Inks and Chemicals — Environmental Challenges

"There's a move away from the use of VOCs because of their contributions to global warming and to a variety of health problems in humans, including lung, liver and kidney damage," Carli states. "The general strategy is to come up with cleaner technologies—the reduction or elimination of VOCs. One way to deal with that is through the use of high solids content, UV curable. UV inks print extremely well but are not without their problems, because to cure the polymers a lot of energy is required to power the UV lamps. Photo-initiators, which are used, can pose health and safety risks."