Ball Pen Inks

Laboratory's Standards for Testing and Controls

Each of these inks is suitable for use with any refill tube made of polypropylene, polyethylene, brass, PVC and any tip made of steel, brass, stainless steel and German silver (with tungsten carbide and stainless steel balls). These ball pen inks are provided with special writing and shelf life characteristics.

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Viscosity

All tests are carried out at a temperature of 25°C which is the temperature showing the greatest change in viscosity to small temperature variations.

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Lightfasteness

Tests are carried out following the new ISO 12757-2 standards.

 

Clear Drain

This characteristicis tested on transparent refills made with Polypropylene at a temperature of 25°C and humidity of 60%. The inks are considered clear draining when they do not leave a continuos layer on the refills walls. Clear draining characteristics are very much depending from the type of material used and from the extrusion quality

 

Assembly

The temperature of 60°C is the one at which the ink is completely loses its rubberish behavior thus is the point where we may avoid the formation of the filament causing the staining on the refill's front part. This is also considered the upper temperature limit since it affects the ink turning into a very low viscosity.

The finished refills have to be centrifuged in order to eliminate the air bubbles present in the inks which could cause back leaking. The rotational speed depends on the machine dimensions. However for 65% of centrifuge machines should be between 1.100 to 1.300 rpm. The production schedule usually obliges all manufacturers to centrifuge all refills just after the production (all new automatic machines are made for this working process); however, for the best performances we always suggest to keep finished refills with tip down for 12-24 hours is order to stabilize the physical behavior, and centrifuge after this period.

 

Cleaning

The best and easiest way to clean refills, from spots which are normally forming into the front part, is to dip their tip part into a 50% mixture of ethyl alcohol and eptane (or similar solvent). These two solvents have a different molecular weight thus totally separate (alcohol on the top, eptane at the bottom). Dipping refills into this bath (2-3 cm deep) will have the following effect: eptane solubilizes the ink while the alcohol will remove it from the refills. Please keep in mind that also machines need to be cleaned (especially the parts subjected to ink passage such as pumps and pipe lines) to avoid contamination.

 

Packing

All standard packing is supplied free of charge, the cost not being invoiced to the buyer. Special packing can be arranged upon request with extra charges being debited to the buyer.

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• 10 kgs plastic drums

• 20 kgs plastic drums

• 200 kgs Metal drums dimensions 60 diam. x 90 (h)

• Eurocontainer 1.000 kgs net weight, dimensions 100x120x115 (h) total 1.064 kgs gross weight