06.28.16
Ultrachem, a leading global manufacturer of inks, prepress and pressroom consumables, has won a sole supply agreement with Excel Labels Limited, a UK company based in Redditch, Worcestershire. Ultrachem is now supplying all its water-based flexo inks in an alliance that forms part of Excel’s ongoing strategy to enhance its production throughput capabilities.
Excel Labels converts a variety of paper and synthetic labels and tags for companies in both retail and industrial sectors. The high-volume production facility operates with an ethos geared to rapid turnarounds. Working to meet the ever demanding needs of its customers required Excel Labels to find inks that would perform within this fast-paced production environment.
Jon Roberts, operations manager at Excel Labels, explained one of the reasons the company likes dealing with Ultrachem is because of its knowledge regarding ink formulation, as well as Ultrachem’s ongoing desire to clearly understand Excel’s business requirements. “A big positive for us when using Ultrachem’s water based flexo ink is that it is a very stable product which, whilst fast drying, doesn’t dry on the plate," he says. "We can now run our presses at higher production speeds than we achieved prior to using Ultrachem inks.”
In addition, Excel found the carefully formulated water-based flexo inks performed extremely well when printing onto both coated and uncoated thermal substrates, since a high proportion of Excel Label’s volume is with direct thermal papers.
The company was impressed with both the ease of printability of the inks and their ability to "sit" on thermal substrates, visibly reducing previous mottling issues. Ultrachem’s water-based flexo ink is being used across Excel’s entire machinery portfolio that numbers seven 10” to 13” presses running alongside their digital and high capacity plain label converting lines.
Ultrachem’s WB Flexo range includes ColorFlex - Flexible Packaging, ColorWell – Corrugated post and preprint, ColorBag – Paper bags and sacks, and ColorTissue – Tissue. These products all carry ISEGA approved certifications for food contact usage. The range is backed up by Ultrachem’s three UK facilities and Irish facility with a state-of-the-art automated in-house blending and color matching service developed in close collaboration with customers.
Excel Labels converts a variety of paper and synthetic labels and tags for companies in both retail and industrial sectors. The high-volume production facility operates with an ethos geared to rapid turnarounds. Working to meet the ever demanding needs of its customers required Excel Labels to find inks that would perform within this fast-paced production environment.
Jon Roberts, operations manager at Excel Labels, explained one of the reasons the company likes dealing with Ultrachem is because of its knowledge regarding ink formulation, as well as Ultrachem’s ongoing desire to clearly understand Excel’s business requirements. “A big positive for us when using Ultrachem’s water based flexo ink is that it is a very stable product which, whilst fast drying, doesn’t dry on the plate," he says. "We can now run our presses at higher production speeds than we achieved prior to using Ultrachem inks.”
In addition, Excel found the carefully formulated water-based flexo inks performed extremely well when printing onto both coated and uncoated thermal substrates, since a high proportion of Excel Label’s volume is with direct thermal papers.
The company was impressed with both the ease of printability of the inks and their ability to "sit" on thermal substrates, visibly reducing previous mottling issues. Ultrachem’s water-based flexo ink is being used across Excel’s entire machinery portfolio that numbers seven 10” to 13” presses running alongside their digital and high capacity plain label converting lines.
Ultrachem’s WB Flexo range includes ColorFlex - Flexible Packaging, ColorWell – Corrugated post and preprint, ColorBag – Paper bags and sacks, and ColorTissue – Tissue. These products all carry ISEGA approved certifications for food contact usage. The range is backed up by Ultrachem’s three UK facilities and Irish facility with a state-of-the-art automated in-house blending and color matching service developed in close collaboration with customers.