This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project proposes the use of in-line treatment for functionalization of commercial substrate surfaces. The treatment will consist of an appropriate combination of plasma treatment and acrylate coating, and is expected to functionalize the surface of commercial substrates, particularly packaging films, to readily accept and bond with solventless printing inks, thus reducing the need for solvent-based inks. Use of solvent-based inks resulted in a recent annual release of 36 1/2 million pounds of printing ink solvents (primarily toluene) to the atmosphere over the USA. Regulatory and community pressure to reduce the use of solvent-based inks as a pollution prevention measure is already a significant driving force and will only intensify in the future. Upon successful proof-of-concept in Phase I, Sigma Technologies has the necessary full scale production equipment in place to immediately proceed to the Phase II and Phase III follow-on efforts wherein the successful surface functionalization process can be applied to a commercial packaging film for subsequent lamination and market testing by a major packaging film producer who is a current client of Sigma Technologies. An inexpensive, in-line process to promote adhesion of solventless ink to commercial substrates is anticipated which will result in significant pollution prevention by reducing the dependence of the packaging industry on solvent-based inks.
