Ink, ink, ink. There seems to always be so much of it, yet we never really know all the real uses for it and the kinds there are. I’m here to help clear that confusion. Our company is known for distributing the 80:20 Solvent Ink, a press-room chemical.

Solvent Ink

As a refresher, Solvent ink is an ink mixture that has three parts which includes a solvent that dilutes the mixture and makes a better pigment and helps resist fading. While this proves to be one of the leading more Eco-friendly ink’s in the business there are others people should be informed about what they do and how they’re used.

Water-Based Ink

Starting off with water-based ink. Water-based ink is something we see most of the time in our lives, it’s used in textiles, seen on shirts, in similar places like that. Water is normally the basis for all ink’s unlike the solvent ink which replaces water with a solvent blend. Dissimilar to solvent ink, water-based ink tends to fade after washes or exposure to the elements, which loses the color printed on the product. This is also another eco-friendly product given it doesn’t strictly use plastic in the product so it’s easier to reduce waste and other harmful factors to the environment. Overall, this product is not as useful on outdoor products compared to solvent ink because as I mentioned before it will fade compared to solvent ink that can be fade resistant up to seven years.

Plastisol

While water-based ink and solvent ink both contain oil or water, there is one other kind of ink that can be used in press-room chemical printing processes. This is a process seen with t-shirt printing where there are multiple stages of layers of ink being printed onto a shirt. Plastisol ink is an ink that can be left out without it clogging like solvent ink. There isn’t a worry about it drying super fast so it can be left out. Since it is made out of plastic the cleaning process is most harmful for the environment, and in some cases is considered a hazardous chemical ink because of that cleaning process. Plastisol like water-based ink does fade, and because it is made of plastic and has no solvent it can start cracking when printed onto something like a t-shirt.

If you are looking for a more fade-resistant oil solvent ink blend and works well on products out in the elements, we definitely have the product for you with our 80:20 Ink solvent, which you can find here.