Ink company Siegwerk has released a new ink range for offset printing and suitable for flexible packaging.
The company has conducted industrial print trials on Comexi’s central impression EB offset press, the CI8. Siegwerk claims its new EB technology offers an excellent print performance, low dot gain, low water dosing with less emulsification and scumming as well as fast intensity recovery after stops.
It says the new ink technology handles a variety of plastic substrates of the flexible packaging market like coex. OPP, acrylic coated PET, etc. It has also obtained positive results in lamination studies with different packaging structures.
Siegwerk says that converters who want to avoid the use of photo initiators in energy curing inks can alternatively use electron beam (EB) curing systems to reduce the risk of potential migration problems.
The company adds that the trend towards shorter print job lengths means printers have to deal with frequent changes in the printed design and a varying average job lengths. Stefan Busse, regional director application technology for flexible packaging EMEA at Siegwerk, says, “In the past, typical print run lengths for example in beverage wrap-around labels were several tens of thousands of squaremeters.
“Today, more and more jobs are printed on wide web machines with only a few thousand square metres. In order to stay cost-competitive in these markets all cost drivers have to be minimised. That’s why some of our customers are attracted by the low cost of print forms for offset printing plates.”
The company developed the new ink technology in accordance with the relevant product safety standards. All ingredients comply with the Swiss Ordinance and will also comply with the upcoming new German Ordinance. Own migration tests with trial materials exhibited low migration behaviour suitable for food packaging.
Siegwerk introduces new inks
