Trivia Test: How Well Do You Know Your Ink?

It happens—pressure builds, rolls clog, blades break, plates swell, substrates shed or absorb ink. These perils place the outcome and quality of a pressrun in jeopardy. Steps can be taken to minimize—if not outright avoid—such mishaps. Knowledge and skill are required to assess the situation and act accordingly. It takes a mere matter of seconds to save or ruin a job.

Basic knowledge of how inks, anilox rolls, doctor blades and other materials interact proves essential to keeping the press running. Here, with the assist of Siegwerk, we present a simple opportunity to test your knowledge of fundamentals. Answers, as well as observations on why that choice or choices is/are the correct one(s), appear on the next page.

1. What reduces excessive dot gain on the substrate when printing?

  • a. Replacing the printing blade
  • b. Changing the printing plate
  • c. Reducing the pressure setting
  • d. All of the above

2. What type of ink is most popular in the U.S. for surface printing on polyolefin substrates?

  • a. Nitrocellulose with polyurethane
  • b. Nitrocellulose with polyamide
  • c. Polyurethane
  • d. Vinyl

3. Why are flexo inks limited to less than 20 percent acetate solvent?

  • a. Drying speed
  • b. Photopolymer plates are damaged at higher levels
  • c. Solubility of the resins used
  • d. Odor

4. Ink adhesion is attributed to which ink component?

  • a. Solvent
  • b. Pigment
  • c. Resin
  • d. Wax additives

5. The chambered inking system has what two blades?

  • a. Doctor blade and wiping blade
  • b. Doctor blade and back-up blade
  • c. Doctor blade and containment blade

6. The chambered inking system was designed for what use?

  • a. Reducing ink usage
  • b. Improving productivity
  • c. Improving print quality
  • d. All of the above

7. Ink performance can be attributed to which of the following criteria?

  • a. Volume of the anilox
  • b. Blade selection for necessary print reproduction
  • c. Using a plastic containment blade as opposed to a steel containment blade
  • d. All of the above