Today many water-based digital ink providers offer water-based inks which are food-safe and nontoxic. Certain water-based inks comply with the most stringent global food safety regulations and industry guidelines such as the Swiss Ordinance and the Nestle Guidance. In addition, water-based inks can reduce the environmental impact of food packaging production since no additional barrier material such as film is required to prevent the migration of ink components.

However, when compared to UV printing, water-based inks are slow to dry and are difficult to apply onto high-hold out substrates due to the high surface energy of the water component. To help eliminate these drying issues, Prime UV-IR created a high -performance Hybrid drying solution named Prime’s COMPACT IR-AK1 Dryer. Combining both Prime’s high energy Infra-Red emitters with a powerful Air Impingement Knife enables this compact dryer to very efficiently dry water based inks utilizing very little space while being energy efficient.

Digital printing refers to a wide range of modern printing methods, such as direct thermal printing, dot matrix printing, electrostatic printing, inkjet printing, ion deposition printing, laser printing, and thermal transfer printing. The greatest benefit of digital printing is its variable data capability. This allows each piece of print to include customized, variable content which the other printing forms are not able to do. Every printed piece can include different names, addresses, codes and/or numbering.

As plates are not necessary, digital printing also excels when low quantities of print are needed.