Ink is an organic liquid or paste that contains colored pigments or dyes that are used to produced colored images, texts or designs. It is mostly used with pens, quills and brushes etc for drawing or writing. The solvent ink is a relatively less expensive type of the ink introduced in the markets a decade ago. This is used to work as pigment for the ink jet printers that are used for printing purposes everywhere now. The solvent is an organic base used for the pigment to get dissolved in instead of water. The inexpensive solvent ink has opened doors in market for the ink jet printers for outdoor printing. The ink jet printers have been selling out in marketing large numbers and they are in affording of even ordinary people. There are many applications of the solvent but the most important of them is their adaptability in the printing products that are to be used outdoors because of its ability to adhere to the non-absorbent materials. This make them fade proof, water proof and even scratch proof thus making them very useful in such outdoor printing products.
The solvent ink consists of three components; the carrier fluid, the colored pigment and resin. The solvent part refers to the oil based carrier fluid only that keeps the other parts of the ink from drying and it gets dissolved after being jet out of the ink jet printer. The dyes or pigments used to color the solvent are provided in powdered form that sticks to the base with the help of resin which also protects it from damage and produce a perfect color to the ink. Another form of the solvent ink is the eco-solvent type ink that is basically the non water based ink consisting of extracts of mineral oil. The term eco-solvent is used actually for mild or soft inks and they are preferably used for printing purposes because of the advantages of slow dry time and the need of heating mechanism in the printers.These solvents are not accurately weather proof but are very reliable comparative to the traditional solvents.
Another type if the aggressive solvent ink which are widely known by their qualities that are the hard and true solvents. It is a fast drying form of the ink since it uses a very quick absorbing formula in contrast to the eco solvents. No heating mechanism is required for these inks to remain active within the printer. The surfaces which cannot tolerate much heat are suitable for aggressive solvent printings. The aggressive solvents are both scratch proof and water proof which make them advantageous to the eco solvents. The costs of both the aggressive and mild solvent ink are compared on the basis of their use. Although the mild solvents are 10% cheap than aggressive one but if the customer uses the printing products in bulk then he must opt for the aggressive solvents since the manufacturers offer a large amount of ink on the insert options saving the offset of the mild solvents.