Top China Manufacturer of Screen Ink, Screen Printing ink, Printing ink.
IMD/IML/FIM Technology Screen Printing Ink
In-Mold Decoration Screen Printing Ink
IMD(In-Mold Decoration) Technology Screen Printing Inks:
IMD technology is applied to different products, and there are differences in material selection, technical processes, etc. For example, printing substrates usually include PET, PC, PC/acrylic composite sheets, PP and other materials; ink models involve halogen and halogen-free, Weather-resistant and non-weather-resistant, high stretch and low stretch options; injection molding materials include ABS, PC, ABS & PC, TPU, PS, acrylic and other options; injection molding processes include front injection molding, reverse injection molding, front and back injection molding at the same time, etc.
Today I want to discuss with you the common problems and solutions during the manufacturing process of IMD products that use PET sheets as the printing substrate and ABS as the injection molding material. They are usually used in the home appliance panel industry.
Before talking about this topic, let us first understand the two main materials of IMD ink and PET sheet, because most common problems that occur during the manufacturing process of IMD products are closely related to these two.
IMD Process (In-Mold Decoration)
IMD process is the printed film using different types into the mold, after injection molding, to get a printing texture of the molding, combined with product design, mold technology and traditional post-processing technology as one of the process technology. The main application materials include sheet, resin, ink three parts. According to the different process and product structure shape, IMD is roughly divided into three kinds: In-Mold Label, referred to as IML-2D, relatively expensive. The most widely used and promoted IMD should be the In-Mold Roller transfer on Lokia mobile phone, referred to as IMR-2D In-Mold Forming, referred to as IMF-3D.
IML Process (in-mold labeling)
Cutting material -- flat printing -- ink drying and fixing -- protective film -- punching positioning holes -- Thermoforming -- cutting peripheral shape -- Material injection
molding process is as follows:
Specific instructions are as follows:
1) Cutting material: Cut the rolled Film into square blocks of designed size for printing and forming processes.
2) Flat printing: according to the required ICONS and texts to make Film nets, and print ICONS and texts on the cut film square blocks.
3) Ink drying and fixing: the printed Film square is placed in a high temperature oven to dry, the purpose is to fix the IML ink.
4) Paste protective Film: Avoid the printed film surface when punching the positioning hole process, sometimes need to paste a single or double layer protective film.
5) Punching positioning hole: hot forming positioning hole must be accurate. The positioning hole of the cutting process is sometimes punched in advance.
6) Thermoforming (high pressure or copper mold): After heating the printed film, use a high pressure machine or copper mold to form it in a preheated state.
7) Cut the outer shape: cut off the waste material of the formed solid film.
8) Material injection molding: the film with the same three-dimensional shape as the front mold is placed on the front mold after molding, and the IML product is injected. The application field of IML is very wide now.
At this stage, it is used in mobile phones, white goods industry, and will develop to anti-counterfeiting marks in the future, and its products in the automotive industry have good sunscreen performance, can be used for signs on cars with hardness up to 2H~3H, can be used for mobile phone lenses and other keys with a life of more than 5 million times, and can be used for rice cookers.
IMD printing inks, In mold decoration printing ink, PET panels.