Products for Lithographic and Letterpress Inks

Neutral Hydrocarbon Resins: These resins are produced by the thermal polymerization of dicyclopentadiene with other hydrocarbon monomers and co-dimers. They are low molecular weight resins which find use in various dispersion and vehicle applications due to their low cost and working compatibility with a wide range of other resins and modifiers.

• Pigment Dispersions – These resins find broad use as dispersion resins because of their low cost and very low solution viscosities. They allow for a high resin to pigment ratio in the dispersion and final flush while maintaining pigment loading.
• Letdown Varnishes and Vehicles – These resins are used mainly for their low cost as an extender resin or vehicle modifier in lithographic vehicles. In addition to their low cost, they are used to improve solubility, reduce water pickup and modify rheology.

Modified Hydrocarbon Resins: These are neutral hydrocarbon resins which have been modified with a variety of non-hydrocarbon reactants to improve performance. The most common modification is the use of a dibasic acid, such as maleic anhydride, to give polar acid functionality to the resin. Such modification can also provide higher melting points, vehicle structure and modified compatibility where desired.

• Pigment dispersion – These resins are used where a low degree of resin polarity facilitates improved pigment wetting and/or vehicle compatibility with other components such as alkyds or surfactants while retaining low cost.

Hybrid Resins: A class of resins which combine the chemistry of hydrocarbon, rosin modified esters and alkyd resins. These resins are based on the reaction of dicyclopentadiene and other hydrocarbon olefins with various rosin acids, tall oil fractions, dibasic acids, alkyl phenols, vegetable oils and other reactants. These reaction products give resins significant advantages over simply blending various resin types together. The major benefit of hybrid resins is their low cost in achieving equal to superior performance in all types of oil based ink applications. This is particularly true when comparing the cost advantage of hybrids to modified rosin phenolic esters.