Factors affecting the stability and shelf life of UV ink

One of the important factors affecting the stability of UV ink is the storage environment of ink. Good UV ink packaging is usually stored in plastic cans rather than metal cans; Because the plastic container has a certain oxygen permeability, it can ensure that there is a certain amount of air between the ink surface and the container cover. These air gaps - especially the oxygen in the air - help Z greatly reduce the early crosslinking of ink; Oxygen will inhibit the drying of ink to a certain extent.  

There is a UV lamp drying system, which fills nitrogen between the UV lamp and the printed material to completely isolate oxygen. In this way, the same drying effect can be achieved as long as half of the UV power is turned on. As the energy is halved, the temperature also decreases, which is very suitable for long-time printing of temperature sensitive materials. Another factor that affects the stability and storage of UV ink is the ambient temperature. High temperature will cause early reaction and crosslinking of ink.

Many northern UV printing plants must heat the ink to adjust the ink when they mix the ink in winter; However, if the oven temperature is too high, it will lead to the early crosslinking and hardening of the photoinitiator of the ink, which will directly affect the storage time of the adjusted ink. In principle, UV ink will not harden in the ink tank or on the ink roller of UV printer. There is no need to worry about scaling and solidification when it is placed for more than 2 hours like traditional ink.

However, we must pay attention to three factors that may cause accidental solidification:

1. Workshop temperature

2. External light

3. When the ink roller is shut down, the temperature is too high, the workshop temperature is more than 32 degrees, or the external light (sunlight or indoor fluorescent lamp) contains too much ultraviolet light, or the ink roller temperature is too high, it may also allow the UV ink to solidify in a short time. Therefore, it is suggested that if the conditions are appropriate, the ink in the ink tank can be stored without digging out (shading if necessary); However, the ink roller should be washed immediately after printing.