Our company’s product we sell the 80:20 Ink Solvent is listed as a Flexographic Ink Solvent in other common terms with other products on the market. Basic terms of ink solvent is a way of printing that involves the pigment and resin as well as a solvent to help thin it and distribute the pigment better. Ink solvents are traditionally used more in Gravure printing.

Gravure Printing

Looking at the process of Gravure printing looks something similar to maybe videos one has seen of a printing press at a newspaper, or printing money or other products along those lines. This process of printing involves the printing material between the gravure cylinder (pictured above) and the impression cylinder that presses against it to add the ink solvent in the tank onto it. Also similar to the Flexographic way of printing, which I will speak about below it also uses a rotary printing press meaning using motion around a center to move the printing process along.

Flexographic Printing

The process of Flexographic printing involves a few more working parts and pieces than that of Gravure printing. Flexography or Flexographic printing can be used on many different substrates. The different rollers in the above diagram all contribute to how the ink solvent from the tray is distributed and moved throughout the process. Some elements like the blade remove excess ink that isn’t what is on what is being printed and then as you move to the top that is where it becomes like the Gravure printing process where the ink is transferred over to the product. Like I mentioned before this is also a rotary process that contains more steps to make sure ink is transferred correctly.

To see more information on our 80:20 ink solvent blend we provide for printing processes like these contact us here.