispersed binder is obtained by polymerization of emulsified monomer in water. It is a two-phase system, in which the oil phase is dispersed in the water phase in the form of particles. Although it cannot be dissolved by water, it can be diluted by water, so it can also be considered as oil in water lotion.
Advantages of water-based ink
Environmental Protection: Water based ink does not contain harmful substances such as mineral oil, and its use will not cause pollution to the environment. Meanwhile, water-based ink does not contain mineral oil, making it safer to use.
Health: Due to the use of water as a solvent in water-based inks, compared to the toxic organic solvents in traditional inks, it has no adverse effects on workers' health during the printing process.
Safety: Water based ink eliminates the hazards of flammability and explosiveness in the workplace, improving production safety.
Cost effectiveness: The usage cost of water-based ink is about 30% lower than that of solvent based ink.
application area
Water based ink is particularly suitable for packaging and printing products with strict hygiene requirements, such as cigarettes, alcohol, food, beverages, drugs, and children's toys. Worldwide, water-based inks are increasingly favored by the packaging printing industry and are rapidly expanding into the newspaper printing industry.
However, in some cases, mineral oil components can still be detected even after printing with water-based ink, which may be due to the following reasons:
1. Additives added during printing can cause
Although water-based inks mainly use water as the solvent and do not contain mineral oil solvents found in traditional inks, in some cases, the ink may still contain trace amounts of mineral oil components. These mineral oils may be used as additives such as defoamers in inks.
2. Mineral oil migration in food packaging materials
For food packaging printing materials, even if water-based ink is used for printing, if the packaging material itself (such as paper, cardboard, etc.) uses substances containing mineral oil during the production process (such as ink, release agents, lubricants, etc.), these mineral oils may also migrate into the food during storage and use. In this case, the detected mineral oil components may not directly come from water-based ink, but from packaging materials.
3. Ink migration or cross contamination
During the printing process, if water-based ink comes into contact with substances containing mineral oil (such as certain printing equipment components, lubricants, or other inks), migration or cross contamination may occur. This pollution may lead to the detection of mineral oil components on printed materials.
For more knowledge about water-based inks, please visit:www.starcolor-ink.com
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