Energy Saving UV Press and High Sensitivity UV Curing Type Ink

Abstract

The domestic printing market has tended to contract in recent years due to the diversification of media owing to the spread of smartphones and the like. However UV curing ink, which has strong resistance characteristics and dries instantly upon irradiation with ultraviolet light, is expanding in various applications.

As contributions towards environmental conservation, such as energy saving and CO₂ reduction, we have developed UV light emitting diodes (LED-UV), ozone-less type UV lamps, and inks which are cured with these light sources. For applications involving thin paper the replacement of conventional oil-based inks by high sensitivity inks has been actively conducted.

At Drupa 2016, LED-UV and high sensitivity UV showed signs of becoming mainstream technologies for offset printing.

In this paper, we describe the fundamental knowledge of highly sensitive UV ink and its characteristics and future prospects.