Week 2

April 24, 2017 April 28, 2017

Finished Products Quality Checking and Preparation of Treating Solutions

This week, the trainee continued the testing for incoming raw materials. The
parameters for the inks are the following: Viscosity, Density, Total Nonvolatile (TNV),
Adhesion, and Blocking.
The same set of parameters were used for the quality checking of finished inks.
To get the viscosity, a Zahn cup is used. A Zahn cup is a stainless steel cup with a tiny
hole drilled in the center of the bottom of the cup. There are various Zahn Cup #, where
large number cup sizes are used when viscosity is high, while low number cup sizes are
used when viscosity is low. The cup is completely filled with the substance, and using a
stopwatch, the time is measured until the liquid streaming out of it breaks up.
The density is determined by using a density cup. As for getting the TNV, a small
amount of sample (ideally between 0.50-1.0g) is placed inside a 150C oven for 30
minutes. After all the moisture has evaporated, the sample is then weighed again using
an analytical balance. The percent TNV is the weight of the dry sample divided by the
original weight of the sample.
Before the trainee filed a report, she used a spectrophotometer (X-Rite) to the
swatches or drawdowns to accurately determine whether the sample ink is comparable
to the standard ink. CIELAB (CIE stands for Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage) is
used to compare the colors of two objects. The expressions for these color differences
are DL* Da* Db* (D or D symbolizes "delta," which indicates difference). DL* is the
difference in lightness/darkness value, Da* is the difference on red/green axis, Db* is the
difference on yellow/blue axis and lastly, DE* is the total color difference value. The DE
value should not exceed a value of 2.00. The color strength should be around 96-100%
to be considered Passed.
The trainee was also taught how to prepare treating dyne solutions for the
substrate. It is used in identifying the treated side of packaging films and measuring
surface energy. The solution was prepared by mixing Ethyl Cellosolve and Formamide.
The volume of each substance depends on the Wetting Tension (dynes/cm). Blue dye (in
powder form) was added to make the solution visible on the surface of the plastic film.

Noted by:

_________________________________
Joselito Miguel
Ink Making Department Senior Supervisor