Hardener – Printcolor 700 GL
Printcolor 700 GL hardener is used with epoxy based pad printing inks to produce excellent adhesion on glass and ceramics.
The official technical stuff from Printcolor
Printcolor 700 GL is specifically formulated for used with Series 750 epoxy based pad printing ink. 700 GL epoxy crosslinking produces an extremely resistant and adhesive bond onto glass and ceramic, as well as high luster metal surfaces like chrome and brass. The high reactivity of GL hardener means only a small amount is required for to achieve maximum print adhesion. A mixing ratio of 20:1 is recommended for most jobs ( 5% by weight to a maximum of 10% for demanding applications). Maximum cured hardness and water resistance is achieved by heat curing (baking) in an oven at 140 – 160 degrees C for 20 to 30 minutes.
Refer to the Technical Information and 700-GL MSDS documents for more details.
What we say about Printcolor 700 GL
Printcolor 700 GL is an extremely effective product. It is economical as you only need a small amount for each job, and you don’t need any special thinner or other additives so it’s really easy to use. 700 GL also has an excellent pot life and will give you trouble free printing for up to 8 hours or more depending on ambient conditions.
Pad printing on ceramics is commonly referred to as a ‘low-fire’ branding method and not recommended for use on items subjected to abrasive commercial dish washing. On a practical level we know of several caterers who are happy to use pad printed glassware in particular, as it is not subjected to abrasive washing and is replaced regularly due to breakages and loss. Pad printing is so much more cost effective than high-fire printing or etching and is therefore an attractive economical option for this segment of the market.
The particular advantage of pad printing ceramics is that you can achieve accurate and vibrant colour not reproducible with the pigments used in high fire (glaze) inks. Colour accuracy is increasing important to corporate clients. 700 GL with Series 750 ink performs very well on promotional ceramics, producing images that will outlast most coffee cups used in domestic and office situations. Series 750 and 700 GL perform beautifully on glassware too, producing an extremely solid ink layer on clear glass even with metallic colours. It is excellent for decorative applications such as glass ornaments, trophies and consumer items.
Printcolor 700 GL is a very aggressive hardener and works well on many glossy, hard to print surfaces like polished metal and chromed finishes. It does need an elevated temperature to properly cure the ink to full hardness. Even raising the temperature a little to just 45 or 50 degrees for several hours will achieve far superior results than curing for the same time at room temperature.
The good oil from our trade print room
- Partial print curing can be achieved at room temperatures but it will take several days or even weeks. Full chemical bonding of GL hardener and corresponding print durability will only be achieved through heat curing.
- 700 GL is designed for use with epoxy resins; Series 750 is the only Printcolor ink you should use with 700 GL.
- Hardener going ‘off’ in the bottle is a complaint we hear made of all brands. I guarantee if you routinely clean the spout and replace the lid properly after each pour, you will get full use of your bottle of 700 GL 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 will lengthen curing time and risk reducing print adhesion and durability.
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!
