Inks and Chemicals — Environmental Challenges

"Another way to reduce VOCs is to employ aqueous inks or single fluid inks," he adds. "While such inks reduce the use of VOCs, there can be printability and runnability problems if rigorous process control is not observed. The flexo industry's been making a lot of efforts to improve the performance of aqueous inks and offset ink manufacturers have been working on single-fluid inks that reduce or eliminate the need for use of dampening solutions containing alcohol that can be washed up without the use of VOC-based solvents. In the solvents arena, there's a move away from petroleum distillates, toward the use of low- or no-VOC solvents derived from soy and citrus and other renewable resources.