Method of improving actinic cure of energy curable inks and coatings

A method for applying a layered construct of inks and/or coatings on a substrate, comprising:

• a) providing a substrate;
• b) providing one or more energy-curable compositions (A), comprising:
• i) one or more energy curable polymers, monomers and/or oligomers comprising reactive functional groups capable of polymerizing or crosslinking under actinic radiation;
• and
• ii) 0 wt % to 12 wt % of one or more photoinitiators, based on the total weight of composition (A);
• c) providing a non energy-curable composition (B), comprising:
• i) resins that do not comprise reactive functional groups capable of polymerizing or crosslinking under actinic radiation, and
• ii) 1 wt % to 20 wt % of one or more photoinitiators, based on the total weight of composition (B);
• wherein composition (B) comprises no components that are polymerizable when exposed to actinic radiation, and
• d) applying the compositions on the substrate by first applying one or more layers of composition (B) followed by applying, without cure, one or more layers of compositions (A) over the first applied layer or layers of composition (B);
• e) drying the layer or layers of composition (B);
• and
• f) actinically curing simultaneously all of the one or more layers of composition (A) to create a cured ink construct;
• wherein actinic radiation refers to electron beam or UV radiation, and actinically curing refers to curing by exposure to electron beam or UV light;
• and
• wherein the one or more layers of composition (B) can be dried either before or after actinically curing simultaneously all of the layers of composition (A).