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!