Lawter’s water-based inks – The right sustainable option

There is an upward trend in demand for water-based inks. More companies are looking for an alternative technology to the traditional Solvent-based inks.
Why is that? Water-based inks can:

• Help reduce VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds) entering the atmosphere.
• Improve the health and safety during production.
• Help to reduce the carbon footprint of the packaging.

What’s a water-based ink?

A water-based ink is any ink which uses water as a solvent base to carry the pigment. Acrylic resins and additives from our supplier Lawter, are components which are used in water-based inks. These components are applied to:

• Flexographic printing, a relief printing technique, similar to letterpress whereby the ink is transferred from a raised printing plate using fast drying inks onto the chosen substrate.
• Gravure printing or rotogravure, an intaglio printing process that uses rotary printing capable of producing continuous tone images.
• And finally, water-based inks can also be used as an overprint varnish, which is an extra layer of color that could be applied on a particular design.

Difference between water-based and oil-based

Logically, there is a difference between water-based inks and oil-based inks. Products that use water as the main solvent are water-based inks, those that use organic solvents are oil-based inks. Water-based inks maintain a stable viscosity during printing. The performance of water-based inks is 20% to 30% higher than solvent-based inks. The stickiness of water-based ink is inferior to that of oil, but depends on the performance of the fixative and the dye added to the ink. The carbon footprint of water-based inks is 30-40% lower than that of solvent-based inks. Because of that, it’s easy to conclude that water-based inks are a much more sustainable alternative. Since water-based inks do not contain harmful chemicals, they are not only safe for the environment, but also for users. There are no harsh chemicals or solvents that the user can breathe in and clean with water. Also, it is much easier to comply with increasingly stringent European and global regulations on emissions of volatile organiccompounds.

Lawter’s water-based inks

Lawter is a leading global supplier of quality raw materials for, among others, the printing ink industry. They provide ink manufacturers with specialty products including alkyds, vehicles and varnishes, wax compounds, resins and additives for offset and liquid inks. Mentioned in the first paragraph, additives and acrylic resins are applied in water-based Inks. Because of Lawter’s improving technology and products, the performance of water-based inks in flexible packaging is matching that of solvent-based inks.

Contact Us!

We can imagine that you wonder how you can apply these components to your products. We recommend you to contact our specialist James Meacock.