What is Aqueous Coating in Packaging? Types & Benefits

Aqueous (AQ) coating, aka the “default coating,” is an eco-friendly coating used to fill wood grain with acrylics to achieve a smooth surface on wood-related products, including guitars and furniture. If you want a reliable, attractive, smooth, and luxurious packaging feel for your premium products? Try aqueous coating for your packaging finishes to have a luxurious feel for your products and provide your customers with an exceptional unboxing experience.

All along, AQ coating is a water-based finish, unlike UV coating and varnish, used in printing and packaging processes. Its acrylic base gives it fast-drying capability, a smooth surface, and different appearances with different application methods. Including such capabilities, AQ coating is also environmentally friendly, which means its water-based acrylic solvent is food safe. You can use this finish for food-related businesses, household items, and fast-moving consumer products.

No matter if you use aqueous coating (AQ coating) for custom packaging, including boxes, clanders, manuals, and applications, it provides a premium and luxurious finish.

Main Types of Aqueous Coating for Premium Packaging Solutions

Here, we’ve described the main types of aqueous coating for premium packaging solutions to make your products look premium.

• Gloss Finish Coating: Gloss finish coating is a moisture-resistant layer with an intensive reflective layer.
• Matte Finish Coating: Matte finish coating is a non-shiny (including 0-10% gloss), non-reflective, and rough surface with a velvety, smooth premium look.
• Satin Finish Coating: A paint sheen, a combination of matte and gloss, that provides a luster and medium shiny surface.
• Soft Touch Coating: Creates a velvety, matte visual with suede-like texture for a premium soft touch.
• Dry Erase Coating: Dry erase coating features a clear-gloss polyurethane layer to create a durable, erasable workspace.
• Scuff Resistance Coating: Scuff resistance coating is applied to secure packaging surfaces from abrasion and black marks.
• Transparent Barrier Coating: Transparent barrier coating is made up of polymers for plastic films to protect them against oxygen, corrosion, and odor.

What You Actually Need to Know About Aqueous Coating Ink?

Aqueous coating ink is an environmentally friendly and water-based technology that uses water as its primary carrier for colorants.

Such an advanced printing solution makes it a dominant choice for indoor products, fast-moving consumers, and food-related businesses. However, aqueous ink has two types that majorly impact the whole finish.

Here are the two types of aqueous ink:

• Aqueous Dye Ink: It’s an inkjet printing ink, where colorants are dissolved in water for high-resolution results.
• Aqueous Pigment Ink: Instead of inkjet, it uses solid particulate pigments for printing. When water evaporates, the pigments adhere to the surface and provide UV fade-resistant and high-quality results.

Applications and Use Cases of AQ Coating in Packaging

Aqueous coating is eco-friendly, cost-effective, and offers proactive protection for handling the packaging. However, you can’t use them anywhere in the packaging boxes, but you need to assess your needs and make a decision for better engagement.

Here, we have provided some use cases of AQ coating in packaging based on our experiences in the packaging industry:

• Food and Beverage Packaging: The food industry focuses on AQ coating for packaging its edible products, including cereal, bakery, and pizza boxes.
• Cosmetics and Personal Care: Skincare brands focus on choosing this finish for their perfumes, soaps, creams, and serum packaging.
• Retail and E-commerce Packaging: Retailers and e-commerce brand owners prefer AQ coating for their retail displays, product mailers, and subscription boxes.
• Pharmaceutical and Healthcare: As of AQ coating is cost-effective and FDA-approved, pharmaceutical and healthcare brands include AQ coating for better packaging finish solutions.
• Stationery and Educational Kits: The AQ ink is completely biodegradable and safe for kids. That’s why stationary and educational brands implement the AQ coating for safety and premium experiences.

Key Benefits of Aqueous Coating in Packaging

AQ coating is beneficial in many ways, as it consists of FDA-approved ink that ensures that the coating is completely eco-friendly. Thereby, many brands come up with an idea to implement aqueous coating for convenience.

Here are some key benefits of aqueous coating for your brand:

• Eco-friendly: As mentioned, AQ coating is FDA-approved, which means it’s completely environmentally safe.
• Enhanced Durable: When brands prefer to use water-based colored inkjet, the printing becomes effortless and provides your packaging with high-quality printing.
• Faster Production Speed: Aqueous coating is based on water solvents, which evaporate at the moment of printing. This approach enhances the quality of the printing while introducing the concept of ready-to-go printing at once.
• Superior Appearance: This finish provides packaging with a superior look with velvety, shiny, and smoother feel for a premium and luxurious feel.
• Resistance to Yellowing: The gloss finish with AQ coating helps brands prevent their packaging from yellowing when in contact with oxygen.

How Does Aqueous Coating Work?

The process of implementing aqueous coating is realistically very easy and production-forward. Like, the default coating can be done in only 4 steps.

Here are the steps to coat the default coating:

Step 1: Application

The application step is the first and foremost step in the AQ coating in packaging, and is often done on-press. We applied the water-based solvent on the entire sheet immediately after printing with the right placement.

Step 2: Mechanism

We usually use two rollers and often three roller mechanisms to coat in a perfect thickness with better benefits. The rollers are often made by Anilox, which helps us to maintain the perfect thickness of the coating on each part of the sheet.

Step 3: Drying Process

After the mechanism step, the sheet has to pass through the drying unit with hot air knives and infrared lamps that help us to evaporate the water. Such an approach assists us in evaporating water from the formula, not the solvents.

Step 4: Finished Product

Once all the steps come to an end, the finished product comes out as a non-yellowing sheet with minimum water density. That’s exactly what the packaging industry calls aqueous coating or default coating.

Key Differences Between Major Coating Types (Comparison Table)

Coatings have five major types that are somewhat similar in some aspects, and also have different aspects. Let’s have a deep dive into their aspects:

1. Matte Coating

When it comes to matte coating, brands choose matte for a smooth and simple look. This approach helps them showcase their product with a premium look and provides their customers with a luxurious unboxing experience.

2. Gloss Coating

Gloss coating isn’t much different from aqueous because it showcases your packaging with a premium, shiny, and smooth feel. You can choose gloss coating to make your packaging a premium, observant look while making the printing prominent.

3. Aqueous Coating

Aqueous coating gives your packaging a premium, smooth feel to give your customers a luxurious unboxing experience. This will also enhance your production time and quality, twice that of others, because of water-based solvents.

4. Spot UV Coating

Spot UV coating is used to highlight some special places in your packaging, such as eyes, brand logos, and business labels, with a premium-looking feel. This coating is also used with holographic and other metallic elements.

5. Varnish Coating

Varnish coating is basically a gloss coating, but for wood-related products, including furniture, chairs, and other items. Its moisture resistance capability enhances the protection of the brand with a premium and luxurious feel.

Here is the whole comparison table of coatings and their effects to showcase how different they are:

What are the Best Paper Types for AQ Coating in Packaging?

The best paper types for aqueous coating are high-quality, coated stocks, especially those with gloss, matte, or silk finishes.

There are some of the top paper choices for AQ coating to make your packaging look smooth and premium.

• Gloss Coated Paper: The most common choice, enhancing vibrant colors and creating a high-shine, polished, reflective finish ideal for brochures and magazines.
• Matte Coated Paper: Produces a smooth, velvety, and elegant non-reflective look, perfect for high-end catalogs and professional packaging materials.
• Silk or Satin Coated Paper: Provides a balanced, sophisticated soft sheen that is less reflective than gloss but smoother than matte.
• Heavyweight Paperboard: Essential for packaging, providing the necessary strength to withstand water-based applications.

Common Problems and Limitations for Aqueous Coating

As AQ coating has benefits for a brand, it also has some problems and limitations that reduce its likelihood. Here are some of its common problems and limitations:

• Blocking (Sticking): The most common issue is where coated sheets stick together in the delivery pile. This is caused by excessive moisture, too much heat in the pile (over 95°F–100°F), high coating film weight, or too little spray powder.
• Slow Drying/Set-off: Sometimes, the incomplete drying causes ink to set off on the back of the next sheet. This occurs with heavy ink coverage, impervious substrates, or inadequate dryer capacity (low air flow/high humidity).
• Curling/Warping: Because the coating is water-based, it can introduce moisture that causes lighter paper stocks (under 80 lb) to curl.
• Crazing/Cracking (Mudcracking): A cracked appearance that happens when the coating dries too fast compared to the ink beneath it, often when high IR heat is used with heavy ink coverage.
• Fish Eyes/Pinholing: Small holes or spots in the coating, often caused by contamination or the coating “crawling” (due to low surface energy/poor wetting).
• “Orange Peel”: A textured, uneven finish caused by improper coating viscosity (too thick) or poor application leveling.
• Backtrapping/Coating Build-up: Coating transferring to the blanket, creating spots, or accumulating on the edges of the sheet.
• Colour Bleed/Sensitive Inks: Some pigments, such as Reflex Blue, Rhodamine, and Warm Red, can react with the amine content of the coating.

Before You Go

If you are reading this “Before You Go” section, then you probably have an idea of AQ coating, including its benefits and disadvantages. Now, you can make an informed decision about choosing AQ coating for your custom packaging.

For your convenience, we have included the comparison table for the coating lines, including their benefits and limitations. So, we suggest you choose the one finish coating that suits your brand and enhances your market image.

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