Spain. Quimovil and Aimplas (Technological Institute of Plastics) have started a project funded by the Ministry of Economy through the Collaboration Challenges program to allow the development of new water-based flexographic inks for the flexible packaging industry that will reduce VOC emissions.
Currently, a high percentage of flexible food packaging is manufactured using solvent-based inks, due to the high quality and productivity needs in the printing and lamination processes. This type of component has a number of drawbacks, such as the emission of VOCs into the atmosphere, the safety risks due to the flammability of inks and varnishes, as well as the high investment and maintenance costs to recover solvents during printing.
Through the development of the Aquaflex project, coordinated by Quimovil, it is expected to obtain a new formulation of laminable water-based flexographic inks with the same print and laminate quality properties as solvent-based inks.
The new product will enable a reduction of VOC emissions by 90-95% at a competitive cost. To this end, some of the challenges of this project include improving the printing speed of water-based inks and reducing their energy consumption in the drying process.
