ADHESION PROMOTER FOR PLASTICS
Natron® PP3 adhesion promoter for plastics is a special primer formulated to guarantee printing ink adhesion on difficult-to-print low surface energy plastics such as polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), Polyacetal (POM), Nylon, EPT rubber, acetal, EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) and powder-coated substrates. PP3 is an adhesion promoter, anti-static agent, and cleaner designed for use with UV and LED curable inks on plastic substrates.
Polypropylene and polyethylene are common plastics that have low surface energy making them impossible for great ink adhesion. This adhesion promoter for plastics increases the surface energy, which in turn improves the ink-substrate bond.
270 Series UV ink and 314 Series UV ink are ideal for printing on plastics. However, there are some plastics that are more challenging than others. These are low energy plastics according to this article: “How to Bond Low Surface Energy (LSE) Plastics.” This low surface energy property inhibits an ink’s ability to properly ‘wet out’ or bond to the plastic surface. This causes problems with many plastic inks leading to weak adhesion or failure of the ink to adhere at all onto the plastic substrate. For this reason, you need Natron™ PP3 promoter for plastics.
To learn more about plastics check out this video by National Geographic.
Characteristics of Low surface energy plastics, or LSE plastics
They are generally glossy, smooth and have a low melting point so they’re easy to process, even at high volumes, and they’re low-density, which helps with light-weighting. Because low surface energy is the primary characteristic of this group, they’re all more difficult to bond. This primer works with all LSE plastic substrates and will work on any plastic substrate.
The Natron PP3 Adhesion Promoter is used to:
- Improve product surface for better bond
- Guarantee ink adhesion polypropylene & polyethylene
The PP3 primer for plastics comes in several sizes for different needs.
Check out Priming is the solution article here
Using the Natron PP3 Adhesion Promoter
Lastly, TP Series is an all purpose ink for pad and screen printing on plastics. With the primer, the printed surface is enhanced by this advanced colorless plastic primer. The primer cleans the surface and prepares the substrate to receive the ink.
Learn more about printing pre-treatment methods and UV ink primers for inkjet printing
Another substrate that is a challenge to print is glass. Learn more about G1 Glass primer.
