(2001 Will Test Ink Industry Innovations)

In today's ever-changing era of technology, companies must create new products that meet their customers' needs in order to survive the competition. The printing ink industry is no exception, and some of these big companies are constantly reforming their own products and developing products that can bring more benefits to customers. Bill Tasker, Principal of National Printing Ink Research Institute (NPIRI) and Vice President of INX International, said: “In the past, people generally thought that ink technology developed with the development of printing, but with the With the advancement of inkjet technology, newer content has to be added to ink technology, and the development of ink technology is very fast."

U.S. Printing Ink Products: Market Share:

Offset Printing $2.2 Billion Flexo Printing $900 Million Gravure Printing $600 Million Screen Printing $260 Million Digital Printing/Ink Jetting $250 Million Letter Print $100 Million Special Printing Ink (Security, Marking) $270 Million Total $4.580 Billion

Existing products often have some improvements. For this reason, some large printing ink manufacturers have established a foundation that promises to provide new technologies to make inks have better printing performance. Last year was a breakthrough year. Many new technologies emerged at Drupa. Drupa has the ability to gather the research results of various companies.

Flint Ink's SFI
Perhaps the most eye-catching new printing ink technology on Drupa is Flint Ink's Single-Fluid Ink (SFI). This SFI ink does not need to consider the ink balance, you can use SFI without the need for fountain solution, and do not have to use special plates and printing presses.

The development of this single-fluid ink is not a new idea, many companies have been studying it for many years, and Flint Ink believes they have completed this task one step ahead. Les Watkins, the company’s new technical director, said, “From the ink industry’s point of view, this idea has been around for a long time. The main reason is that 70% to 80% of offsets are related to water and ink, and the past 13 years Thanks to the understanding of chemical products and technological improvements, we can continuously explore in practice and the probability of success has greatly increased."

At Drupa 2000, Flint Ink launched a four-color sheet-fed SFI ink and a thermosetting SFI book-printing black ink. Watkins said that early Beta tests showed that this single-fluid ink shortens the pre-press preparation time. Compared with traditional offset printing, the use of fewer overlay papers can achieve the appropriate color density.

Removing the wetting system also brings many benefits, such as: clearer image quality and reduced paper waste. SFI inks can be overprinted with other color inks, and can also be post-printed with UV, coated water-based coatings, and laminations.

From Mr. Watkins' point of view, Flint Ink has redefined SFI on Drupa, and he expects that the system will be fully successful and available in the near future. Mr. Watkins said: "Flint Ink will promote the commercialization of SFI inks. First of all, it is commercial offset printing. The price of this system is expected to be higher, but from a printer's point of view, the overall cost of a print job will be Falling. Printer manufacturers will also be interested in this. We do 20 to 30 surveys every day. They all tell us that they need such equipment."

An important concept of Drupa, a digital offset single-fluid ink, is to continually increase productivity. How can we simplify the entire production process? How can we improve offset quality and how can we get more convenient copying equipment?

As the printing industry pioneers pointed out, on Drupa 2000 people saw competition between industry giants like Heidelberg and Xerox. In the printing field, you can see the introduction of many digital technologies, the emergence of new toner and ink technologies. One of the most interesting aspects of various technologies is that they are: Digital offset presses are shifting to the ease of use and high speed of copier technology. The key to improving digital offset printing is single-fluid ink.

In order to achieve this result, Sun Chemical is also researching single-fluid inks in its own way. Their John Rooney, deputy manager of R&D department, said: “Our InstaDry W2 is currently undergoing Beta testing by Heidelberg and will be later this year. In essence, it is also a single-fluid ink technology designed specifically for the new digital offset printing. It can be quickly inked, is a necessity for Heidelberg QMDI, and its washable properties mean that there is no need in the ink and cleaning agent Contains VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), which is also very important for sheetfed printing."

Hybrid inks In combination with the characteristics of UV inks and common inks, hybrid inks are another area of ​​development that many companies are researching. Companies such as Sun Chemical, Flint Ink, Superior Printing Ink, INX Braden Sutphin, and Environmental Inks and Coatings are all working on this area.

Harvey Brice, Manager of Superior Printing Ink and a member of the GATF Steering Committee, said: “The production of a UV hybrid ink makes sense for the printing industry. It can be used on the press without replacing the blanket or ink roller. Desk presses are designed for UV inks and can also run regular inks. This is a great improvement for the printer because of its high flexibility."

Hybrid UV inks allow the printer to complete all operations of a job online with only minor adjustments. The production efficiency is really improved, and the ink's own transferability and printing quality are also higher than those of conventional UV inks. The biggest advantage of the HyBrite ink system manufactured by Sun Chemical Company is that it can perform in-line UV coating without lengthening the transfer process to complete the water-based coating.

These improvements come mainly from the additional conditions of UV curing, and the price will therefore increase, but researchers predict that the final productivity will increase. They expect that the hybrid technology will continue to improve, improve product quality and reduce printing costs.

Other developments of single-fluid and hybrid inks are two improvements that are currently being discussed, but some larger ink companies are working on other products. Energy-curable inks are a fast growing area in the ink industry, especially electron beam (EB) technology, which will occupy a place in the future market.

Another area is the Sun Beam LE coating, an electron beam coating designed for flexible films used in food packaging. This coating is designed for FDA applications without regard to moving friction and odor during the maintenance of print gloss and smoothness. "This is very important for packaging," Mr. Rooney said. "We are looking for a chemical that will allow printers to use this technology to enter previously unreachable markets."

Color Paper Products (CCI), in conjunction with QureTech, has jointly developed a line of energy-curing products, including EB coatings and UV coatings that are primarily used in multi-layer Kraft paper bags. In addition, the two companies are also working together on energy-curable ink and adhesive technologies.

Mr. Ronald T. Barry, chairman and CEO of CCI, said: “Our company's EB coating is the latest product in the industry and will soon be introduced to the market. Its UV part has passed extensive experiments and has reached the stage of commercialization. Energy-curable inks and adhesives are still in the development stage and are expected to be available in the fall of 2001." CCI is also developing a universal coating system (including for gravure and flexo printing) that is suitable for most substrates (including Polyester), while also improving the surface printing and coating the color of the film. "The new coating system can help printers control the total amount of ink, but also adapt to a variety of applications." Mr. Barry said, "including bags that can be erected, meat bags, retort dishes and some traditional Laminating applications etc. In addition, these systems can also print or provide a film-adhesive layer on the surface of a polyester substrate, which can reduce costs."

The coating system is currently in the testing phase and has progressed greatly. A system for gravure printing has been commercialized and systems for flexo printing will soon be introduced.

Another area of ​​development is water-based flexographic printing inks for newspapers and interleaf printing. Barry said: "Last year, our CPS team developed a series of water-based flexographic inks for newspaper printing that have the same color range as offset inks."

These technical advances in price adjustment—the research and improvement of products over the years—are all reflected in prices. For some ink manufacturers, the increase in raw materials and operating costs is the main reason for the rise in ink prices over the years. In particular, the price of crude oil rose from $12 per barrel in January 1999 to $34 per barrel in October 2000, which greatly affected the ink manufacturers because the most crucial ingredient in inks was crude oil or petroleum derivatives. In addition, transportation, wages and benefits, and environmental costs are also increasing.

In addition, the low recovery rate of investment funds is also related, according to the National Association of Printing Ink Manufactures (International Printing Ink Manufacturers Association, referred to as NAPIM) evaluation in 1999 was 10.2%. NAPIM believes this low recovery rate is "most companies cannot accept."

The key to the price increase lies in the two largest ink manufacturers, Sun Chemical and Flint Ink. Sun announced on June 15th, 2000 that ink prices had increased by 6%. On October 16th, Sun announced that it would increase the price of packaging inks and coatings by 6%. Flint Ink announced on November 1 that its packaging ink price will increase by 6% while the price of newsprint ink will increase by 8%. Industry officials believe that these and other company's price increases can be widely accepted by the market.

The past year was a crucial year for the technical breakthrough in the ink industry, but in 2001 the printing industry could see whether these new products could make major changes in quality, production, and profitability.

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