Greg Hrinya, Associate Editor11.11.15
In order to stand out on the shelf, brands are utilizing the newest high-quality inks to create graphics that pop. INX International is one such global ink supplier that specializes in flexo and digital printing for labels and packaging.
David Sambo, vice president of offset sales at INX International, joined Label & Narrow Web at Graph Expo 2015 in Chicago, IL, USA, to discuss his company’s offerings and the industry’s latest ink trends.
LNW: What is INX International currently offering in the label and narrow web market?
DS: In the labels market, we have several offerings. The first one is INXFlex 2000, which is a UV narrow web ink. And of course, that’s for synthetic substrates like foils or any kind of non-porous material that typically will print with the UV flexo ink for adhesion and special effects. On the narrow web, they have the capacity of doing special effects, foil stamping, and all kinds of unique facets of the label to sell it and make it jump off the shelf.
We communicate with the printer, and if it’s an adhesion or a foil stamping like a gold emblem of a chocolate candy, they’ll print them on the narrow web, which is exciting because they can run a whole bunch at a time.
The other thing we offer is the low migration ink for labels, and where this comes into play is water bottle labels, for instance. They don’t want the ink to migrate–even though it’s in a plastic–because that plastic can be porous at times, so gases could possibly leech into the bottle itself. That’s why we employ the low migration products for narrow web flexo.
There’s probably 50-60% of that market is printed on label substrates and then glued on to the can. We always are looking at what the product is and what is that label going to go on. That helps us determine what inks that we recommend based on migration and what the barriers are.
LNW: What do you find are some of the more popular inks on the market today?
DS: In the narrow web, it’s definitely the UV, which is the INXFlex 2000 for us. By far that is it because of the high speeds that they run and the retrofit of the UV curing unit on a narrow web is a lot more cost effective than it would be for an offset press. There is a cost associated with it, and the inks cost more, but there is more throughput. If they were running 1,100 fpm with a regular water-based ink, they can run that speed to 1,500 fpm in a UV-based ink.
The diecutting has no scuff and the label is harder itself, and depending on what the market is, sometimes the UV is more suited to protect against oils.
LNW: How have you seen inks change and become more sustainable throughout the years?
One of the issues with printing on a substrate is actually de-inking that substrate, because that’s how they recycle. In other words, you couldn’t take a product that’s dirty with ink and try and put it into a brand new sheet of paper or roll of paper because you’ve got contamination of color. It may be perfectly fine environmentally, but the hue of the paper is dirty. That would be something where we work with that particular industry.
There are some inks that release better from the substrate itself, and that’s our partners who are a little more into the environmental part of the print process. Not all of them do that, sadly.
We do do that, where it’s a quicker release from the substrate, but it protects it while it’s on the package itself. That’s a unique balance because usually when you’re trying to appease one end of the process, you’re sacrificing on the other.
The other part of sustainability and environmental friendliness with inks is, even UV inks now contain vegetable-based oils versus the old petrol-fired resins. Now they’re doing it with vegetable-based oils, and that in itself is remarkable because we’re up to about 12%. Before, you could get about 2% of corn-based oils and soybean oils in there, and now we’re up to about 12%. And that’s with no impact on the runnability of the ink and no impact on the adhesion, because that’s what we’re always worried about.
The gloss is another aspect of that because usually when you take something out of the norm and you’re introducing it, you have a dry-back situation. With the vegetable-based oils we use now, they don’t do that; They’ve refined them to finer grades so it’s more suitable to being a part of the recipe for ink itself.
LNW: Do you see any other trends or improvements in ink?
DS: What we’re always looking at is what we can do to replace any kind of petrol-related product, whether it’s a wax or PTFE’s that help like a fingernail scratch on a label. When these products are shipped to a grocer or wherever they’re going, there’s always vibration from the shipping, and if you don’t have the protectants of a good scuff, then it just rubs the ink off.
We’re always looking at improving the durability of the product itself, keeping in mind that we want to de-ink in the end.
Special effects are the other part of the value-added that a printer puts on a paper. When they take a roll of paper, their whole job is to add value to that substrate because they’re selling. If they can diecut, foil stamp, put a soft touch or special effects coating on there–pearlescence, for instance–that seems to be the latest trend where you grab a product from that shelf and it sparkles, then you grab that one from the shelf first. It’s all about shelf appeal, and ink definitely plays a big part in that.
We brand with corporate companies, Coca Cola, for instance. This is a part of what we do with them. They have to print the labels for their plastic jugs, so that color has to be their corporate branded color. The CEO for Coca Cola carries around an INX International swatch, and he will test every product line that they have, whether it’s the folding carton carrier that the cans are in or if it’s the actual liter or pint bottle. He checks that against the red that’s on the Coca Cola.
We know we have to match that specific color, even though it’s on a different substrate. We still make sure that color is the same.
LNW: How do you deal with possible color distortion in methods like in-mold and shrink sleeving, where heat is applied?
One of the things for LED for labels, LED doesn’t distort the substrate itself, and that’s one of the benefits from going from UV curing to LED. You have less energy and it costs a lot less. LED curing is so fine-tuned these days. This is a project that has been in the works for five years now or better.
Now we’re at the market place and people are printing successfully. There are converters that are converting their presses to LED. That’s another process that’s improved, and it saves them money because UV takes a lot more energy, too. We look at LED as a market trend and the future of print. Look at what the government has done with reducing incandescent lamps that you can buy; You can’t get a regular light bulb anymore. Now they want you to go with LED or fluorescent because they use less energy. You couple that with new car manufacturers and all the headlights are LED and they’re bright. We look at it as how minimal power is required to do that.
When you’re looking at curing with LED on a narrow web press, you’re using less energy and you’re totally cured and your throughput is much faster. It’s a benefit for everybody, and the footprint is lighter and it’s less costly.
LNW: Is there anything you’d like to add about INX International or the industry as a whole?
DS: I think INX International is one of the most diverse companies that there is out there. Unlike our top two competitors, we don’t go after publication-type printing because there’s little to no value in it. Look at what the Kindle did to books, so we focus on growth industries.
In narrow web, our efforts in the cosmetics industry with products like translucent substrates have been significant because they’re brittle. If your ink dries too hard and the chemistry is too hard, it actually will shatter that clear cosmetic label, whether it’s cologne or lipstick or whatever. It’s called a drop test and they hold it up five feet and drop it. If the ink is too brittle, it shatters the whole package.
Our commitment to the different industries is second to none. Our flexo efforts all the way around are the largest part of INX International’s business.
David Sambo, vice president of offset sales at INX International, joined Label & Narrow Web at Graph Expo 2015 in Chicago, IL, USA, to discuss his company’s offerings and the industry’s latest ink trends.
LNW: What is INX International currently offering in the label and narrow web market?
DS: In the labels market, we have several offerings. The first one is INXFlex 2000, which is a UV narrow web ink. And of course, that’s for synthetic substrates like foils or any kind of non-porous material that typically will print with the UV flexo ink for adhesion and special effects. On the narrow web, they have the capacity of doing special effects, foil stamping, and all kinds of unique facets of the label to sell it and make it jump off the shelf.
We communicate with the printer, and if it’s an adhesion or a foil stamping like a gold emblem of a chocolate candy, they’ll print them on the narrow web, which is exciting because they can run a whole bunch at a time.
The other thing we offer is the low migration ink for labels, and where this comes into play is water bottle labels, for instance. They don’t want the ink to migrate–even though it’s in a plastic–because that plastic can be porous at times, so gases could possibly leech into the bottle itself. That’s why we employ the low migration products for narrow web flexo.
There’s probably 50-60% of that market is printed on label substrates and then glued on to the can. We always are looking at what the product is and what is that label going to go on. That helps us determine what inks that we recommend based on migration and what the barriers are.
LNW: What do you find are some of the more popular inks on the market today?
DS: In the narrow web, it’s definitely the UV, which is the INXFlex 2000 for us. By far that is it because of the high speeds that they run and the retrofit of the UV curing unit on a narrow web is a lot more cost effective than it would be for an offset press. There is a cost associated with it, and the inks cost more, but there is more throughput. If they were running 1,100 fpm with a regular water-based ink, they can run that speed to 1,500 fpm in a UV-based ink.
The diecutting has no scuff and the label is harder itself, and depending on what the market is, sometimes the UV is more suited to protect against oils.
LNW: How have you seen inks change and become more sustainable throughout the years?
One of the issues with printing on a substrate is actually de-inking that substrate, because that’s how they recycle. In other words, you couldn’t take a product that’s dirty with ink and try and put it into a brand new sheet of paper or roll of paper because you’ve got contamination of color. It may be perfectly fine environmentally, but the hue of the paper is dirty. That would be something where we work with that particular industry.
There are some inks that release better from the substrate itself, and that’s our partners who are a little more into the environmental part of the print process. Not all of them do that, sadly.
We do do that, where it’s a quicker release from the substrate, but it protects it while it’s on the package itself. That’s a unique balance because usually when you’re trying to appease one end of the process, you’re sacrificing on the other.
The other part of sustainability and environmental friendliness with inks is, even UV inks now contain vegetable-based oils versus the old petrol-fired resins. Now they’re doing it with vegetable-based oils, and that in itself is remarkable because we’re up to about 12%. Before, you could get about 2% of corn-based oils and soybean oils in there, and now we’re up to about 12%. And that’s with no impact on the runnability of the ink and no impact on the adhesion, because that’s what we’re always worried about.
The gloss is another aspect of that because usually when you take something out of the norm and you’re introducing it, you have a dry-back situation. With the vegetable-based oils we use now, they don’t do that; They’ve refined them to finer grades so it’s more suitable to being a part of the recipe for ink itself.
LNW: Do you see any other trends or improvements in ink?
DS: What we’re always looking at is what we can do to replace any kind of petrol-related product, whether it’s a wax or PTFE’s that help like a fingernail scratch on a label. When these products are shipped to a grocer or wherever they’re going, there’s always vibration from the shipping, and if you don’t have the protectants of a good scuff, then it just rubs the ink off.
We’re always looking at improving the durability of the product itself, keeping in mind that we want to de-ink in the end.
Special effects are the other part of the value-added that a printer puts on a paper. When they take a roll of paper, their whole job is to add value to that substrate because they’re selling. If they can diecut, foil stamp, put a soft touch or special effects coating on there–pearlescence, for instance–that seems to be the latest trend where you grab a product from that shelf and it sparkles, then you grab that one from the shelf first. It’s all about shelf appeal, and ink definitely plays a big part in that.
We brand with corporate companies, Coca Cola, for instance. This is a part of what we do with them. They have to print the labels for their plastic jugs, so that color has to be their corporate branded color. The CEO for Coca Cola carries around an INX International swatch, and he will test every product line that they have, whether it’s the folding carton carrier that the cans are in or if it’s the actual liter or pint bottle. He checks that against the red that’s on the Coca Cola.
We know we have to match that specific color, even though it’s on a different substrate. We still make sure that color is the same.
LNW: How do you deal with possible color distortion in methods like in-mold and shrink sleeving, where heat is applied?
One of the things for LED for labels, LED doesn’t distort the substrate itself, and that’s one of the benefits from going from UV curing to LED. You have less energy and it costs a lot less. LED curing is so fine-tuned these days. This is a project that has been in the works for five years now or better.
Now we’re at the market place and people are printing successfully. There are converters that are converting their presses to LED. That’s another process that’s improved, and it saves them money because UV takes a lot more energy, too. We look at LED as a market trend and the future of print. Look at what the government has done with reducing incandescent lamps that you can buy; You can’t get a regular light bulb anymore. Now they want you to go with LED or fluorescent because they use less energy. You couple that with new car manufacturers and all the headlights are LED and they’re bright. We look at it as how minimal power is required to do that.
When you’re looking at curing with LED on a narrow web press, you’re using less energy and you’re totally cured and your throughput is much faster. It’s a benefit for everybody, and the footprint is lighter and it’s less costly.
LNW: Is there anything you’d like to add about INX International or the industry as a whole?
DS: I think INX International is one of the most diverse companies that there is out there. Unlike our top two competitors, we don’t go after publication-type printing because there’s little to no value in it. Look at what the Kindle did to books, so we focus on growth industries.
In narrow web, our efforts in the cosmetics industry with products like translucent substrates have been significant because they’re brittle. If your ink dries too hard and the chemistry is too hard, it actually will shatter that clear cosmetic label, whether it’s cologne or lipstick or whatever. It’s called a drop test and they hold it up five feet and drop it. If the ink is too brittle, it shatters the whole package.
Our commitment to the different industries is second to none. Our flexo efforts all the way around are the largest part of INX International’s business.