The printing industry is an important part of our country’s national economy, and vigorously developing printing technology is the current development trend of the international printing industry. The application of nano materials in ink, paper and printing machine can improve the performance of printing materials, the defects of printing materials, and bring new vitality to the development of printing industry.
Ink fineness is closely related to the quality of printed matter. The finer the ink is, the stronger the tinting strength, and the clearer and fuller the dots of the printed matter. Nano inks undoubtedly have special advantages in terms of fineness, because nanomaterials are the materials with the finest grains at present. The nanoparticles themselves have good surface wettability, they are adsorbed on the surface of the pigment particles in the ink, which significantly improves the lipophilicity and wettability of the ink, which can better improve the printing suitability of the ink. The so-called nano particles refer to metal-based particles, oxide particles thereof, and non-metallic-based particles. The composition and characteristics of the nanopowders are different, and the characteristics of the ink made are also different. Nano metal particles can absorb all light of various wavelengths, and they appear black, but have a scattering effect on light. Therefore, the ink added with metal nano powders has higher purity and density. This is a process effect that cannot be achieved by adding ordinary materials. This is the basic law of actual performance. Using novel technology to add nano particles in resins, pigments, fillers, etc. can also achieve the effect of reducing the amount of pigment without reducing the covering power of the ink. If it is added to the UV ink, it can also speed up its curing speed and effectively avoid the shrinkage and wrinkling of the ink film.
Adhesion of nano inks to substrates
Nano anti-counterfeiting ink, a researcher from Beijing University of Chemical Technology compounded a material mixed with nano zirconia (ZrO2) and rare earth elements in a conventional ink binder to prepare an ink for printing anti-counterfeiting labels. After the ink is printed on the substrate, the pattern appears in one color under visible light and another under infrared light, which can achieve anti-counterfeiting purposes. There is also a magnetic anti-counterfeiting ink, which is to add nano magnetic substances to the ink, and the pictures and texts printed with this ink can detect magnetic signals under a special detector.
Adding nano SiO2 and nano TiO2 to the ink, because these two substances have strong anti-ultraviolet and catalytic properties, the light fastness of the synthesized nano ink is improved by 2-3 grades, and the heat resistance and adhesion are improved to some extent.
Conductive ink is made by adding silver nano conductive powder into the ink. This ink can be printed on ceramics and metals, and can also be used for circuit layer printing of modern touch panel switches. It has good performance and smooth and uniform film.
Using the ink with addition of nano TiO2 for printing on the surface of metal, plastic and other substrates can produce visual flash effect, color transfer effect, additional color effect, etc., also can make the surface color of the printed matter change richly and play a decorative effect as nano TiO2 can continuously emit visible light and produce different visual effects.
There are also some specific nanoscale materials that can achieve some specific effects if added to the ink. Nano inorganic materials such as nano Al203 has good fluidity, and if added to the ink, the wear resistance can be greatly improved. When some substances are at the nano scale, the particle size is different so is the color. Thus the manufacture of color ink may no longer rely on chemical pigments, but select different nano size particles of appropriate volume to present different colors.
Times are advancing, and new demands will always require the market to provide new products. The emergence of nano-printing technology marks that our country has reached the international forefront in the field of printing, opened up a new way of green, environmentally friendly and efficient printing, and promoted the development of my country’s printing industry in the direction of “green, functional, three-dimensional, and device-based” and it will also spawn more strategic emerging industries.