The Indian printing ink industry pertaining to flexible packaging is going through a very tough time. Unfortunately, the much-anticipated normalization in both raw material availability and pricing after the pandemic’s unprecedented disturbances has turned out to be unsuccessful to materialize so far in 2022. In addition, as per the current war scenario, there has been a negative impact of both energy-cost as well as logistics globally, which has resulted in a continuous rise in the entire portfolio of raw material costs including pigments, resins, solvents, and additives. Solvents, which account for the major percentage in the printing ink formulations, their availability remaining insufficient contributing to worsening the pricing continuously.
The water-based ink technology is not new in this part of the globe; however, presently, it is very much interesting to watch the rising acceptance level of the flex-pack industries for increasingly shifting from solvent-based ink chemistry and implementing water-based technologies to mitigate the challenges of the rising solvent-cost. Nevertheless, water-based printing inks have increased in commercial importance in recent years as the printing industry has sought to comply with regulations limiting the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to the atmosphere. With a critical consideration towards raw material selection procedure, water-based inks are not only considered to be safe for various packaging applications but also can decrease fire danger caused by static electricity and flammable solvents.
According to a report published in Maximize Market Research, global water-based inks market CAGR is expected to be 7.2% during 2020-2027 and the market size to reach USD 17.64 Billion by 2027. The drivers being growth in flexible packaging, increasing demand for printing inks, rise in environmental and safety issues.
The transition relating to water-based systems posed a variety of challenges typically, ink stabilization in preparation and on-press, the tendency to deposition and foaming during printing, slowness of drying, problems with print uniformity, etc. For an ink technologist, working with water-based inks, particularly for non-porous substrates has several challenges than its solvent-based counterpart. The ink-substrate polarity mismatch, along with higher surface tension of water in contrast to organic solvents, makes the ink difficult to wet the substrate which resulted into poor leveling and adhesion between the ink and the non-porous substrates. The drying time of water being higher than solvents, further challenge the press speed and productivity while using water-based inks.
When formulating the water-based ink, it is crucial to choose the right blend of polymers to get the required balance of pre- and post-print properties. For achieving clean and sharp images in long print runs, it is necessary to have an equilibrium between solution and emulsion polymers. The Acid Value (AV) and Glass Transition Temperatures (Tg) of these polymers contribute towards getting better printability, water and grease resistance, proper hardness, drying speed, heat resistance and flexibility. Further, the selection of various additives such as surfactants, anti-foaming agents, adhesion promoters, etc. improves printing and lamination properties.
Facing market disruptions with R&D and innovations
The team at Yansefu, through its best R&D practices and supply-chain efforts, has come out with various innovative technologies to face these market disruptions. The company now not only has state-of-the-art water-based technologies but also produces cost-effective regulatory compliance solvent-based ink solutions to offer its customers the choices to remain sustainable even in the most unprecedented situations. We are sure, that with even stronger networking among the stakeholders of the entire printing value chain; together we can secure the industry and safely take it to new heights.
JK Sharma, CEO; and Neelakamal Mohapatra, president – R&D, Yansefu Inks and Coatings
