Printing Inks: Top Picks - United Speciality's Invisible ink

One quote by a customer who uses this product
“United Ink is a true example of make in India, and its products are comparable internationally and are available at Indian prices. We have substituted a lot of imported security inks with that of United.” – Ajit Surana/Manoj Kochar, Holoflex

How is it manufactured?
It is manufactured using special light-coloured resin systems and speciality chemicals with a proprietary process. It has been formulated for a wide variety of print processes including conventional offset, UV-curable offset, UV-curable flexo, water-based flexo, gravure and screen. 

Where is it manufactured?
It is made in India by United Speciality Inks indigenously at our integrated plant and our own technology in Raigad, Maharashtra. 

What’s the function?
Anti-counterfeiting, authentication, duplication prevention and anti-tamper. 

One big brand that has deployed it and how
We have supplied these inks for a wide variety of applications, including for passports of a country. Most banks have been using Invisible inks on their cheques and credit cards for authentication. Corporates and brands in industries such pharmaceuticals, pesticides, car spare parts, tobacco/flavoured molasses, and more have now adopted invisible inks as well as some other features to protect and safeguard their products from duplication. Organisations can conduct raids and prove that the goods found are counterfeit in the court of law due to the copyright label design. 

How green is the ink?
The ink is also available in solvent-free, benzophenone-free and ITX-free UV-based and water-based inks. On a lighter note – Invisible Green is very green under UV light. 

What is the environmental impact of your product?
No adverse impact on environment.

What makes it unique?
It is an “invisible” ink as it is colourless and can be completely hidden through proper use of printing, design and coatings. It glows under UV light/money checker to distinct and bright colours – such as red, blue, green, yellow, purple, white and more. Some colours are unique and difficult to counterfeit compared to others.

Some colours glow at different wavelengths such as short-wave UV, long-wave UV, IR, or others. Accordingly, bi-fluorescent and tri-fluorescent inks with unique spectral signatures and glow colours can be formulated for higher security applications. For lower and medium security applications, this is a robust and globally accepted security feature, which efficiently does the job. 

Who should choose it?
Any brand owner,organisation or institution,which is interested in authentication or anti-counterfeiting. It’s an extremely useful ink for a brand, a bank, a university, a government, or even a printer who may want to track cartons printed at their press by a unique invisible mark; and if required, batch number.

How do you rank it in terms of the ‘aha’ factor?
It’s a fascinating ink that is almost invisible to the human eye, but glows under UV black light.Many colours of glow are available that make the ink unique and difficult to imitate or replicate. 

How does it score on the authoritative tactile quality?
The aim of the ink is to not be tactile at all – and accordingly, functionally it scores very highly on this aspect by being completely non-tactile and invisible. 

Where do you source pigments, resins, oils, organic chemicals, solvents and additives for this product?
Around80-90% of the ingredients are of Indian origin and we are proud to say that the important raw materials are also manufactured indigenously in our group companies. 

What other grades are offered by your company?
United Ink is the flagship brand and a pioneer in offset inks, four colour inks, and spot colour ranges such as Colorama, Utility, Baby and more. United Speciality Inks is the innovation and security/speciality ink arm of United Ink group, which manufactures a variety of interesting and innovative products for brand promotion and brand protection, such as scented inks, thermochromic inks, photochromic inks, magic inks, and more. 

Is it expensive?
It is an extremely cost-effective solution for anti-counterfeiting applications. The cost per carton, label or per unit is extremely low – especially for long-run jobs. It allows for higher value addition and mark up for a printer as it makes the printed object a secure authentic object. It is among the cheapest yet unique features available and accepted globally.