Guest post by Hari Babu
Printer inks come in different types and varieties, and when it comes to color printing, different types of inks are available these days. All these inks are different from each other along with benefits. Here are some of the guides to different types of printer inks that you should check out for your printing needs.
Aqueous Ink
These are more like water solvent inks and are available in two different varieties. Aqueous inks are quite useful and are used for the home printers and even for office purposes. When applied, these inks are mixed with water, and later the water is evaporated. One of the biggest benefits of using this type of printer ink is, it delivers bright and punchy colors.
But, when exposed to UV rays, the colors fade away soon, and therefore, it is best if you use the printed documents or pictures inside to avoid color fading. Apart from that, these printing inks are not waterproof as well. Therefore, if you have any short-term usage, then it is best to use these printer inks.
Solvent Inks
Solvent links are mostly pigment inks that have dyes, but these printing inks do not utilize water. Various volatile organic compounds are used, which are inexpensive as well as flexible on different surfaces. When it comes to the benefits, solvent inks are mostly resistant to water as well as UV rays. The color payoff is also impressive. However, the main reason for its popularity is the color holding capability.
Many printers that search for high-speed production requires solvent inks due to its quick evaporation property. Solvent inks are mostly used by the commercial industries for printing billboards, adhesive decals, vehicle graphics, etc.
Latex Inks
Latex ink is one of the most popular and latest forms of printer inks, which is capable of using on various surfaces. You can even use this ink on various vinyl surfaces and sometimes it even acts as solvent inks. However, the unique property of the ink is, it does not contain any toxic chemicals, but the other chemicals that are used for manufacturing the ink is also equally harmless.
Many commercial industries as well as offices use this type of ink for vinyl printing. Even printer company inks like HP Latex ink, Brother printer ink toner drum use this type of ink for toner drum.
Dye Sublimation Inks
Yet another most popular form of printing ink that infuses the printing surfaces solely to produce different tones continuously and not individual dots, unlike the inkjet printers. As the print head passes over the ink ribbon, it heats up soon, and this causes the dye to vaporize, and the paper surface permeates before the color solidifies.
It is important to know that the special inkjet printers mostly are responsible for sublimation printing. If you want to come up with better quality photographs and graphic printing on hats, t-shirts, mugs, etc. then this type of printing is the best choice. These days digital textile is also using the sublimation ink. These printing inks are quite useful since the images, or the prints will never fade or even crack even after you wash multiple times.
Solid Inks
These inks are quite fast and have punchy colors, and its image-producing process is similar to that of the offset printing, which is, the print head is responsible for spraying melted ink on a heated drum. Later on, the image is transferred to the paper. Most solid inks are not found in cartridges but look more like color crayons.
Solid inks will never smudge on clothes, and even if you do not use the printer, the color will not dry up. These ink sticks are quite versatile and can be used for graphic designing, and since it does not contain many chemicals; therefore, does not cause much harm to the environment.
Offset Ink
The demand for offset ink is more because of the fact that this ink never reacts with any chemicals or surface it gets printed on. Offset inks, also known as solvent-based inks emit a huge amount of VOC when compared to other types of inks.
Sheetfed offset presses mostly utilize quickset inks, and it contains a resin-oil-solvent mixture. Offset printing is the gold standard, especially for printing detail such as catalogs, greeting cards, books.
UV Cured Ink
UV cured ink is mostly made simply by exposing it to the UV lights. These printing inks when used will mostly dry up quickly, and this is the reason many printers opt for this type of printing inks. The biggest advantage of UV cured ink is, it can be used on different surfaces. However, UV cured inks are quite expensive, and therefore, it is a costlier proposition.
So these are the most common types of inks used in the printing industry for various types of printing requirements. You can always get these inks directly from factories in raw format or even buy chemically treated ink products sold officially from online sites like Amazon, YoYoInk, etc, or maybe even local retail shops.
