Most substrates need a bit of help to achieve excellent adhesion. For this reason, primers are a vital addition to the printing process. Whether you’re printing on glass, plastic, metal, or tile, UV ink primers are essential to maximize durability, image quality, and abrasion resistance.
A UV ink primer is a specialized coating applied as a preparatory coat to an object, to promote adhesion between UV curable ink and the surface being printed.
The best way to ensure full adhesion is to cure the substrate with primers or by flame treatment prior to printing. Flame treatment is ideal for substrates that require a manipulation of surface tension, such as glass and polypropylene. An oxidized flame (should be blue in color) increases the movement of molecules on the surface of the substrate, thereby improving adhesion between the ink and substrate.
The general rule of thumb when it comes to UV ink primers is that if you can get away with not using one, then don’t. Primers should only be used as needed. Skipping this step will save you time and money, but depending on your application, could result in a lower quality design.
Superior adhesion depends on multiple factors such as the dyne levels of the ink and substrate, surface energy, coatings, and other bonding factors. Generally, the surface tension of the UV ink should be about 10 dynes less than the surface energy of the substrate. Since the range of 25-35 dyne is standard for UV inks on the market, we can expect a high-quality print to occur from printing on a product that has a surface energy between 35-45 dyne.
UV ink primers can either be sprayed on or manually wiped on a substrate. Application methods include:
Inkcups provides many UV ink primer solutions for a variety of substances.
Choosing the Right UV Ink Primer
When it comes to decorating various substrates, a pretreatment and/or primer may be required for an overall high-quality print. Depending on the substrate and application, there is a primer that is right for you.
Inkcups encourages our customers to read through the technical data available for all of our products. Free adhesion testing is available upon request in order to determine the best primer for your product. Our expert ink technicians at Inkcups have worked with a multitude of different substrates over many years. Our goal is to improve adhesion and increase abrasion resistance to ultimately create vibrant, durable products for satisfied customers.
If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact us or visit the Inkcups Support Hub.
*Glass MUST be flame-treated prior to use of MagiCoat. Wash testing could be more (or less) depending on type of glassware used, detergent and temperature of wash.