Adhesion and colorimetric analysis of acrylate resin-based screen-printed inks on anodized aluminium substrate

Adhesion, colorimetric analysis, and lightfastness of acrylate resin-based inks printed on an anodized aluminium substrate were studied. Samples of AA1050 alloy were chemically pretreated and anodized to appropriately modify the surface morphology in order to be printable. Printing inks with different compositions and two types of printing plates were used in the deposition of coatings by the screen printing technique. Surface morphology analyses, contact angle measurements, and surface free energy calculations were performed on the treated aluminium samples. The properties in terms of ink viscosity, thickness and surface characteristics of the printed unaged and aged coatings were observed. The results of the measurements performed on the coatings showed that different compositions of the inks lead to differences in the adhesion of the coatings to the aluminium substrate and affect the changes in the lightfastness of the coatings. The use of printing plates with different properties had a significant impact on the thickness and lightfastness of the printed coatings. The scientific results of this study have shown that it is possible to profile the printing influencing parameters depending on the application requirements.