Vegetable based Inks – what is it all about?
A regular request from customers is that “vegetable inks” are used in their print- but what are the benefits and what does it mean? Vegetable oil is only the carrier agent within the ink and constitutes up to a maximum of 50% of the total content of the ink with the balance being things like solvents and pigments, including some of the more unpleasant ingredients which after use become classified as hazardous waste.
True vegetable oil based inks are only suitable for the sheetfed litho process and not currently available for heatset web offset, although some heatset web inks do contain up to 5% vegetable derived oil. Although most printers, in my experience, only use vegetable oil based inks for their everyday 4 colour work, it is also possible to specify “vege” inks for Pantone colours and even metallics.
The environmental gain is purely relevant in sustainability terms – vegetable oil is a renewable source as opposed to a mineral/petroleum based oil which logic tells us will run dry at some point. Whilst it is good practice to favour a sheetfed printer who uses vegetable based inks, unfortunately right now you won’t be able to insist on the same from from a web printer.
Tags: environment, inks