Titanium dioxide-free cigarette tipping inks
AssigneeSun Chemical Corporation
InventorsDana Mohr, Jarol Osorio
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Abstract
The present invention provides a method for printing high opacity images or coatings using solvent based inks comprising hollow polymeric microspheres, wherein the inks do not contain titanium dioxide. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified titanium dioxide as “possibly carcinogenic to humans,” The method of the present invention allows one to avoid the use of inks that rely on titanium oxide for high opacity, which has become of importance for articles that come into contact with one's mouth, for example, cigarette tipping papers.
Claims13
A method of printing on cigarette tipping paper, the method comprising printing onto the cigarette tipping paper an ink or coating composition comprising:
- a) 3-35 wt % of hollow polymeric microspheres, based on the total weight of the composition, wherein the microspheres have an outside diameter of 0.2 to 1.5 microns, said microspheres comprising one or more polymers surrounding a void, wherein one or more of the polymers comprise acrylate monomer units, styrene monomer units, or both acrylate and styrene monomer units;
- b) 2-30 wt % of one or more resins, based on the total weight of the composition, wherein the resin comprises nitrocellulose or a mixture of nitrocellulose with one or more other resins;
- and
- c) one or more solvents;
- wherein the ink or coating composition contains no titanium dioxide, without diminishing opacity, and less than 2 wt % water, based on the total weight of the composition.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.