When a designer hands over final artwork to the printer, one small but decisive choice is often overlooked: which ink? The ink you choose affects production, compliance, product performance—and even the brand story that customers smell when they open the package. Broadly speaking, you’ll be choosing between two families: water-based inks, which are mild and low-emission, and solvent-based inks, which are fast and robust. Here’s a practical guide to help you pick the right cup.
En tant que expert flexible packaging manufacturer, Imprimerie Zhongjia is willing to share with you a guide that helps you to pick the right one for your project.
The Environmental Case for Water-Based Inks
The biggest advantage of encres à base d'eau is environmental performance. Modern waterborne formulations use water and benign co-solvents rather than high volumes of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). That translates into dramatically lower emissions at the press, far less need for large-scale fume treatment (RTOs), and a safer working environment for press operators—no thick respirators, no constant solvent odor.
From a regulatory standpoint, this matters: water-based systems typically clear stricter lists of restricted substances (e.g., substances of very great concern under REACH) more easily than solvent systems. If your packaging goes to food, baby products, or exports to Europe and North America, regulatory and customs compliance around ink chemistries is increasingly non-negotiable.
Performance & Productivity: the Classic Trade-Off
Historically, solvent-based inks have been king on speed and adhesion:
- Solvent inks dry fast and bond aggressively to non-absorbent substrates (PET, metallized film, foil), making them ideal for high-speed rotogravure and flexo lines running 200 m/min or more.
- They also withstand extreme conditions—freeze-thaw cold chains and prolonged high-temperature steam or retort processes—better than most older water-based systems.
However, waterborne ink technology has advanced. New polyurethane dispersions and improved drying systems allow encres à base d'eau to approach the print speeds once exclusive to solvent inks. Modern setups can hit production speeds comparable to solvent lines, and peel strength on PET films has improved—typical modern waterborne peel figures can reach ~5.2 N/15mm versus ~6.0 N/15mm for solvent systems, a practical gap for most finished goods.
In short, for the majority of consumer food packaging—chips, snacks, frozen and chilled items—encres à base d'eau now deliver competitive print quality and adhesion. For extreme industrial scenarios (multi-year frozen storage at –40°C or long, sustained high-temperature sterilization), solvent inks may still be preferred.
Cost: Don’t Judge by Unit Price Alone
At face value, solvent inks usually cost less per kilo. But a full-cost analysis changes the picture:
- Solvent printing often requires expensive exhaust and VOC control equipment, high energy use (RTO fuel), ongoing environmental compliance costs, and potential shutdowns for regulatory inspections.
- Water-based systems may have a higher ink unit price, but they eliminate or reduce those downstream costs. Many converters report total-cost improvement after switching: lower capital expenditure on emissions control, reduced energy bills, and fewer regulatory interruptions.
For example, after converting part of our production to water-based ink processes, we observed a 2–5% reduction in overall printing costs and a significant drop in VOC emissions—on the order of hundreds of tonnes per year—thanks to reduced solvent consumption and simpler abatement needs.
Brand & Consumer Experience: the Overlooked ROI
Beyond compliance and cost, ink chemistry contributes to brand perception and safety:
- No one wants a residual solvent smell in a food bag. A encre à base d'eau package helps ensure the aroma that greets customers is the product’s aroma—not solvents.
- For baby foods, snacks for children, and health-conscious brands, the communication value of low-VOC, low-migration inks is high. Consumers increasingly reward brands that tell credible environmental and safety stories.
If your brand positioning emphasizes health, sustainability, or family-friendly credentials, selecting encres à base d'eau can be an authentic part of that narrative.
Practical Selection Guide
Ask the following before you choose:
- Where will the package be sold and stored? Export markets with strict chemical rules push toward water-based chemistries.
- What substrate are you printing on? Highly non-absorbent metallized films still favor solvent systems unless you validate modern water-based adhesion.
- What are end-use thermal demands? Retort, extended steaming, or extremely long chilled/frozen storage may still require solvent inks.
- What is your tolerance for environmental capex and ongoing compliance costs? If you want to avoid RTOs and high VOC costs, water-based is compelling.
- Is brand perception part of the ROI? Sustainability-conscious brands gain extra value from water-based claims.
Final Thought
One sentence: choose based on product positioning and real use-case rather than lab absolutes. If sustainability, export compliance, and consumer safety are central, encres à base d'eau are the right default for most food flexible packaging projects today. If your product requires extreme performance at the limits of processing or storage, solvent inks remain a practical, proven option.
Want to see the difference in person? We welcome you to visit our production line—seeing printing, drying, and peel-strength testing side-by-side is the fastest way to make an informed decision for your packaging project.
À propos de Zhongjia Printing
Imprimerie Zhongjia est un fabricant expert d'emballages flexibles providing wholesale custom flexible packaging supply for brands that value safety, clarity, and sustainability. Our facility operates under internationally recognized safety requirements, including standards applied to child-related and pregnant-related products, ensuring every pouch and film structure is produced with rigorous quality control.
A key strength of our production system is the adoption of encre à base d'eau and fully water-based printing workflows. This approach reduces solvent emissions, improves food-contact safety, and delivers clean, vibrant graphics without compromising environmental responsibility.