What are Ultra Violet cured inks?

What's so special about UV?

Why print with UV Inks rather than conventional inks?

More Environmentally Friendly

UV inks are 99.5% VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) free, unlike conventional inks making it more environmentally friendly.

What are VOC’S

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic chemicals emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids, including soy based inks. VOCs evaporate at room temperature and react in sunlight to form ground-level ozone. According to the EPA, VOCs can cause various ailments and diseases.

Superior finishes

UV Inks cure almost instantaneously unlike conventional inks…
- Eliminating the possibility of offsetting and most ghosting.
- If matching to sample colors, reduces the variance in colors between sample and live job (dry backing).
- No additional dry time is needed and job can go straight to finishing.
UV Inks are more resistant to scratching, smudging, scuffing and rubbing.
Unlike conventional inks, UV inks allow us the ability to print on a variety of substrates, including plastics.
UV inks printed on uncoated paper will have crisper look to text and graphics due to the ink not being absorbed by the paper.
UV Inks provide superior finishes to conventional inks.
UV inks increase special effect capabilities.

Is there a need to protect the UV ink with an aqueous coating?

With conventional inks, customers often request for their printed pieces to have aqueous coating added to the process to make the piece more resistant to scratching and marking. Unless a customer wants to add a glossy finish, or a very flat dull finish to the piece, aqueous coatings are not needed. UV inks are cured right away and are more resistant to scratching and marking.

Putting a gloss or satin aqueous coating on a matte, satin, or velvet stock will not give any significant visual effect. There is no need to request this to protect the ink on this type of stock and because you are not improving the visual look, it will be a waste of money. Below are a couple of examples in which UV inks can have a significant visual effect with an aqueous coating:

Printing on gloss paper and want to add a glossy finish to the piece
Printing on a dull paper and want to add a flat dull finish

We would be more than happy to discuss with you what technique would be best for your printed piece to stand out and can also send you free samples of our capabilities.

What types of paper / substrates can you use with UV Inks?

We are able to print UV inks on our offset presses, and we can print on various thicknesses of paper and synthetic substrates, such as PVC, Polystyrene, Vinyl, and Foil.

Is there a logo that we can put on our printed piece to show we are being environmentally friendly?

There is currently no widely accepted, universal UV Ink logo. We have a couple of different logos that you may use on your printed piece with our permission.

UV inks cure with light not air

UV inks are specially formulated to cure when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light instead of oxidation (air). These unique inks dry much faster, resulting in sharper and more vibrant images than regular conventional inks.

...dry much faster resulting in sharper and more vibrant images ...

UV inks “sit” on top of the paper or plastic material and do not get absorbed into the substrate like regular conventional inks do. Also, because they cure instantly, very few harmful VOC's are released into the environment. This also means a safer work environment for our valued employees.