Suitability of printing ink recipes for laminated work

For best results the inks should have the following general characteristics:

• Quick drying capability on the chosen substrate, and applied so as to achieve an acceptable standard of coating that is well dried with good adhesion to the substrate surface.
• Please note that excessive amounts of retained slow drying volatile matter from some ink recipes can cause swelling and expansion of the O.P.P. film and/or even soften the adhesive and print, thus resulting in loss of adhesion in the form of "piping" or "wrinkling".
• Contain minimal amounts of surface active additives such as waxes and silicones.
• High tinting strength so that film thicknesses can be minimised and drying times reduced accordingly.
• Covered with only minimum amounts of very fine grade anti set-off spray powders.
• Contain pigments which are resistant to bleaching and bleeding. In particular there is a risk of reactions occurring with unstable sensitive pigments such as Reflex Blue, Rhodamine Red and Pantone Purple.
• Metallic gold and silver effect inks (i.e. based on bronze or aluminium powders) must be non-reacting with the laminating adhesive, and must be formulated with a suitable binder system to ensure adequate bonding between the layered flakes of metal.
• An inadequate binder could result in the ink layers splitting apart after lamination.