How are printing inks made?

Our magical mystery tour to an industrial park in Cwmbran

On discovering recently that Caligo inks are made locally – in Cwmbran no less – six of us from CPW went to see for ourselves.

After getting lost in a forest of mini roundabouts, we arrived to a very warm welcome from Managing Director Michael Craine – the grandson of the original founder of the company no less. It is such a joy to find a company in this day and age that take such evident pride, and have so much knowledge and skill accrued over decades.

Nowadays they have computers to check the colour, but nothing beats the trained eye. Michael and the Cranfield Colours workforce have many years of service and much of the technology is little changed in years. I particularly liked the high tech viscosity tester (a little metal ramp down which they pour ink).

So what did we learn? (Ok – I speak for myself).

The importance of rheology (viscosity and stick aren’t the same thing). Why my prints just won’t dry?The little colour circle on the packaging? (It is printed with the same batch of ink as that contained within the tube) Most importantly though don’t mess with these inks more than you have to. They are perfect – straight out of the tube.