Digital printing is on the upswing, and depending on the application, solvent-based, water-based and UV (or UV LED) curable inkjet inks offer particular benefits. Leading inkjet ink manufacturers say that while each option has its benefits, there are technologies that are showing more growth.

Peter Saunders, business director – Digital, Sun Chemical, noted that UV LED is the fastest growing inkjet ink type.
    
“Most of the inkjet inks we sell today are wide spectrum conventional UV curing technology,” Saunders said. “However, we are seeing significant growth in UV LED. There is significant regional demand for UV LED and many bigger players in the market are looking at UV LED because of its environmental benefits. Over the years as lamp and ink technology have advanced, at Sun Chemical we have developed a series of graphic inks which fully cure with LED UV exposure.
    
“We also have inks for imprinting applications which use exclusively LED lamps in a single pass,” Saunders added. “In narrow web applications, we have inks that are tuned to either use LED lamps to ‘pin’ drops for print quality optimization, or can be fully cured with correctly selected lamps. Sun Chemical’s SunJet UV LED inks are part of the Crystal and EtiJet product ranges.

Saunders reported that aqueous ink technology is also poised for growth.

“In the very near future, we expect aqueous to move mainstream,” Saunders said. “We believe it has the potential to leapfrog solvent inkjet inks. SunJet has developed ‘Functional Aqueous Inks’ branded as Aquacure – a combination of the strengths of water-based and UV curing inks. The latex ink market is also growing. Recent developments in this field have realigned expectations of water-containing inks.
    
“Solvent and eco-solvent are products that Sun Chemical markets under the Streamline brand to specifically address the wide format aftermarket for applications such as outdoor durable signage, POP and vehicle wraps,” Saunders concluded. “In terms of the pace of technology development, UV LED, UV inks as a whole, and aqueous inks are central to our research and development focus.”

Craig Reid, VP – Digital Division for INX International Ink Co., said that usage of all ink types is increasing.

“We continue to see new development with all the above, as well as other energy curable options,” said Reid. “No one ink type fits all applications, and in some cases, the same application may benefit from a combination of ink types.”

Martin Burns, market segment manager, aqueous and solvent digital inks for Nazdar, believes that interest in UV is particularly high.

“We are seeing particular growth in UV as OEMs and users are now looking for inks that can provide a better fit for their business,” said Burns. “Demand is increasing for not just wider color gamut, better adhesion etc., but also people come to Nazdar to have solutions, for example; new media requirements, broader media compatibility, specific niche markets, to overcome regulatory restriction to enable new market entry. These are just a few as digital progresses into new areas and the market needs ink experts.
    
“Additionally, the push to water-based technologies is very apparent not only in graphic sectors but also in many industrial sectors,” Burns added. “The laminate deco market is an example of an adopter of this technology and Nazdar is well placed to serve this sector.”

Dr. Christophe Bulliard, marketing director, Sensient Imaging Technologies SA, is seeing particular interest in water-based digital ink technologies.

“There is a high demand for water-based inks in the signage markets as a response to HP latex very strong marketing activities. All technologies are growing,” Dr. Bulliard said.

Terry Mitchell, director of marketing, FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division, said that UV is replacing solvent-based inks in wide format, adding that UV and water-based inks have increasing opportunities in packaging.

“In the wide format market, UV-based inkjet inks are replacing older solvent systems due to many advantages, including the elimination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), faster drying, improved finishing and lower cost,” Mitchell said. “Lower-odor UV inks and low migration UV inks are also paving the path for growth in packaging markets for food applications, and improved performance of aqueous inks on a wide range of substrates, due in some cases to the use of pre-coat primers, is driving growth for general commercial and packaging applications.”