“UV Ink Low Migration UV Ink”

Packaging is a very complex system consisting of several materials; including printing ink, paper, plastic film, adhesives and others. If we elaborate again the printing ink also comes from several types of raw materials or mixtures of dyes (pigments / dyes), resins (polymers), organic solvents, mineral oils and other additives.

In the last decade, the use of UV radiation (UV Curabel Ink) type of ink has increased, along with the growth rate in the packaging market and is supported by quality and productivity which are also increasing. To support the food safety system, several ink products based on radiation energy Ultra Violet (UV Ink) has been legalized by several regulations required by competent international bodies

These regulations include:
• Swiss Ordinance
• German Ordinance Draft 2010
• EuPIA Guideline

UV ink consists of reactive materials including Oligomers, monomers and photoinitiators as well as several additives that are able to produce a polymer thermosetting system with a crosslink polymerization reaction mechanism (Crosslink polymerization). This photoinitiator is responsible for the absorption of UV radiation and is able to initiate the initiation of the polymerization reaction. Several types of photoinitiators available include BP (Benzhopehenone) and ITX (2-Isopropylthioxanthone). However, this type can cause migration in food or beverage products.

Some migratory events caused by Photoinisiator include:

• ITX Photoinitiator migration on fruit juice and baby milk products in 2005.
• Benzophenon migration in cereal products that occurred in 2010.

The migration process can be categorized into:

1. Set Off Migration (transmission between printed sheets).
2. Penetration migration (ink penetrates from the bottom of the prints above it during the storage process).
3. Evaporation migration (the presence of volatile materials during the cooking process).
4. Condensation migration (the presence of condensed material during the sterilization process).

To minimize the foregoing, UV ink has now been developed which has the characteristics or low migration potential, so that it has a level of food safety in packaging products that use this kind of ink. Sun Chemical as one of the DIC Group companies has produced several Low Migration products either based on oil (Conventional Ink) or based on UV radiation energy used in several printing techniques, both offset and flexo.