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To people outside the printing industry, digital print is usually associated with toner-based systems such as Xerox. However, inkjet technology has had an equally large impact on the way printed materials are produced. Early commercial inkjet pioneers, such as Sun Chemical, realised digital's potential to offer higher speed, lower costs and greater flexibility than traditional printing methods and although early inkjet industrial applications included printing of number codes and markings, it didn't truly take off for graphic applications until the introduction of piezo print head technology in the 1990s.
Evolving technology
There have been many twists and turns to get to the advanced piezo-based inkjet printing that is commonplace today. Early technology utilised oil-based inks before the development of the solvent and UV inks used today. Running parallel to the evolution of piezo was thermal technology, which uses water-based inks.
Water-based inks do have many advantages but, generally speaking, they limit the range of substrates to which the ink will adhere. Advances have been made to pre-treat substrates so they are suitable for water-based inks: however, this requires expensive media. Consequently, printers who do not want to be limited to specific media tend to opt for solvent or UV printing systems.
The wide format graphics market for inkjet inks is incredibly large and has traditionally been dominated by inks from the original equipment manufacturers. More recently the trend is for companies like Sun Chemical to expand their market share and apply their significant knowledge of inkjet ink technology into this marketplace, which in Sun Chemical's case has been accumulated over 30 years. Indeed, Sun Chemical, which invests heavily in research and development, has produced many of the original inks sold under the brands of different printer manufacturers.
Sun Chemical now offers its Streamline range of solvent-based inks for most leading wide and super-wide format inkjet printers in a massive market. Streamline inks use the same solvent type as the original equipment manufacturers' inks, to ensure they are compatible with the print heads and printing systems. They are also filtered to three micron absolute, to avoid head blockages. In most cases, there is no need to flush the heads when swapping from the original equipment manufacturers' inks. Therefore printers converting to Streamline inks can get equal or better performance with additional benefits such as economy, quality and supply security from a long-term partner and solutions provider.
In the future, companies already operating in the inkjet market are likely to face additional competition from the likes of Sun Chemical, that are bringing specific expertise, such as ink and colour technology, a more proactive approach to customer service and other new ideas.
Making savings
One company already benefiting from significant cost savings as a result of switching to Sun Chemical's Streamline PFSC pre-filled cartridges for its two Seiko ColorPainter 64S wide-format printers is Manchester-based Albany Graphics.
Tom Thistleton, owner of Albany Graphics, said: "Six months after making the change to Streamline inks, we are able to offer the same high-quality products while achieving cost savings of up to 50 per cent, which are being reinvested into other areas of the business, such as flatbed digital printing and lithographic films for silk screen printers. It was vital for us that Sun Chemical's Streamline inks delivered the same level of quality, performance and colour integrity as the OEM products. We decided to trial Streamline on the first of our Seiko ColorPainter 64S printers, and we were so impressed with the whole package, we switched the second to Streamline within a month.
"It would be fair to say we had some reservations about using third-party inks, but Sun Chemical alleviated these very quickly. The change-over was very quick and straightforward and all the existing settings, such as the colour profiles, were transferred very easily. We fulfil a number of repeat orders for our customers, so it is vital that Streamline offers the same colour integrity as the OEM products, which we are delighted to say, it does."
The Streamline PFSC series of inks from Sun Chemical are designed for use with Seiko ColorPainter 64S and 100S printers. The cartridges are filled with the high quality 0439 range of inks, which have been formulated to meet the stringent demands of the latest wide format printing equipment and combine quality, strong bright colours and excellent reliability and adhesion. They are suitable for a wide range of media, including back-lit and front-lit vinyl, banners, blue back and wet strength papers and mesh.
Sun Chemical's business manager for Streamline inks, Tony Cox, said: "Albany Graphics is a great example of how printers can use third-party products, such as Streamline, to benefit their business. In this case, Albany Graphics is gaining from Sun Chemical's extensive expertise in ink technology to make significant cost savings whilst maintaining OEM quality and output."
World first
Roland DG is another name we have grown to trust in the digital market and its recent launch of the world's first ultra-violet integrated printer cutter, the VersaUV LEC-300, heralds its arrival in the UV sector and gives the company and its customers the opportunity to target new, adjacent markets. Developed specifically for use with the LEC-300, Roland's proprietary Eco-UV ink enjoys the same scratch resistance properties as its marketing leading Eco-Sol range, but with all the advantages of a UV cured ink: the ability to print on an even larger range of substrates coupled with instant drying.
Roland DG's entry into the UV market has been spurred by the development of a proprietary UV ink that can be cured safely in a non-energy intensive process and remains flexible once printed. This has been achieved with VersaUV and Eco-UV.
Unlike most UV curable inks, Eco-UV is not brittle when cured, so graphics can be stretched around corners or curved surfaces without the image feathering or splitting. The VersaUV LEC-300's LED lamps consume significantly less power than traditional halogen lamps, require no warm up or cool down period, and have a lifecycle of 10,000 working hours: up to five times longer than industry standard halogens. The LEDs operate in thesafest possible area of the ultra-violet spectrumand conform to International Safety Standard IEC60825-9.
Eco-UV ink is also among the most environmentally friendly UV curable inkjet inks available as it contains no VOCs and emits no ozone.
A successful solution
Another new entry sees Durst, in conjunction with SunJet, the inkjet ink division of Sun Chemical, launching a thermo-formable UV cured ink system for use with its digital printing presses.
The new ink, called Rho TH Ink, will allow Durst's customers to access new markets for advertising, displays and decoration of functional items. New opportunities include coordination of traditional advertising and point of sale displays with moulded and formed displays. There are also huge opportunities in the customisation of sports and protective equipment such as cycle helmets.
Technically, the flexibility of the ink allows full forming on styrene, acrylic and many other plastic materials commonly used in displays and functional equipment. Highly challenging moulds with 90deg edges and more than 100mm depth showed exceptional good results on a wide variety of thermoplastics.
New and novel ink chemistry was developed by SunJet to satisfy the technical requirements of inks which stretch and extend during the forming process after they have been cured with exposure to UV energy. Like all Durst UV inks, the new ink is still environmentally friendly and does not need to carry the N sign for environmental harm. Durst worked with companies involved in the manufacture of formed displays and protective equipment to ensure print quality and post formed articles achieve full acceptance.
Durst's CEO, Dr Richard Piock, commented: "We have worked with SunJet to ensure the new and unusual properties required for the thermoforming conditions have been achieved whilst maintaining the reliability and print quality that our customers are used to seeing from our machines."
And finally
There is a lot happening in the digital inks market at the moment with new manufacturers vying for a piece of the action. Importantly this means that there is a whole lot more to choose from so if you're not getting the right results don't be afraid to look for a new supplier.
http://www.sunchemical.com/
http://www.dusrt-online.co.uk/
http://www.rolanddg.com/
