Creep behavior for printing ink films at various drying stages was examined in order to investigate the effects of structural change of ink films on the mechanical properties and clarify the mechanisms on ink drying.
As ink films are not so tough as other plastic films, a chemical balance was modified for creep measurement. One of sample inks is an ordinary offset litho ink (S-1), and another is the offset ink for printing on flexible plastic films (S-2), and the others is the offset ink for metal plate (S-3).
With increasing drying time, the values of creep compliance
J (t) and steady state compliance Je become smaller, on the other hand creep viscosity η become larger. It is thought that intermolecular cross-linking due to oxidative polymerization occur in the course of ink drying, and then the three dimensional networks in the system become closer with increasing drying time. The values of Je for S-1 ink films are twice those for S-2 ink films, although the values of η for S-2 ink films are about 10 times those for S-1 ink films. Therefore, irreversible flow deformation seems to be dominant factor for creep behavior of S-1 ink films, whereas S-2 ink films behave more elastically. It is deduced that the network structure of S-1 ink films consists of highly cross-linked linkage, but the structure of networks may be very weak and broken down easily. However the same cross-linkage also exists in S-2 ink films, the mechanical properties of S-2 ink films may depend on the durable network structure due to the tight association of disperse medium.
Although S-3 ink films are more durable comparing with other ink films, non-linear creep behavior was observed under large stress. The non-linear viscoelastic behavior of hardened ink films may be dependent on the process of breaking down the weak network structure and loss of contact between dispersed particles and disperse medium.
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