The current consumables in the inkjet printing market are still mainly UV inks, but the water-based inks in the market are also growing. Now let's take a brief look at the inkjet printing market and think about the future of UV and water-based ink technology.

In the inkjet field, more than 90% of production inkjet printers used for labels and packaging use UV ink. However, we have seen many signals that water-based ink is growing, which is caused by the research and development considerations of technology providers and market choices.

UV ink has already dominated the digital printing market. First of all, because UV ink has high stability and will not dry out when exposed to air, so even if the print head is used intermittently, there is no need to worry about ink drying and clogging the nozzle. In addition, the UV LED curing lamp has a compact structure and excellent drying effect. It can cure the printed image almost immediately. The cured image has high durability, making UV inkjet suitable for both industrial printing and high-fidelity image printing.

Water-based ink is the main substitute for UV ink, which is usually non-toxic. This advantage makes water-based ink very popular. However, the disadvantage of water-based ink is that its drying process is cured by evaporation or thermal energy. On low-speed, small batch printers, this is not a big problem, because curing can be done by air-drying. But for high-speed printers, the drying of water-based ink becomes a big challenge, usually requiring a high-power thermal dryer.