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White Paper Overview
SpeedyDry
High Performance Ink Drier is a
revolutionary formula that greatly
accelerates the rate drying in inks
by catalyzing cross-linking
reactions much more effectively than
previously existing driers. The key
to our patent-pending formula is new
and innovative chemistry that
increases the solubility of our
catalysts in ink. This increase in
solubility has two important
advantages: 1) catalysts are more
uniformly distributed closer to
cross-linking initiation sites, and
2) drier concentration may be
increased substantially without risk
of phase separation.
The results of
using
SpeedyDry
include:
Ink
driers are used within the
commercial printing industry to
promote faster drying of printed
output by addition to the ink
fountain on-press. This is
necessary to enable short
turn-around times demanded by
customers, to minimize labor
content, and as a basic requirement
to cause eventual drying on some
difficult substrates. Conventional
ink driers are, at best, serviceable
and, at worst, wholly ineffective.
Even serviceable conventional ink
driers generally have very narrow
usage and applicability parameters
that limit their use to very low
concentrations and a narrow range of
printing substrates. In addition,
conventional ink driers are
relatively difficult to use, causing
poor run ability of the print job,
and exhibit a reversal effect,
sometimes preventing the ink from
ever drying, if used above their
recommended concentrations.
SpeedyDry
ink drier shortens the drying time
required for printed goods. This
may be expressed as the number of
hours required after printing before
a document may be handled in
post-processing steps such as
cutting, scoring, folding, or
binding. Certain printing stocks
are known to the industry to be more
problematic than others. Average
drying times (in hours) for several
classes of printing stocks at
various concentrations of
SpeedyDry
ink drier are shown in Figure 3,
below. Concentrations of
SpeedyDry
vary from 0% (no drier) up to 45%
wt./wt. percentage. Drying times
are shown in hours on the vertical
axis. A complete set of data used
to produce this chart is included as
Appendix A.
As can
be readily seen by inspection of
Figure 3,
SpeedyDry
causes a radical reduction in
required drying times. Moreover,
SpeedyDry
ensures repeatable dry times from
lot-to-lot of paper. In contrast,
lot-to-lot variations of coated
papers, for instance, can result in
a variation of ink dry times from a
nominal 2 hours to well in excess
of 24 hours. Typically, the
addition of
SpeedyDry
at a 20% concentration reduces ink
drying times by 75% or greater.
A few of
the advantages offered by
SpeedyDry
to printers include:
-
A reduction in labor directed to
slip-sheeting and removing slip
sheets prior to post processing,
-
The ability to offer fast
turnaround times to customers
for rush print jobs,
-
A reduction in work-in-process
inventory with concurrent
improvements in profitability,
-
The ability to run jobs on
heretofore very difficult
substrates,
-
A reduction in the level of
experience and skill necessary
to run difficult press jobs,
-
A reduction in the reliance on
very expensive specialty “fast
drying” inks, and
-
Elimination of time-of-day
concerns when scheduling print
jobs through relaxation of
wet-on-wet multiple pass
constraints.
Figure 1
Ink Drying Times with
SpeedyDry
In reference to
Figure 3, similar improvements in
ink dry times have been noted for
all tested synthetic substrates
including Tyvek, polyester, vinyl,
and other difficult plastics.
SpeedyDry
is safe to use with the most
sensitive print jobs including art
prints. No discernable alteration
of ink color has been noted on
printed output.
SpeedyDry-catalyzed
output exhibits a high degree of
film hardness, toughness, and
substrate adhesion.
SpeedyDry
poses no additional environmental
concerns over and above the inks to
which it is added.
Ink pot life is
a logical concern for inks with
SpeedyDry
additive. In general, management
has found pot life to be essentially
unlimited as long as the ink is
agitated at least once every 15
minutes. Agitating the ink fountain
at regular intervals is a typical
pressroom practice.
In the event
that this normal pressroom practice
is not used, it is important to have
a reasonably lengthy pot life
without agitation. Quiescent ink
pot life may be expressed as a
skin-over time, the time it
takes for the ink to form a thin
solid film on its surface. Typical
ink skin-over times in hours are
shown in Table 2, below. As can be
seen from Table 2, skin-over times
vary with ink color. This is a
general property of oil-based inks
that is widely understood within the
industry. Skin-over times are very
consistent from manufacturer to
manufacturer of the ink.
Table 1
Ink Skin-Over Times with 13%
SpeedyDry
(hours)
|
Color
|
Ink Only
|
13% wt./wt.
|
|
Yellow
|
8.00 |
2.67 |
|
Warm Red
|
4.75 |
2.50 |
|
Rubine
|
6.00 |
3.00 |
|
Rhodamine
|
10.00
|
4.25 |
|
Violet
|
>12.00
|
4.50 |
|
Purple
|
>12.00
|
6.50 |
|
Reflex Blue
|
>24.00
|
6.00 |
|
Process Blue
|
>10.00
|
5.00 |
|
Green
|
>24.00
|
8.00 |
|
Opaque White
|
>12.00
|
3.75 |
|
Black
|
6.00 |
2.33 |
Management believes that the ink
skin-over times shown in Table 2
will likely prove entirely
acceptable to the company’s target
markets.
Table 2
Competitor Strengths and Weaknesses
|
Competitor |
Strengths |
Weaknesses |
|
Cobalt
(includes Co-acetate and Co-tallate)
(several sources)
|
Works on alkaline coated
stocks. |
Not effective on acidic
stocks.
Poor press run ability at
greater than 1.5% wt./wt.
concentration.
Marginally effective on
uncoated stocks.
Marginally effective on
synthetics. |
|
Manganese
(includes Mn-acetate and
Mn-tallate)
(several sources)
|
Works on alkaline coated
stocks. |
Not effective on acidic
stocks.
Poor press run ability at
greater than 1.5% wt./wt.
concentration.
Marginally effective on
uncoated stocks.
Marginally effective on
synthetics. |
|
3-Way Driers
(several sources)
|
Work on alkaline coated
stocks.
|
Not effective on acidic
stocks.
Marginally effective on
uncoated stocks.
Marginally effective on
synthetics.
Poor press run ability at
greater than 3% wt./wt.
concentrations. |
For easy
comparison,
SpeedyDry
strengths and weaknesses are given
below in Table 7.
Table 3
SpeedyDry
Strengths and Weaknesses
|
|
Strengths |
Weaknesses |
|
SpeedyDry
|
Works on all tested stocks
including coated and
uncoated, alkaline and
acidic, natural and
synthetic.
No practical upper
concentration limitation.
Does not hurt press run
ability. |
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