Ceramic digital inks are inks made from very finely milled inorganic pigments, suspended in a carrier liquid, for printing designs onto tiles with an inkjet printer. The pigments survive the kiln and become part of the glaze, giving the stone, wood or concrete look on a modern tile.
Yes, some are made in India. Trade press has reported ceramic digital ink production in Morbi since at least 2019. Many inks are still imported, so ask where a given ink is actually made.
How the inks work
A tile line prints after the engobe and before the top glaze or protective layer. The printer has several bars, one per ink colour, and fires tiny drops onto the tile as it passes underneath.
Unlike paper inks, ceramic inks do not use cyan, magenta and yellow. The pigments must survive temperatures well over 1,000°C, so the palette is built from colours that are stable when fired, such as blue, brown, beige, yellow, pink and black.
The carrier is usually a non-water solvent that burns off in the kiln. Water-based inks also exist and are promoted as lower-emission alternatives.
Types of ink
- Colour inks carry the pigments that make the printed design.
- White inks give opaque white areas or a base for other colours.
- Effect inks create matt or gloss areas, metallic looks or reactive patterns on the same tile.
- Glue or adhesive inks fix dry granules in a printed pattern, used for texture effects.
- Sinking or carving inks make the glaze sink in printed areas, giving a structure that matches the design.
- Digital glazes are glazes fine enough to be applied by inkjet, used in some newer lines.
Why it matters to tile buyers
Digital printing is why Morbi factories can launch many designs and copy natural stone closely. It also explains face variation, where one design has several different prints so that a floor does not repeat. See what face variation in digital tiles is.
Ink and printer settings affect shade. If a factory changes its ink supplier or a colour channel between orders, the same design can come out a different shade. When you reorder, ask whether anything changed on the print side, and compare against a retained sample.
If you want to buy inks
Some importers want to buy inks for tile plants in their own country. Inks must match the printer heads, the glaze and the kiln of the end user, so trials come first.
- Ask the maker for the technical data sheet, the safety data sheet and the printheads the ink is approved for.
- Check where the ink is made. A local seller may be a distributor for imported ink.
- Ask about shelf life and storage, because pigments can settle over time.
- Check transport rules. Solvent-based inks may need dangerous goods handling depending on their flash point; the safety data sheet will say.
Next step
For the other layers on a tile, see what ceramic glazes and engobes are. If you are sourcing tiles or ceramic materials from Morbi, book a free sourcing review.