Digital Primers: Surface Preparation for Industrial Inkjet Printing

Digital primers are conditioning coatings applied to the substrate before it passes under the print heads. Their job is to govern how ink is laid down and absorbed: they limit penetration into the fibre, speed up drying and raise both colour intensity and print definition. On porous supports such as corrugated board, where ink tends to spread and lose density, they make the difference between an acceptable result and true graphic quality. They are applied in line from a conventional coating unit, without adding a stage to the production process.

Operational Benefits on Press

• Absorption control: pigment stays at the surface instead of sinking into the fibre, giving more density and vibrancy for the same ink consumption.
• Faster drying: ink sets quickly, reducing set-off and marking during stacking or rewinding and allowing higher running speeds.
• Sharper detail: by containing dot spread, small text and fine screens come out clean.
• In-line application: metered from a flexographic or gravure coating unit, with no dedicated equipment and no extra pass.