Elaboration and Characterization of Waterless Inks Containing Vegetable Derivatives.

The aim of this work was to prepare sheet-fed waterless inks in which the petroleum diluent would be replaced by rapeseed methyl ester and to determine the viability of such formulations. Rheological and printability tests were carried out on these new inks and showed that the vegetable diluent gives rise to blends with higher tack and lower viscosity and elasticity than their mineral counterpart. Moreover, a higher degree of elasticity was needed for inks containing the vegetable diluent in order to obtain reliable toning capacities.