Alternatives to Water Based Ink Becoming a Reality
More Inks Moving Away From Water Based Medium
Inkjet printers are becoming more and more refined, and as they expand in capabilities and volume, the ink manufacturers are rushing to bring new products to bear. Benny Landa, who built the company that HP bought when they decided to go into the ink business. Landa was and is a force in the field, and one thing has always had him thinking - and now he is acting. For the first time in a long time he has once again formed a new company, and will be making special inks just for ink jet printers.
Inkjets are being widely used in the sheetfed press, and he has developed partnerships with the makers of sheetfed press machines, among them Heidelberg, Komori and others. What is special about the inks Landa is developing is not the colors or clarity but rather in the way the inks are made, though of course that will have an impact on the quality of the printed material as well. The inks are already proving to have a wide range of uses and applications, and that will only increase as time goes on.
Advantages of the New Generation of Inks
The new ink is an alternative to water based ink, which is desirable for a number of reasons, especially with the larger jobs that use the sheetfed machines. Being waterless, it dries much quicker, but there are other advantages to this. It allows for a wider formulation of the ink for specific requirements of certain types of printing, and as the technology becomes more widespread and refined other benefits will arise. Storage time of ink media should increase as well, and an extended shelf life is never bad for ink and toner cartridges
Other companies are tackling the same problem, and each are coming at it from different angles, but whatever the top technology is when it emerges, the ink industry as a whole will adopt it very quickly for use in ink cartridges and toner cartridges.
One of the most promising technologies emerging is the Stream system by Kodak, which they “will change print forever.” The upshot is, the print world is like the racing world - what is first developed for super hi quality applications or specialty or mass production applications quickly gets filtered through the system until small personal printers are using what was once used only by the highest end customers.
In the print world, this happens with astonishing speed, and not much time passes before compatible ink manufacturers are turning out printer ink cartridges which are direct descendants of what last year was a commercial technique or piece of equipment. Look forward to seeing these ink cartridges and advanced inks soon as the highest tech equipment is adapted for home use.