For water-based and solvent ink drying techniques, the answer is speed, affordability and quality. If they can create products that can make progress in both directions without lowering the standards of third parties, they are doing well in the industry. If they can build something that can move in three directions, then they have a real winner. This is what happened when Adphos introduced the NIR (near infrared) drying system in the mail and printing industry.

 

    The older infrared system USES a combination of heat and forced air to dry the water base and solvent ink. The energy it USES to power ink dryers greatly increases the overall cost of mailing. It also has a certain speed limit.

 

    But near infrared dryer has improved in power consumption and speed. Near infrared technology not only USES heat to dry ink. In addition to heat, it USES infrared energy of a specific wavelength to absorb ink. It is also much easier to focus on, so the energy is used only for drying ink, rather than just heating the whole mail. This alone reduces energy consumption (making it cheaper) and makes it more accurate in applications (providing better quality and reliability).

 

    These are big advances, and clearly offer better quality at a reasonable price. But the real question is whether the NIR method used for dry ink actually increases productivity. The answer is "yes!" Using near infrared technology, according to the ink and substrate you use, you can dry ink at a rate of 30% to 50% faster than conventional infrared technology.

 

    But near infrared technology goes further. It will enable you to print on more surfaces using water or solvent based ink without marking or blotting. This makes the system more versatile than previously available.