Printing inks fall into 2 categories:

• liquid inks: made using oxygenated chemical solvents (such as alcohol),
• oil-based inks: made with hydrocarbon distillates and/or mineral oils.

Oil-based inks are used in offset or lithographic printing, to print documents such as magazines, catalogues, books and newspapers. Three main techniques are used to formulate inks: sheet fed, heatset and coldest (newspapers inks).

Our SCRIPTANE® fluids have been designed in cooperation with offset ink manufacturers and meet the most stringent requirements of this industry in terms of solvent power, distillation range or compatibility with resins.

CRAY VALLEY's labs (a TOTAL group subsidiary manufacturing resins for inks) also take part in the development of our products.

The SCRIPTANE® PW range

The SCRIPTANE® PW range comprises various distillates covering all the applications of offset ink and especially heatset and sheet fed inks.

The main characteristics of this range are as follows:

• very low aromatic structure content,
• very pure and low odour intensity,
• narrow distillation cuts specifically suited to the formulation of inks and to drying control,
• good balance between solvency power (resin dissolution) and drying.

The raw materials used to manufacture this range are duly selected and controlled before being processed in our plant in Oudalle (France). The manufacturing process (catalytic hydrogenation followed by distillation) without any mixing stage ensures good consistency.

The products in the SCRIPTANE® PW range require no labelling under current European legislation and their composition makes them suitable for indirect food contact.

SCRIPTANE® PW 24/27H and SCRIPTANE® PW 26/29H are particularly suited to Heatset ink formulation.

SCRIPTANE® PW 25/28H is also widely used for Heatset inks, its specific distillation range (250°C – 280°C / 482°F – 536°F) provides a technical advantage over the use of mixes of SCRIPTANE® PW 24/27H and SCRIPTANE® PW 26/29H cuts.

SCRIPTANE® PW 28/32H is suitable for Sheet Fed ink formulations while SCRIPTANE® PW 30/35H allows ink drying features to be adjusted or may be used in Coldset inks (for newspapers)

The SCRIPTANE® NW range

The SCRIPTANE® NW range is used to manufacture coldset or newspapers inks, and SCRIPTANE® NW40, SCRIPTANE® NW50 or SCRIPTANE® NW50SRD will be chosen depending on viscosity.

The products in the SCRIPTANE® NW range are aromatic mineral oils that require no labelling under current European legislation.

Other fluids

TOTAL Fluids also offers other products used in the ink industry:

• toluene for inks used in the engraving process
• solvents used alone or in a formulation to clean printing plates and machines

New developments

Thanks to the TOTAL Group's R&D capabilities, we can improve our products to meet changes in printing techniques and machines. We develop innovative solutions in cooperation with the major ink manufacturers.

>> Download technical characteristics of the Scriptane range