Hi, my collegue from the Printing Departement on my academy, recently switched to soy-based printing inks. These are made watersoluble, so we need no mineral spirits for cleaning anymore.
His complaint, however, is that the inks dry very slowly, as in at least a week, or so. This does not work, at an art academy. So he asked me for advice, but I do not know of soy oil being used as oil for paints or inks. Is it even a drying oil?
Does anyone here know what to do? Is there a way to let these inks dry faster (cobalt dryer?) Or is it ‘dead on arrival’ and should we use a different inkt?
I hope you can help us with this, thanks in advance.
Thanks for the answer. We’ll see what to do with this in our class.
As this is a student environment, would you think something like a hairdryer could work? Or do we need lots of precisely controlled heat?
Soy oil is not a drying oil naturally, but there are industrial processes that can change the fatty acid composition so that it dries at a more acceptable rate for inks and paints. Commercial printing with soy-based inks involves use of heat to dry ink more quickly, something the small studio can’t duplicate. Catalytic siccatives might have some effect on this type of ink, but they would also introduce some of the solvents that soy ink was formulated to reduce. More absorbent papers, especially thicker ones with less (or no) sizing work better with slow-drying inks- try Rives BFK, German Etching or similar stock. Calendared, harder papers like Stonehenge will probably not wick away the ink vehicle as well, nor will thin mulberry fiber papers.
I don’t know the answer about heat, sorry, but my best guess is that hair dryers would be impractical, costly and- depending on other materials in the facility- maybe risky. If it were me, I’d probably just try to find a way to add storage sufficient to let prints dry. Maybe also investigate whether non-solvent amendments like magnesium stearate might blot some vehicle and reduce drying time. You could also try blotting up some of the ink vehicle on paper.
Heat and hairdryers would not have a major effect on the speed of drying. Even if it did, it would be very difficult to control evenly and may even cause more damage to the paper from accidental over heating than any benefit gleaned from accelerated drying.
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