When Self-adhesive Labels Are Lit Up With These Special Inks, The Effect Is So Unique!

In recent years, with the continuous development of the economy, the market competition in the field of packaging label printing has become increasingly fierce, homogeneous product competition has led to major printing enterprises have to rely on price war to fight for more market share. In the face of increasingly low product prices, profits are becoming increasingly thin, self-adhesive label printing enterprises urgently need some special processes to improve the added value of the product, of which the application of special ink is an important means. In this article, I share with you some of the self-adhesive labels, packaging printing applications in the field of special inks.

Metallic effect inks

In self-adhesive labels, the application of metallic effects is more common, especially in some high-end cosmetics and wine labels. If the label wants to present a metallic effect, the traditional process is generally to use aluminium foil paper self-adhesive material for printing, however, due to the high cost of this method, many printing companies began to try to use metallic effect ink printing on coated paper process to replace the aluminium foil paper self-adhesive material printing. It has to be said that the metallic lustre of metallic effect ink printing on coated paper is much worse than that of aluminium foil self-adhesive printing, and the replacement effect is not ideal. So, is there a better solution?

In fact, there is a metallic effect ink on the market which, when printed, can achieve the same metallic effect as the aluminium foil paper self-adhesive material; this ink is mirror silver ink. It should be noted that this ink is usually applied to gravure printing equipment and is therefore more suitable for use in combination label printing equipment with gravure printing sets.

In addition to the mirror silver ink, there is a pearlescent effect ink, the ink contains a variety of diameters and colours of pearlescent pigments, can make the ink in the printing of pearlescent metallic luster effect, printing with pearlescent ink pattern will have a pearl luster and a certain degree of different angles of colour change effect, which is the traditional aluminum foil self-adhesive material does not have the effect. The ink is often used in daily chemical and cosmetic label printing, used to set off the characteristics of the product, such as pearl cream cosmetic labels using pearlescent ink printing specific patterns, will show a strong decorative effect.

Infrared laser ink

Infrared laser ink, which is not visible in natural light, is an ink that shows green or red in infrared light. Thanks to the special characteristics of this ink, it is often used to print anti-counterfeit patterns, i.e. when the authenticity of a product needs to be verified by shining an infrared torch on the surface of the label to show the corresponding anti-counterfeit pattern.

Laser Marking Inks

At present, most household products often use printing, pasting labels, stamping shrink overwrap and other production and processing methods to mark product information, and so on over time the label is easy to blur information, label off and other problems, bringing inconvenience to users. Laser marking technology allows the printed label information to be stored for a long time. At present, in some electronic products, high-grade cosmetics and devices on the outer packaging we can often see the use of laser marking information, but in some packaging if the laser marking directly, the effect is often less than ideal, then the need to use laser marking ink.

The laser marking ink is white in colour and printing on the surface of the substrate creates a white colour block. When a low energy C02 laser beam is directed at the block, the area irradiated by the laser will turn black and form a pre-determined graphic, which is equivalent to printing the information by laser on the base coating printed with a special ink. Information printed using this process can be preserved for a long time without problems such as blurred information or peeling labels.

Glow-in-the-dark ink

Glow-in-the-dark ink is an ink that absorbs light energy in daylight and stores it, then releases it in the dark and continues to glow. Luminous inks are available in a variety of colours, including yellow, blue, green, red and purple, and can be used in a variety of printing methods, such as screen printing and flexographic printing. It should be noted that screen printing luminous ink is generally recommended because the ink layer of screen printing is thicker and the ink can absorb more light energy after printing, which can release more light energy in the dark environment and the luminous time will be longer.

At present, glow-in-the-dark ink is mainly used for some cosmetic and gift label printing. As the luminous ink has a magical effect, if combined with a more clever aesthetic design, it will make the product unique and stand out, such as some printed moon and star pattern labels, if the luminous ink printing, the moon and stars will glow at night, especially attractive to consumers' eyes.

Reverse Varnish

Reverse varnish is a special ink that has been more commonly used in recent years. The so-called reverse varnish is actually of two kinds: a top varnish and a base varnish. These two types of varnish are printed on the surface of the substrate at the same time and then react chemically to form a grainy effect. Depending on the formulation of the varnish, the size and feel of the particles produced will vary. Therefore, we need to choose the right reverse varnish according to the customer's requirements. Reverse varnish not only gives the printed surface a frosted-like texture, but also has the function of a traditional varnish that is waterproof. Because the cost of reverse varnish is not high, and because of its special characteristics, it is very popular with the majority of end-users, and its application is becoming more and more widespread.