Sun Chemical, a leading producer of printing inks, coatings and supplies, pigments and polymers, maintained a strong presence at FTA’s INFO*FLEX. The event took place from March 7-8 at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth, TX, USA, and was held in conjunction with Forum: Power of the Past, Force of the Future.

In addition to its presence on the exhibition show floor, Jeremy Teachman, field marketing manager – Energy Cured at Sun Chemical, presented as part of the INFO*FLEX Solutions Theater. His presentation, entitled “Water-Based Technologies: Market Trends and Pushing the Boundaries,” detailed many of the concerns converters have in today’s evolving market.

Sun Chemical’s INFO*FLEX booth incorporated Forum’s past and future theme, focusing on ink technology and customer applications, as well as technological development designed to aid customers with productivity. The company revolved its booth around the Flexo Troubleshooting Guide. In the past, Sun Chemical would print books or posters to give to employees in the press room. “What we now have is an app that’s in Google Play or in the iTunes store, and that now helps people navigate all the different kinds of troubleshooting,” explained Penny Holland, vice president, NAI Marketing, Sun Chemical. “It’s tying into the whole past and future theme, where this is where we’ve come from, and now people want to work differently. We give them the tools to be able to do that.”

Anthony Renzi, Jr., vice president of product management, Packaging Inks-North America, noted that application guides frequently became obsolete in a short amount of time, and the new functionality enables easy updates.

The company also highlighted Sun Support Online, an online site for current customers where they can self-manage–ordering new products, view shipment statuses, track orders, and complete invoices. “It makes it easier in environments where you’re running multiple shifts,” added Holland. “You can come into the interface once a customer is registered and even drill into purchases they’ve made in the past or products that are common to you. It is a unique user experience, so whatever you’ve done in the past, that’s what catalog you get pulled into.”

During working hours, Sun Support Online also provides a live chat feature to enhance productivity and the user experience.

Sun Chemical’s customers have noticed several market drivers, including cost and sustainability. Teachman noted that more customers are demanding products that promote a healthy environmental impact, with considerations like safe food packaging and recyclability.

“In addition to sustainability, we’re asking more and more every day of packaging in terms of its role and importance in branding and marketing, differentiation at the point of sale, and participation in the consumption of the products in packages,” said Teachman. “There’s a lot changing in terms of the demand on packaging today.”

The company has also noticed a 2-3 times increase in production speeds and 10-20% surges in changeover times as machinery improves. Converters’ investment in this high-efficiency equipment has necessitated other trends, including a shift away from traditional ink systems and the expanded use of craft substrates.

“Our position is trying to be a full supplier to meet any of the customers’ needs in printing,” said Renzi, Jr. “On the ink side–for narrow web, specifically–we have a full portfolio of water, solvent, energy cure, and we’re looking into LED since that’s the latest trend in narrow web. We also have a plates division, so we try to get a soup to nuts solutions package for our customers.”

In regards to water-based technologies, Sun Chemical has seen changes incremental in nature. Suppliers are converging on a common framework that optimizes solubility while promoting quick drying. These newer inks systems are stable and require minimal management and intervention. The formulations also deliver clear color intensity and minimize the VOC impact.

Several factors have played a role in the development of new ink technologies. Sun Chemical incorporates a specific selection if surfactants and additives, as well as optimizing resins. Suppliers also weigh the balances of emulsion versus solution, and film formation.

Converters are increasingly requiring inks that maintain high-end resistance properties (heat resistance, chemical resistance, for example) such as high-adhesion and anchorage. The developments in polymer design and reactive chemistry systems have enabled these changes.

“While the industry is successful in advancing technologies and delivering these new performances required by the market, the market itself continues to push in and towards areas that have been at the edge or the boundary of capabilities of water-based systems,” explained Teachman. “There is a similar amount of work ongoing today that is working to resolve the constraints in water-based systems.”

So far, Sun Chemical has seen progress in solving some legacy constraints, as inks continue to outperform previously catalyzed systems.

Overall, Sun Chemical viewed the show as a success. “I think there’s more registrations than there were, and I know all the booths sold out very quickly,” said Holland. “I think this is one of the higher that FTA has had in terms of participants, so it’s been great.”