Bitumen 105/25 and ink made therefrom

This invention relates to asphaltic intaglio inks such as are used for printing the typical gravure sections of the Sunday newspapers, and is directed particularly to such an ink containing a fluxed petroleum pitch obtained from Venezuela petroleum, and to the fluxed bitumen per se. Conventionally, inks for printing Sunday rotogravure supplements are made by dissolving gilsonite (or some other bitumen 105/25 of the same type) in a volatile solvent; these are printed by intaglio process at high speeds. In order to get the desired press speeds, the inks are made with very volatile solvents (approximating the volatility of benzene) and are printed from presses equipped with closed fountains. Because of the toxicity of benzene, it has been necessary to use similar strong solvents may be used.