Color Consistency of Spot-Color Water-Based Gravure Inks for Product Gravure

With any type of printing, controlled and consistent ink conditions such as temperature, viscosity, and pH of water-based inks are essential to achieve a consistent quality print. The present work deals with investigation of the performance of water-based gravure spot-color inks on press during the printing trials simulated on the laboratory scale. A Moser sheet-fed gravure proofing press was employed to simulate the printing trials. The viscosity and pH profiles of water-based gravure inks were investigated. Changes in the rheological behavior of the tested inks after different dwelling time of inks on the press were studied, and changes in the flow properties were observed. The rheological studies of viscoelastic behavior of the tested inks showed that the strength of ink’s structure is dependant on the printing time.