Hardener – Printcolor 700 HDa
Printcolor 700 HDa is a reactive hardener system developed for long term outdoor and demanding applications, to be use with pad and screen printing inks on plastics and metals.
The official technical stuff from Printcolor
Printcolor 700 HDa hardener is based on aliphatic components that combine the characteristics of high chemical resistance and extremely good abrasion resistance. It is based on a highly reactive bonding compound that produces an extremely durable cured ink layer with high chemical and mechanical resistance.
Printcolor 700 HDa is engineered for UV stability and to be yellowing-free even after prolonged outdoor exposure. HDa produces a glossy cured link layer that is highly flexible, allowing it to bend with flexible substrates without becoming brittle. Printcolor 700 HDa can be used with most pad printing and many screen printing inks. However, to take full advantage of the UV stability and flexibility possible with HDa the best ink partners are the pad printing Series 752, Series 784, Series 792 and Series 711. Refer to the Technical Information and 700-HDa MSDS documents for more details.
What we say about Printcolor 700 HDa
The unique chemical crosslinking that gives HDa it’s flexibility and outdoor stability takes more time or temperature to reach full cured hardness compared with 700 HDi hardener. This may present handling issues for high throughput applications such as industrial processing lines. For commercial printers longer curing may simply mean postponing product repacking until the following afternoon rather than on the morning after printing – especially during cooler months.
An advantage of the slightly longer curing times is increased pot life. Ink mixed with HDa has an average pot life of 6-8 hours (and often longer) depending on your ink type and ambient conditions. Printcolor 700 HDa requires temperatures above 15 degrees C for chemical crosslinking to take place, ideal curing conditions are at room temperature – 20 degrees or higher. You can increase print durability and reduce curing time by oven baking the printed product. Mixing ratios of ink to HDa will vary with the on ink series your using and your end application, these are listed in the technical leaflets and on ink can labels.
The good oil from our trade print room
- We always use 700 HDa when printing with Series 784 (it just runs better for longer than with HDi) and Series 792 (it’s a flexible ink and requires a flexible hardener).
- HDa is specifically formulated for two characteristics; UV stability for long term outdoor use, and an elastic cured ink layer useful on flexible substrates like leather, stress balls or hinged PP for example.
- When using 700 HDa we generally print and ship the next day in summer (approx. 24 hours in 25 degree + temperatures) but would leave for 36 to 48 hours when curing at room temperature over winter months (less than 22 degrees). Curing time can be reduced by increasing temperature either by baking in an oven or moving product to a heated room.
- Hardener going ‘off’ in the can is a complaint we hear made of all brands. We guarantee if you routinely clean the spout and replace the cap properly after each pour, you will get full use of your can of HDa right down to the very last drop – we do.
- DON’T use more hardener than the recommended amount. If you overdose ink with hardener you’ll lengthen curing time and risk reducing print adhesion and durability.
- You cannot use HDa with metallic gold in some ink Series. The cooper in gold metallics reacts with HDa and acts as a catalyst for the hardener, giving you about 20 minutes of pot life. If you need to use HDa for a gold print, we have mixing recipes based on metallic silver that will produce a stunning gold ink fully compatible with HDa hardener.
- We use HDa a lot in summer to extend ink pot life in hot and humid working conditions.
Why Use Printcolor Pad Printing Inks?
Well let me give you my take on the why, and you can make your own conclusion. We talk to a lot of printers about the getting right ink for their pad printing projects. And with good reason… The ink you use makes a world of difference to your work. With the right ink you can produce more, with greater consistency and quality, in less time and for less money.
Working too hard? Change ink… and change your business!
Clearly, with so much at stake, you want to choose wisely and the first thing you should know is that ink brands ARE different.
We often talk to people who are doing a tremendous amount of unnecessary and time-consuming work, not realising that their ink was making their whole production process problematic. They just thought that sometimes pad printing could be… well… difficult. Once we matched their project or application with the right ink for the job, efficiency (and profits!) went up immediately. And stress levels fell. Leading Swiss ink manufacturer Printcolor, has developed a wide range of high performance pad printing inks formulated to perform well in the press, be easy to use, ecologically friendly, and versatile in high demand production environments.
What we’re sharing comes from YEARS of hands-on experience.
If you want to REALLY know about ink, you need to talk to someone who has used it on a daily basis. Here at Colour Components, the information we are sharing with you comes from years of hands-on experience running a multiple award-winning trade printing business. In the process we have tried a lot of different inks, from many manufacturers, in all types of pad printing applications. So, when it comes to ink, you could say that we have ‘been around the block’.
Our own experience (together with feedback from our customers), has led us to use and sell only one brand, Printcolor High Performance Inks, which are made in Switzerland. As well as our own practical knowledge, as exclusive agent we have the expertise of Printcolor’s many technicians and chemists on call — so you can count on us to be here for you with the right advice and answers to any questions you may have.
Here are some of our reasons for being confident that you too will find Printcolor inks to be such good value for your business…
Real, measurable value for money.
If you’ve been pad printing for a while, you may already suspect that using a cheap ink can actually costs you more. The time you lose struggling with colour accuracy, rubbing of ink that just hasn’t stuck when it should, and messing around with different thinners and additives to get the print to transfer off the pad every time… it all eats away at your profit, and And over time, it hurts.
None of that happens with a high quality ink formulated specifically for pad printing, and that is why we recommend Printcolor.
We have clients who’s profitability increased dramatically when they made the change to Printcolor… literally, by thousands of dollars per year. The reason? With Printcolor, you eliminate problems of adhesion and poor colour coverage that leads to job rejection, you increase printroom efficiency because you’re not endlessly fiddling with the ink – you will just get more profitable work done, and you’ll use less ink and time to do it.
Higher opacity than any other ink on the market gives you solid colour accuracy.
Put simply, pad printing inks are essentially made up of pigment and binder. Pigment is expensive, and some manufactures maintain their product price point by using less of it in their formulations, leaving you, the printer, to struggle with the weak colour that is the result. You may get away with it in some screen printing applications where a thick layers of colour is printed, but never with pad printing. Pad printers lay down such a thin layer of ink that pigment content is critical for colour accuracy and coverage. We have all been there… A client wants you to print yellow on a black component, you have three options:
- Recommend they don’t do it because you know the yellow won’t cover well enough to give the bright yellow print that’s expected — which just makes you look like you haven’t the expertise to do the job.
- Do it anyway and hope the customer doesn’t reject it — which can damage your relationship.
- Waste time putting down a white first or double or triple hitting the part — which turns it into a multi-colour print job, when you can only competitively quote for a straight forward one colour print.
Ouch!
We found years ago that Printcolor ink puts an end to all that. Printcolor inks are pigment rich, giving them amazingly high opacity and excellent coverage. That means you get beautifully accurate, solid, pleasing colour, every time. And, because Printcolor use the best quality pigments, their Mixing System requires only 13 colours to mix ANY PMS, HKS or RAL shade – not the 16 plus colours you need to keep on hand when using other ink brands.
Your customers will appreciate the quality work you produce, and the price you can do it for, and that helps you ‘bullet proof’ your relationship against competitors, ensuring a more stable, secure business.
Easy to use. Easy to Change. Seriously.
Many pad printers are reluctant to change ink brands. They think it may be difficult or costly. Maybe it’s better the devil you know… It is actually the opposite. Changing to Printcolor won’t cost you money, and it’s easy – amazingly so. You’ll wonder why you didn’t change sooner!
For starters, you wont have to waste what’s left of your old ink brand. After all you’ve paid money for that! In most cases you can use up what is left of your old ink with your new Printcolor mixing system. Although, once you experience how easy Printcolor is to use, you may just end up putting that old brand in the bin anyway… we did!
We often hear back from delighted customers who have struggled with a job or application in the past, who tell us “ I mixed it up the way you said, put it in the press, and it just worked!”
Well frankly, that’s the way it OUGHT to be!
A clean bill of health (and safety!)
Australian occupational health and safety regulations for exposure to chemicals and heavy metals are often set at minimum world standards. But, as with everything else Printcolor do, they don’t aim for the minimum on health and safety.
Printcolor are deeply committed to workplace safety and the environment. Their inks are BVQI (ISO 9001) certified to be free of heavy metals, chlorinated and brominated organic compounds, organic tin, asbestos and formaldehyd. Under stringent European standards these inks are acceptable for printing toys, and many have Certificate IV clearance for use in pharmaceutical and surgical applications. Safe inks are good for the people in your printroom, they give your clients confidence in the safety of their printed products, and have less impact on our environment.
Specialist pad printing ink.
One of the many things we like about Printcolor is that they don’t try and kid you with generic formulations. Unlike budget brands, Printcolor pad printing inks are NOT screen inks that have been re-labelled. For Printcolor ‘pad printing’ ink means just that, an ink specifically formulated for pad printing applications containing richer pigments, flow agents, antistatic elements and additives to promote print transfer and adhesion.
Printcolor make a excellent range of universal pad printing inks that you will use for most of your day to day printing, and they also make highly specialised pad printing products too. These include one component inks for printing untreated polypropylene, jet drying inks for high speed closure printing, highly flexible inks for rubberised surfaces, UV inhibitors for outdoor applications, anti-abrasion paste for touch panel printing – to name but a few.
Printcolor make the RIGHT ink for the job. It shows every time you use it.
Talk to us TODAY about the right ink for your application.
The team here at Colour Components have years of experience, and are experts when it comes to ink and its application. We are keen to help you with advice and solutions, so you can get more done, at a higher quality AND for more profit!
Contact us, we’re happy to help!
