UV Or Latex, Which Will Be Most Popular In the next 5 years?

UV or latex offers a variety of different benefits and advantages in the latest commercial printing. While Solvent has dominated since the beginning of the emergence of inkjet digital printing.

From some survey data, it is stated that Solvent / Eco-Solvent still controls the market at 80% of the global market. Now, which is always an interesting question, among the latest ink innovations,
which one will be most popular in the future? At least in the next five years?

Like many sectors, technology is driving significant changes in large format printing. But will UV and latex really be able to take over solvent as the ink of choice? Quoted from Ricoh UK’s large format digital printing specialist, Yucel Salih. Over the past 10 years, we have seen the rise of the presence of digital inkjet printers. More and more print service providers (PSP) are adding their services from conventional to digital printing. Migrate from analog to digital. This naturally led to advancements in ink technology. Latex was first developed by HP and printed using UV ink. When digital inkjet printers only rely on Xaar and Seiko printheads. Now so many vendors are continuing to develop the latest printheads. Konica Minolta, Ricoh, Fujifilm and Kyocera are competing to create UV printheads that are competitive, of high quality and increasingly environmentally friendly.

From the latest survey and research institute’s report on the image from the UK, Widthwise, stated that “the use of solvent-based technology has long existed and is it going to continue to be a trend? is Solvent printing able to survive meeting market demand? ” It feels difficult. The world continues to grow. Technology is increasingly advanced. The market demands new things, innovative and environmentally friendly. With the further development of UV and Latex inks for flexible (roll to roll) and rigid media, LED curing offers high-resolution, energy-saving, multi-layer printing to produce unique characteristics, tangible texturized, while Latex offers prints that have high resolution, detail, smooth, very environmentally friendly, odorless, anti-stratch and anti-crack.

How has the market changed from solvent ink, to UV and Latex?

Wide format printing is a growing sector in the print industry. Figures released in the Widthwise report also show that more than half the digital printing surveyed (62%) expects large format printer machine manufacturers to take into account a higher proportion of their turnover in the next two to five years.

What drives UV and Latex growth?

According to the Buyer report, the textile, advertising and packaging industries are behind this surge, the increasing adoption of curable UV inks in outdoor advertising, CAD, and technical printing applications has also been influential. In addition, customers are more demanding in terms of completion time and their desire to personalize products. When brand owners compete to attract people’s attention, they look for innovative and personalized solutions. Apart from these benefits, there are additional costs in terms of cost, quality, and output, which is why it is important to consider the pros and cons before making a decision to buy, either a solvent / ECO-Solvent, latex or UV printer.

For many printing companies, the choice between sovent, latex or
UV printing is determined by the current equipment and process. However, for printing entrepreneurs who are always evaluating their processes and looking to expand into new market segments.

They began to want high-resolution printing that can be applied also to outdoor advertising. You could say the competition between UV and latex is very thick felt this year and the years ahead. Unfortunately, Latex technology is only dominated by Latex HP, while UV printing technology is enlivened by so many players, so it cannot be denied slowly but surely the trend of UV printing is starting to hit the market to 15% of the global market.