Mechanical Abrasion
Lightly sanding or abrading the surface can create a rough texture, providing more surface area for the ink to adhere to. This method is particularly effective for metals and hard plastics.
Proper Curing
Proper curing of UV ink is crucial for ensuring strong adhesion and durable prints. Insufficient curing can lead to poor adhesion and print durability issues. Adjusting the curing parameters, such as UV lamp intensity and exposure time, based on print speeds, can help achieve optimal results. Regular maintenance of the lamps, including cleaning the UV lamp glass, is essential for proper UV light emission. Additionally, maintaining the correct distance between the UV lamp and the printing surface is important. UV printers are calibrated to have the UV curing lamps at an optimal distance from the product for proper curing. Increasing that distance can result in improper curing, leading to poor adhesion and print durability issues.
Environmental Control
Maintaining a controlled printing environment helps in achieving consistent adhesion. Factors like temperature, humidity, and dust levels can impact the printing process and adhesion quality.
Testing and Quality Control
Regularly testing the adhesion of prints ensures that any issues are detected early. This is highly recommended considering materials can change across various batches and printing with expired inks can also impact durability. Traditional nail scratch, cross-hatch adhesion tests, tape tests, and pull-off tests are commonly used methods to evaluate adhesion strength.
Consideration of Substrate and Application
Understanding the intended use of the printed object is crucial. For example, printed artwork displayed in a museum typically isn't exposed to abrasion, moisture, or extreme conditions, making most substrates suitable. On the other hand, a printed mug, which undergoes frequent handling and exposure to wear and tear, demands the best possible adhesion. Offering customers various materials with different adhesion levels (poor, better, best) can be beneficial, especially if the item is for novelty or daily use. Additionally, some materials may have hydrophobic coatings applied during manufacturing, designed to repel liquids and hinder ink adhesion. In such cases, the aforementioned methods may have little or no effect on improving ink adhesion.