How to choose UV flat printer coating?

UV flatbed printers have achieved double-digit growth over the past few years. UV printing speed is fast, high quality, environmental protection than solvent-based. On top of these advantages, the biggest highlight of UV lithography is the diversity of its printing substrates.

In glass, ceramic, metal, acrylic, wood, and UV lithography, which can not be printed before, can achieve high-quality printing results. However, UV inks dry quickly, and glass, ceramics, metals and acrylics and some smooth wood surfaces, UV inks have poor adhesion and easily fall off. Therefore, although many manufacturers promote "uncoated" UV printing, in market applications, especially in industrial applications with higher requirements, it is a necessary process to use a flatbed inkjet coating to help UV ink adhesion.

The correct selection of UV flatbed printer coatings (flatbed printer coatings | prepress treatment fluid) can not only ensure the quality of printed products, but also have a very important impact on protecting expensive equipment. Because UV flatbed printer coatings have not been around for a long time, many UV flatbed users have no idea about their performance. The UV flatbed printer coating levels on the market are currently uneven. If not chosen, poor quality coatings can cause damage to the machine.

There are six issues to note:

1. Adhesion: There are many methods to measure adhesion, such as the 100 grid method. If the quality requirements of printed products are high, you can also test whether the printed products fall off after being immersed in water or boiled. Adhesion is the key to measuring the quality of UV flatbed printer coatings. High-quality coatings should pass the 100 grid test and not fall off after soaking or boiling water.

2. Leveling: Leveling is a common performance index in coatings, which refers to the coatings on the surface of the object after brushing or spraying, and the brush marks and spray mist on the coating film automatically flow flat. The ability to smooth surfaces. UV flatbed printer coating with poor leveling will affect the decorative effect of printed matter. More importantly, if the brush marks on the coating surface do not disappear automatically, the uneven coating surface may rub against the UV flatbed printer nozzle, causing significant losses. A good coating should be tightly formulated and level quickly after brushing or spraying.

3. Film-forming transparency: As a high value-added decorative product, UV prints generally have high requirements for appearance. This requires UV flatbed printer coatings to be colorless and transparent. There are some two-component coatings based on epoxy resin on the market that form yellow films, which affects the decorative effect.

4. Weather resistance: For UV printing products, especially signs, billboards and printed materials used outdoors, they must be as bright as new for a long time and do not fade. Specifically, this requires that the UV flatbed printer coating has a function of resisting ultraviolet rays. Some coatings now turn yellow under long-term lighting conditions and are not suitable for outdoor use. Even UV printing products used only indoors generally need to consider the use of weather-resistant UV flatbed printer coatings to ensure product quality.

5. Convenience of use: At present, UV flatbed printer coatings on the market have two-component or multi-component products. Before use, it needs to be configured according to the ratio specified by the manufacturer. Compared to multi-component products, the one-component UV flatbed inkjet coating without configuration has greater advantages in use.

6. Product safety: Product safety is also an issue that must be considered when choosing a UV flatbed printer coating. Solvent-based UV flatbed printer coatings not only have a strong odor, but also pose a safety hazard when stored improperly, and are not convenient to transport.

Because of the high investment in UV flatbed printers, it is best to consider a safer waterborne UV flatbed printer coating when choosing a UV flatbed printer coating. If a solvent-based coating must be used, it is recommended to store it separately from UV flatbed printers to eliminate potential safety hazards.