Intertek ASG Laboratory

Analysis of Inks

Intertek ASG has vast experience in working with ink manufacturers. Our broad coverage of chemical and physical analysis techniques allows us to perform "complete" customer problem solving.

Inks for Food or Pharmaceutical Packaging

Activites undertaken for ink manufacturers include:

Ink / coating product formulation characterisation and impurity structural elucidation
- NMR, MS, MS/MS, LC-MS/MS, vibrational spectroscopy, UV-vis, fluorescence, viscosity, headspace GC
High Resolution Microscopy for analysis of:

particulate pigment systems (TEM)
compatibility of printing technology e.g. printheads with ink (SEM)
coated surfaces and multilayer systems (SEM, TEM, SPM and interferometry)

Advanced data handling solutions where data manipulation and interpretation are required
- statistical measurements of variance between the properties of ink batches
- this is particularly useful when understanding printed property data (optical density, L*a*b* colour space, etc.)
Working with polymeric species and providing analytical support for a variety of chemistries, including acrylated urethanes, epoxies, polyesters, and acrylics (GPC, Pyrolysis GC, etc.)
Trace heavy metals and residual inorganic impurities in material Ash/ ICP-AES or ICP-MS in product formulation
Physical chemistry property determination (pKa, LogP, LogD, solubility etc.) for formulation components
Forensic type investigations into ink contamination during manufacturing process (e.g. plasticisers absorbed from hoses, etc.)
UV Cure technologies:

UV-Cure ink formulation characterisation and impurity structural elucidation including the properties and interaction of the Monomers, Photoinitiators, Pigment, Additives and Oligomers
DSC & Photo DSC for the study of complex thermal properties at various degrees of curing as an indicator for the degree of cross-linking.
FTIR to quantify and monitor residual functional groups