waterbased or solvent/eco-solvent for outdoor prints?

[OldPaint]

Same argument you will have seen from the paint industry when lead paints were being phased out. If you're not careful, solvent will kill you, but if you're doing outdoor prints that you want to last for an extended period of time, solvent's the way to go.

We have large scale prints that have been outdoors for four years, with very harsh weather, and are just now seeing some fading in them. If we went eco-sol, there's no way we would've got that kind of longevity out of them.

i beg to differ with you on the LEAD PAINTS being harmful.
1st off its only harmful IF EATEN!!!!
2ndly you need to check around here and ask how many OLD SIGNPAINTERS are still around!!!! some of US ARE IN THE 80's a lot of us are in over 60!!! you more chance of dieing by a lightning strike........THEN DIEING FROM LEAD IN PAINT!!!! dont know about solvent inks. i got an old ENCAD 736. with outdoor inks GO+. i have some outdoor signs 3 years old. they are fading...BUT for a water based ink.....thats good. ENCAD made the 1st water based inkjet outdoor printer. ENCAD VINYLJET 736. very similar to the new HP LATEX PRINTER.

 

[P Wagner]

I hate this greenwashing. The "eco" in eco-solvent has nothing do to with environmental impact. It stands for "economical". If anyone sells you ink, saying their eco-solvent ink is environmentally friendly, they're selling snake oild, and have either been lying to you, or someone has been lying to them.

The actual solvent part of any ink is a rather small percentage, and there are much higher concentrations of harmful chemicals in the inks themselves, depending on the colour.

There is much wrong in this post, I don't even know where to begin. First, "Eco" in the context of solvent ink is nothing more than marketing speak. It Has no intrinsic meaning aside from what the reader infers. Second, the base of any ink set is the dominant component of the ink. In water based inks like HP latex, that is water. In any solvent ink set, the dominant component is solvents. In Ecosolvent ink that solvent is a class of chemicals derived from alcohol, called diethyl ethers. Other solvent ink sets use other compounds of solvents. You can check the MSDS for any ink set, typically by going to the manufacturers web site. Happy reading!