In the development process of the printing industry, solvent based printing inks have always played an important role. However, with the increasing awareness of environmental protection and stricter regulations, people are starting to wonder: will solvent based printing inks be phased out? Today, let’s delve into this issue in depth.

The Current Status of Solvent based Printing Ink

Solvent based printing ink is an ink system formed by dispersing pigments or dyes in organic solvents or solvent based polymer film-forming agents as carriers. Due to its high durability of printed image quality and relatively low raw material costs, it has a huge market in large and wide format applications such as outdoor advertising, signage, etc. In the Chinese ink market, solvent based ink is still in a period of vigorous development.

Challenges faced by solvent based printing inks

Environmental pressure
During the drying process of solvent based ink, harmful substances such as common aromatic solvents such as benzene, toluene, and xylene are emitted into the air through the evaporation of the solvent, which has a strong odor and high toxicity. This not only affects indoor and outdoor air quality, but also poses a potential threat to the health of operators. With the increasing global attention to environmental protection, regions such as Europe and America have imposed restrictions on the use of solvent based inks, which undoubtedly poses a huge challenge to the development of solvent based inks.

Competition of water-based ink
Water based plastic ink, as a substitute for solvent based ink, has developed rapidly in recent years. It does not contain volatile toxic solvents, and not only has the characteristics of good printing effect and strong adhesion on plastic film, but also is non flammable, non explosive, non-toxic, and will not harm the health of printing workers. It also has no environmental pollution to the atmosphere and low cost. Specially suitable for printing on plastic films such as PE, BOPP, PVC, PET, PP, as well as composite film printing and gravure and flexographic printing. The requirements for the environmental friendliness of ink in various countries are constantly increasing, and the advantages of water-based ink in environmental protection make it more in line with future development trends, which has formed strong competition for solvent based ink.

Advantages of solvent based printing ink

Strong adaptability to printing materials
In the field of inkjet printing, solvent based inks can adapt to various printing materials, and the printing materials used are relatively inexpensive. Especially in fields such as outdoor advertising, it can enhance the durability of outdoor images.

Cost and efficiency advantages
Solvent based ink is cheaper than water-based ink and does not require film coating, which improves production efficiency. For some printing needs that are sensitive to cost and efficiency, solvent based inks are still attractive.

The future development trend of solvent based printing ink

Although solvent based printing inks face environmental pressures and competition from alternatives such as water-based inks, they will not be phased out in the short term. On the one hand, relevant ink manufacturers are actively improving ink formulations and launching environmentally friendly solvent based inks and inkjet printers that do not contain harmful substances. For example, ECO solvent ink, which has less environmental pollution, is rapidly developing and will be the future direction of solvent based ink development. On the other hand, in some fields that have special requirements for ink performance, such as outdoor large-scale advertisements that require extremely high image durability and color vividness, solvent based inks will still occupy a certain market share with their unique advantages.

Solvent based printing inks will still exist in the market in the near future, but in order to keep up with the development of the times, they will inevitably continue to innovate and improve towards a more environmentally friendly and high-performance direction. In the foreseeable future, various types of inks such as solvent based printing inks and water-based inks will form a diversified printing ink market based on different application scenarios and needs.