In order to investigate the effect of hydrophile-lipophile balance (HLB) numbers on the rheological properties of explosive inks, two nonionic surfactants of Span-80 and Tween-80 were selected to obtain 5 kinds of mixed surfactants with different HLB number by adjusting mass percentage. Whereafter, the viscosity of explosive ink with mixed surfactants was tested by means of Brookfield (CPS) rheometer and non-Newtonian index, yield values and thixotropic index(TI) were calculated at same time. Results indicate that for the explosive ink without surfactant the non-ewtonian index is 0.024, yield value is 467.08 Pa and TI value is 36.82, respectively, and the rheological properties of explosive ink will be effectively improved with the addition of surfactants. With the increasing of HLB number, the apparent viscosity of explosive ink will keep up at first and then down with the shear rate ranging from 5 s^-1to 100 s^-1. Meanwhile, non-Newtonian index and TI values fluctuate while yield vales continuously decrease. When HLB number is 11, the non-Newtonian index reaches the maximum 0.56, while the yield value attains the optimum value 5.38 Pa with TI value being the minimum 8.26, which are 23.33 times, 1.15% and 21.53% respectively compared with those of the explosive ink without surfactants. The surfactant with whose HLB number is 11 performs best in improving rheological property of explosive ink.