Hybrid UV - Aquacure™
What, Why, Where and
When
InPrint - Munich
10-12th November 2015
working for you.
Who are SunJet?
 SunJet is the business unit responsible for digital within Sun
Chemical globally
 SunJet has stated aim to be the major supplier of ink to
packaging, graphics, publication and industrial markets
 SunJet has pioneered technology in UV inkjet since 1990’s
 SunJet has been an OEM ink partner in wide format since 2000 /
2001
 OEM channel is key to strategy
 Technology and supply partnerships are the foundation
 Integrity is key to partnership
2
What is our core technology?
 UK based technical team specialising on the development of,
– Aqueous – Textiles, Publication, Packaging
– UV – Graphics, Packaging (flexible & direct to container) and Industrial
– Hybrid – Graphics, Packaging and Industrial
– Solvent – Graphics, Industrial and Edible
– Oil based – Coding and marking
– Hotmelt – Industrial and Edible
– Ceramic and glass inks – décor and Industrial
 Strong links to core R&D teams across Sun and DIC – e.g. Polymer
Chemistry, Packaging, Publications, Pigments
3
What is Hybrid UV?
 Aquacure™
 Aquacure™ is a functional aqueous technology, combining waterbased
and UV curing technology.
 The water component addresses,
– The feel, film weight and odour
– Health and safety and environmental profile
 The UV component addresses,
– Durability
– Jetting reliability
– Media versatility
4
What is the background to Aquacure™?
 Aquacure™ technology builds upon Sun Chemical’s leadership in
aqueous energy curable inks – WetFlex
– WetFlex was developed for flexo printing of packaging and
incorporated aqueous energy curable dispersion technology
– 10 years plus of technology development
 Fundamental patented technology for liquid inks and inkjet inks well
established
– Additional patenting of long wavelength sensitisation PI’s for aqueous
inks now also established for inkjet to accommodate LED curing
 Aquacure™ inks contain:
– 60-90% water
– Low level of co-solvent humectant
– UV curable resins/monomers
– Photoinitiators, sensitizers
– Pigment/dispersant
– Additives
5
What does this mean practically?
 It’s a truly functional aqueous technology
 It requires a dual cure system – both heat and UV / EB cure
 Offers good head sustainability
 Excellent re-solubility
 Significant reduction in product hazard labelling
 Low film weights
 Very low print odour
6
So how do we cure it?
 The new functional aqueous technology must be cured
with the following mechanism to produce robust films:
 If the functional aqueous ink is exposed to UV curing
before it is fully dry then a robust ink film will not be
produced.
7
Why dry before cure?
UV Reactive
Molecules separated
by large distances
due to dilution with
water
Removal of water
causes UV reactive
molecules to
“coalesce” together
Media
IR Drying
UV light exposure
cause cross linking of
molecules to occur
UV Reactive
Molecules =
Cross-links formed
by UV reaction =
Media
Media
UV Cure
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So what does this all mean?
 To produce quality images the hybrid ink must be thermally pinned. This
prevents the ink droplets from combining and reticulating.
Not thermally pinned
Thermally pinned
 It is recommended that infrared lamps are installed on the moving
carriage or shortly after the printheads in single pass in order to fix the
drops as they land and prevent reticulation
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So why Aquacure™ - how does it compare to UV?
 Low build - it looks and feels like an analogue flexo or gravure print
 Lower film weight on final print (10-30% of the thickness of a standard
100% solids UV-curing ink). Prints can thus be around 1-2 microns.
 Very low odour
 Improve the health and safety profile and product labelling, since
materials of higher molecular weight can be used due to the diluting
power of the water component
 Extended colour gamut due to thinner films
 Low migration capability
 Better environmental profile than solvent or 100% solids UV due to low
VOC and less consumption of material per square meter of print.
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Aquacure™ offers a sustainable solution?
Ink Type
Functional Aq
UV-curing
Solvent
VOC Content
Low
Low
High
Non-renewable
Resource
Consumption
Low
High
High
Aquacure™ inks offer key environmental advantages
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Aquacure™ offers a sustainable solution?
VOC
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
AqueousAq
Function
UV-curing
UV
Solvent
Solvent
Aquacure™ inks offer key low VOC inks with high durability
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Aquacure™ offers a sustainable solution?
100%
UV-Curing
Solvent
2030%
100%
Non-Renewable Resource
consumption
Functional Aq
Aquacure™ inks offer a sustainable solution
and key environmental advantages
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Where will Aquacure™ be used?
 Graphics
– Roll to Roll
– Hybrid
– Rigid
 Printers and technology exists today
 Drive toward more friendly ink solutions due to continuing
complexity of chemical legislation
 Primary packaging
– Flexible packaging
– Surface Print
– Reverse Print / Lamination
– Food & Personal Care
 Packaging sector is keen for digital
 Printheads, curing systems and single pass printers now meet
packaging sectors needs
 A must is the feel and odour of conventional solutions
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Where will Aquacure™ be used?
 Carton and corrugated board
– Ideally suited in some respects due to absorption reducing
required evaporation
– Existing Flatbed machines can serve this market
– Ink build and general properties allow for improvement over
existing UV chemistry with respect to,
 Odour
 Feel
 Resistance
 Folding.
Aquacure™ the enabling functional aqueous inkjet
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What could a system look like? Multi-pass
CMYK Printheads
NIR Heaters
Preheater for media,
heated platen under heads
and post print heaters (4050C)
Ideally air movement
drying (air knife) to
accelerate drying
Dry printed area entering
UV exposure zone
Cured print to take-up
roller
Take-up roller
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What could a system look like? Single pass
Water
vapour to
extraction
Print must be dry prior to
UV exposure
CMYK Printheads
UV dose <200mJ/cm2
Drier
UV
Finishing
(Air/IR)
Print Direction
Interstation IR Drying for
spot control?
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What are the likely drying arrangements? Thermal
 Heated platens at 40-55C (variable for media type)
– Pre-heater, under head platen and post print heating
– Pre-heating “opens” the media for better receptivity: wetting and
adhesion
– Aids spot control by reducing spreading
– Starts drying of inks
 NIR & IR lamps
– Pinning of spots and additional drying
– Suppliers include Adphos, IST, Heraeus and Honle
Adphos NIR Sources
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What are the likely curing arrangements? UV / EB
 UV-cure by full-width array
– On roll-to-roll machines relatively long exposure times will help cure
– LED array? e.g. 395nm stacked array
 Instant on/off
 Long life/low maintenance
 Little heat generation
– EB unit where the additional benefits and security are required
– Multiple UV-lamps mercury or metal halide?
 Fragile lamps with routine replacement required
 Warm-up time
ebeam lamp
SunJet Test Arrangements
Cure-All™ Linear 100 Array
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When will Aquacure™ be available?
 Aquacure™ chemistry is available
 Aqueous compatible printheads are available
 Drying techniques are on the open market
 Inkjet printer architecture available in graphics and narrow web
 Inks are optimised for both scanning and single pass printer
architecture
 The target markets are ready for digital this technology,
consumers like the idea of print being produced with
waterbased inks.
Aquacure™ available for application and OEM
equipment development now
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Any Questions?
Hybrid UV - Aquacure™
What, Why, Where and
When
InPrint - Munich
10-12th November 2015
working for you.