THE MARKING OF POLYSTYRENE CONTAINERS

INTAGLIO PRINTING

It. I. Zaslavskaya, A. T. Martynyuk, K. I. Kharats, and L. N. Deikina

BY INDIRECT

UDC 615.014.88.~655.35

Until recently, polys tyrene containers for the packaging of drugs were marked by the offset printing method: an i l lustrat ion was t r ans fe r r ed from a rel ief metal plate to an elastic surface and from that to the container. Under these conditions, the quality of the marking was unsat isfactory: the printing ink slowly faded and was poorly fixed to the polystyrene surface.

In the Kiev Branch of the All-Union Scientific-Research Institute (VNII) of Printing, various methods for marking polystyrene have been studied. It has been established that the best results are ensured by the indirect method of intaglio printing, in which the illustration is transferred from an intaglio printing form (a metal cylinder with the incised image of the text, brand marks, etc.) to an elastic cylinder and from it to the surface to be printed [i]. In this method, the image is reproduced more clearly than by offset printing.

To perform the new method of marking, the Kiev Branch of VNII for Printing has proposed a suitable reconstruction of the offset printing machine used by the 8th March Moscow Chemical and Pharmaceutical Factory. The complex of equipment for preparing the printing forms has also been made in the factory.

Printing on the machine by the method of indirect intaglio printing is carried out with special fast- drying inks. The Kiev Branch of VNII for Printing together with the Central Factory Laboratory has developed blue, red, and black inks of two types: based on butyl acetate and alcoholic. As with ordinary intaglio printing inks, the inks for marking polystyrene containers are colloidal solutions consisting of binders and pigments. The binders are solutions of resins in volatile organic solvents and the pigment part consists of organic pigments and lakes. The formulations of the inks were developed with account taken of the necessity for their firm adherence to the surface of the polystyrene containers. The technol- ogTv" of the preparation of the inks is simple and does not differ from that of the preparation of ordinary intaglio printing inks.

The inks have undergone a successful test at the 8th March Chemical and Pharmaceutical Factory performed by the Kiev Branch of VNII for Printing together with the Central Laboratory and Design Office of the Factory. It has been established that the inks possess the required printing-technological proper- ties, adhere rapidly and firmly to the polystyrene vessels, and give bright and sharp images.

i.

LITERATURE CITED

A. Ya. Donner, A. T. Martynyuk, et al., Khim.-Farmats. Zh., i, No. 7, 59 (1967).

All-Union Scientific-Research Institute of Complex Printing Problems, Kiev Branch. Translated from Khimiko-Farmatsevticheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 5, No. 8, p. 47, August, 1971. Original article submitted April 14, 1970.

�9 1972 Consultants Bureau, a division of Plenum Publishing Corporation, 227 [Vest 17th Street, New York, N. Y. 10017. All rights reserved. This article cannot be reproduced for any purpose whatsoever without permission of the publisher. A copy of this article is available from the publisher for $15.00.

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