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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #101794

Title: ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY PRINTING INK AND LUBRICANTS

Author
item Erhan, Sevim

Submitted to: World Congress International Society for Fat Research
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/1/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The current United States market for news inks is greater than 500 million pounds, for sheetfed inks is greater than 100 million pounds, and for heatset inks greater than 400 million pounds. The worldwide market for these inks is estimated to be at least twice that of the domestic market. Because of this significant potential market, we formulated news, sheetfed, and heatset web offset inks using 100% vegetable oil-based vehicles. Physical properties and performance of these inks meet or exceed the industry standards. They are cost competitive with petroleum- based inks and have better environmental properties such as biodegradability, lower VOC, and good deinkability. U.S. Patent (5,122,188) has been granted for news ink vehicles and formulations, and a U.S. Patent (5,713,990) has been granted for sheetfed and heatset ink formulations. Vegetable oils also have potential as renewable sources for biodegradable lubricants. The most prospective market for biodegradable lubricants is hydraulic fluids. Vegetable oils have already proven to be a renewable and biodegradable substitute for mineral oil-based fluids, but their low oxidative stability and poor low temperature properties could not be sufficiently improved by additives. It also turned out that synthetic esters and polyalphaolefins had much better performance and relatively high biodegradability. Therefore, vegetable oils have to be modified chemically to successfully compete with the synthetic lubricants.