Abstract
Water-based ink formulations containing wax, surfactant, and defoamer additives were prepared and printed on polyethylene film substrates. Standard test methods for adhesion, rub resistance, and gloss were done on the printed polyethylene films. Quantitative methods for the assessment and evaluation of the three print properties were developed. Image analyses were done to quantify adhesion and rub resistance. Quantitative measurement was done to quantify gloss. Data were analyzed using mixture design modelling and optimization. Modelling results show that adhesion and gloss are described by special cubic model equations, while rub resistance is described by a linear model equation. Contour plots and 3D surface graphs were generated showing the response surfaces of the print properties. The effects of varying the mass fractions of wax, surfactant, and defoamer on adhesion, rub resistance, and gloss were determined. It was found that increasing wax increases rub resistance, while increasing surfactant increases gloss, and increasing defoamer increases adhesion. There is dependency found between the mass fraction of wax, surfactant and defoamer with respect to the rub resistance, adhesion and gloss. Multi-objective optimization revealed that optimum adhesion, rub resistance, and gloss is obtained by a formulation containing equal mass fractions of wax and surfactant but no defoamer.
Highlights
The ink industry is one of the growing markets in the world, due to increasing market of printing inks for packaging applications [1]
It can be seen that among the main terms, the mass fraction of the surfactant has the largest effect on gloss compared to both those of the wax and defoamer; to optimize the gloss, the mass fraction of surfactant relative to wax and defoamer can be increased in the ink formulation
The print property test methods developed and proposed in this study are significantly more quantitative compared to the standard test methods used in the industry
Summary
The ink industry is one of the growing markets in the world, due to increasing market of printing inks for packaging applications [1]. Surfactants are added to reduce the surface tension of water-based inks to allow adhesion on nonporous substrates; the presence of surfactants in the formulation results to production of stable foam during mixing. To address this problem, defoamers or anti-foaming agents are added used as additives together with the surfactants in the formulations of printing inks. To determine the effects of these additives, the most important print properties of the ink with modified formulation are analyzed- namely, adhesion, rub resistance, and gloss. After gathering and analyzing the results, a formulation that would give best print properties is identified by using optimization methods
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