Modification of Printing Aluminum Powders by Wet Covering Method with Composite Surfactants

Abstract

Considering the fact of low gloss and masking power of aluminum powder, the aluminum powder is chemically modified by wet covering with eight kinds of single surfactants such as Oleic acid, Stearic acid, Sodium dodecyl sulfonate, Sodium stearate, Polyvinyl alcohol, Polyethylene glycol, Tween-80 and Emulsifier-OP in different proportions on the surface of aluminum powder and the gloss of aluminum paste printing ink concocted with the covered aluminum powder is tested. The results show that the gloss of the aluminum powder covered by one percent Polyvinyl alcohol increases most significant. In order to upgrade the gloss of the aluminum paste printing ink, an orthogonal experiment is carried out by choosing four surfactants such as Polyvinyl alcohol as influencing factors and their addition amounts as researched levels. The optimal surface modification formula is obtained based on the experiment. The dosage of surfactant is one percent of the aluminum powder, Sodium dodecyl sulfonate accounts for 25.00% of the total surfactant’s weight, Sodium stearate accounts for 37.50% of the total surfactant’s weight, Tween-80 accounts for 12.50% of the total surfactant and Polyvinyl alcohol accounts for 25.00% of the total surfactant’s weight. The prescription can concoct the commodity aluminum powder and passed 1200 mesh to the aluminum paste printing ink with commodity ink to satisfy the request of relief printing and intaglio printing. The gloss of the printed aluminum paste printing ink reaches 81.3.