How can corrugated cardboard ink balance environmental friendliness, adhesion, and drying efficiency in corrugated cardboard printing?
Publish Time: 2025-12-29
With increasing global emphasis on sustainable development and environmental regulations, the packaging and printing industry is accelerating its transformation towards green and low-carbon practices. In the widely used packaging material sector of corrugated cardboard, corrugated cardboard ink, with its low-pollution, non-toxic, odorless, and biodegradable properties, has gradually replaced traditional solvent-based inks, becoming the mainstream printing consumable. It not only meets environmental standards in various countries but also continuously optimizes its printability, color performance, and production efficiency, supporting the upgrading of modern corrugated packaging towards high quality and high added value.
Water-based corrugated cardboard ink uses water as the main solvent, resin as the film-forming substance, and is supplemented with pigments, additives, and a small amount of alcohol to adjust drying performance. Its biggest advantage lies in its extremely low emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), producing almost no irritating odors or harmful gases, significantly improving the working environment of the printing workshop and reducing waste gas treatment costs. For industries with stringent packaging safety requirements, such as food, pharmaceuticals, and daily chemicals, water-based inks are free of toxic solvents like benzene, ketones, and esters, avoiding the risk of ink migration and contamination of contents. They fully meet international food contact material regulations such as those of the FDA and EU.
On porous, highly absorbent, and rough-surfaced substrates like corrugated cardboard, water-based corrugated cardboard inks exhibit excellent penetration and adhesion. By adjusting the resin system (such as acrylic emulsions and polyurethane dispersions) and surfactant ratios, the ink can quickly spread between cardboard fibers and form a continuous film, ensuring clear patterns and saturated colors. Modern high-performance water-based inks can achieve four-color or even six-color fine overprinting, supporting high-screen flexographic or pre-printing processes, meeting the stringent requirements of brand owners for logo fidelity, gradient transitions, and image detail.
Drying efficiency was a major bottleneck in the early stages of water-based ink adoption, but with advancements in hot air drying, infrared-assisted heating, and high-speed printing press technologies, this problem has been significantly alleviated. The new fast-drying water-based inks employ a composite drying mechanism, ensuring sufficient open time for transfer while rapidly forming a film under high-temperature hot air, adapting to printing speeds of hundreds of meters per minute. Furthermore, some formulations incorporate nanomaterials or cross-linking agents to further enhance the ink film's abrasion resistance, water resistance, and gloss, ensuring the corrugated boxes maintain their appearance during transport and stacking.
From an industry chain perspective, the widespread adoption of water-based inks has also driven the upgrading of corrugated printing equipment. Flexographic printing presses are generally equipped with closed-loop doctor blade systems, precise temperature-controlled drying tunnels, and tension control systems to match the rheological properties and drying curves of water-based inks. Simultaneously, ink suppliers are collaborating closely with cardboard manufacturers and printing companies to provide customized solutions for different paper weights, flute structures, and post-processing (such as die-cutting and lamination), ensuring stable and efficient operation throughout the entire process.
More importantly, water-based inks align perfectly with the concept of a circular economy. Their cleaning process requires only water or a weakly alkaline solution, simplifying wastewater treatment; printing waste can directly enter the paper recycling system without special separation. Some manufacturers have also launched "ultra-environmentally friendly" water-based inks made from plant-based resins or recycled pigments, further reducing their carbon footprint.
In conclusion, the widespread application of water-based corrugated cardboard ink in corrugated cardboard printing is both a result of environmental policies and a reflection of continuous technological innovation. It successfully balances ecological responsibility and commercial needs, ensuring printing quality while helping the packaging industry move towards a green future. With the deep integration of materials science and intelligent manufacturing, water-based inks will undoubtedly achieve greater breakthroughs in high performance, multifunctionality, and intelligence, continuing to lead the sustainable development of corrugated packaging printing.
