Why doesn't inkjet ink stick to glass?

Glass requires a few pre-treatment steps before printing onto it. After glassware items are manufactured, they go through a cold end coating process.This cold end coating ensures the glassware item is not scratched in transit. There are also many different types of cold end coating including: water soluble, water insoluble, polyethylene or fatty acid types. Although these coatings protect the glass from scratching, it also prevents ink from sticking.

To prepare your glassware item for printing, you must first flame-treat the product. This helps to remove the cold end coating, get rid of debris and, it manipulates the surface tension. After flame treating, a spray-on primer is typically applied. The now 'rough' surface of the glass acts as anchor for the spray-on primer to stick to. Once these are both done, the glassware item is ready for printing!

Inkcups offers all solutions for pre-treating glass. The best method is utilizing the MagiCoat Pre-treatment system in production. This system will flame-treat and then spray-on MagiCoat Solution on your glassware item.