UV plate digital jet painting on glass, ceramics, PMMA
applications
UV flat-panel digital painting print developing rapidly in
recent years. According to the statistics of international authoritative
consulting institutions, the annual growth rate of UV wide-format printing in
the Chinese market is around 84%. Especially on hard substrates such as glass,
ceramics, acrylic, etc., UV flatbed digital inkjet printing has shown great
advantages over digital inkjet printers using solvent-based inkjet. However, UV
flat-panel digital painting printer in glass, ceramics, acrylic on the further
development and some problems need to solve.
(1)UV plate digital inkjet market growth
UV platform comprehensive UV curing ink print machine with the
advantages of the two aspects of digital jet printing technology, represents the
development trend of digital jet printing technology, is the key of the print
at home and abroad vendors would product development platform of UV spray
machine's work efficiency and printing quality is very high, can in a variety
of material surface color printing, not only can printing soft material, but
also to develop in the direction of diversification, such as in a glass on the
wood floor ceiling materials such as ceramics can be printed out beautiful
patterns .in 2005, the international authoritative advisory body had
predicted,From 2005 to 2010, the average growth rate of UV wide-format inkjet
printers around the world reached 68%, among which the Asian growth rate
reached 73%. This year, China, which has occupied 50.5% of the Asian market
share, will reach the highest average growth rate of 84% UV plate digital inkjet market growth.
(2)Market positioning of UV flatbed digital inkjet
The success of UV flatbed digital inkjet printing lies in its
accurate positioning. In the fierce competition the printing market,
competitors of UV flatbed digital inkjet mainly come from two aspects.
On the one hand, solvent-based digital inkjet printing will
continue to be a huge competitor for UV flat-panel digital inkjet printing
because of the low price of printing machinery and consumables. The survey
results show that, despite the decline, the market share of solvent-based
wide-format inkjet printers is 33.6%, which is three times that of the UV-jet
wide-format inkjet printer market share of 11.7%. There is no clear advantage
in soft materials and other absorbable hard substrates UV-curable inks, while
digital inkjet devices using
(3)solvent-based inks
will maintain their current advantages.
Screen printing is another competitor of UV flatbed digital
inkjet. Unlike digital inkjet printing using solvent-based inks, screen
printing can be used for printing a variety of soft and hard materials.
However, due to the high cost of plate making, etc., screen printing is only
suitable for medium and long version of job printing. UV plate digital inkjet
printing complements the traditional screen printing process, not only for
small print jobs, but also for proofing or simulating images. Especially in
personalized products, UV flatbed digital inkjet has an unparalleled advantage.
From the perspective of future development, the personalized
decoration of hard substrates such as glass, floor tiles, ceilings, ceramics,
acrylics, etc. will be the most potential market for UV flatbed digital inkjet
printing. For example, the advertisements in Shanghai subway stations usually
use UV flat panels. Printed in the form of digital inkjet.
UV plate digital printing problems and solutions
UV plate digital printing in glass, floor tile ceiling ceramics,
acrylic and other hard substrate to solve some problems, the most important of
which is the improvement of UV ink adhesion.
There are two reasons why UV has low adhesion to non-absorbent
substrates such as glass, floor tiles, ceilings, ceramics, and acrylic:
First, UV coatings lack the penetration of the substrate. This
is due to the limitations of UV coating formulations. In order to optimize the performance after
curing, UV coating on select material as far as possible with low molecular
weight of resin system ,This formula system, increase the viscosity of the
resin itself reduced liquidity. As a result, UV coatings are less permeable to
substrates than solvent coating systems.
Second, the stress of the UV resin is large during the curing
process. The stress during curing comes from two aspects. On the other hand, UV
curing is a rapid reaction, resulting in the deformation difference between the
coating and the substrate, and the stress is generated on the interface between
the coating and the substrate. On the other hand, UV curing is a rapid
reaction, the material in a short time of intense heat, This reaction causes
structural unevenness of the coating material itself, resulting in the internal
stress of the coating itself. These weaknesses do not show up in porous
substrates, such as wood or paper. However, it is more obvious on hard and
smooth substrates such as metal, ceramic and glass.
For the above two reasons, UV surface printing is performed on
the surface of hard substrates such as glass, floor tiles, ceilings, ceramics,
acrylics, etc. without surface treatment, and UV inks may be peeled off.
In order to enhance the adhesion of UV
inks on flat-panel digital inkjet printing, UV coatings/UV adhesion promoters
(UV Adhesion Promoter) are usually recommended for all UV flat-panel digital
inkjet printing. for example, Fuji
Acuity UV flat-panel digital painting machine recommended using Sericol UV coat
on hard material/UV Adhesion Promoter,However, in many cases,UV primer /UV
adhesion promoter is a solvent based product with high VOC content, which is
not consistent with the concept of green and environmental protection of UV ink
American Huajinsi HJ5100 high adhesion
waterborne UV base oil, primer is a new UV printing waterborne primer. In the
test of UV flatbed digital inkjet printer, HJ5100 waterborne UV primer/UV
adhesion promoter has excellent adhesion, and it is tested without peeling with
high-strength tape paper and is resistant to boiling for one hour. The
high-quality water-based primer will play a role in the application of UV
flat-panel digital printing on glass, floor tiles, ceilings, ceramics and
acrylic.
Conclusion
It is predicted that the growth rate of
UV curable printing equipment sales in 2010 will reach double-digit growth, and
in 2010, UV ink sales will exceed equipment sales, become the largest growth
market in the UV printing field. With the deep research and development of UV
plate digital inkjet machine manufacturers and other UV ink consumables
manufacturers, with the UV ink in glass, floor tiles, ceiling, ceramic, acrylic
and other non-absorbent substrate surface adhesion problem solved, UV plate
digital inkjet machine will get more space to expand!