Superior Printing Ink, the leading supplier of commercial sheetfed inks in North America, has completed the re-certification of its Hamden, CT Central Manufacturing Facility to ISO 9001:2008 standards. A comprehensive on-site audit, conducted by the Bureau Veritas Group, evaluated Superior’s quality management system in areas including customer service, product quality, and manufacturing processes.

“The Central Manufacturing Facility plays a critical role in the success of our business, and is recognized as one of the most modern sheetfed ink and varnish manufacturing facilities in North America,” Jim La Rocca, Superior’s chief operating officer, said. “Superior’s ongoing commitment to quality in all areas of operation is validated by the achievement of ISO 9001:2008 certification. This milestone is the result of dedicated work by our manufacturing and quality leadership teams. Our customers can continue to rely on the consistency, performance, and service that Superior provides to the North American commercial and packaging printing industry.”

In March of this year, Evonik Tego Chemie GmbH celebrates an important anniversary: For 25 years, the Evonik Tego Chemie GmbH has offered its know-how in the field of additives and speciality resins for coatings and printing inks. During this time, Tego has risen to become a leading supplier of speciality products for the coatings and printing inks industries.

In October 1984 Th. Goldschmidt AG established Tego Chemie Service GmbH in Essen. Operations started on Jan. 1, 1985. Even at that time, major products included the silicone resins still used today for heat resistant coatings for saucepans and frying pans, etc. In addition, organomodified siloxanes with their outstanding surface activity rapidly became increasingly important as additives for coatings and printing inks.

From the early years, the Essen company enjoyed continuous growth. Parallel to the activities in Europe, the first regional sales team and a technical service laboratory were set up in the U.S. At the end of the 1980s, Evonik Tego entered the Asian market which, alongside the U.S., has become a mainstay for the company. China, in particular, continues to be a growth area.

Today, the Evonik Tego products are available from numerous subsidiaries. The Evonik Tego is thus able to supply the customers almost everywhere rapidly and provide competent technical support through the Technical Service Centers.

Detailed product information, interactive solutions to problems, technical background information and numerous technical articles by the experts supplement the service for the customers at www.tego.de.

Evonik Tego Chemie GmbH also facilitates routine work for customers via its comprehensive Tego Journal: 200 pages of products, services and data sheets from Tego. New editions of the Tego Journal will continue to be published regularly for the benefit of customers.

Tego products are internationally renowned as innovative, effective raw materials for coatings and printing inks. This is clearly reflected by the comprehensive range of the high performance additives. Suitable choice of additive enables the paint manufacturing process to be optimized and the application characteristics and/or cured paint film properties to be precisely tailored as required.

Evonik Tego’s expertise in selectively influencing interfaces combined with an in-depth understanding of customers’ requirements enables the company to offer tailor-made products which meet many requirements of the coatings and printing inks industry. Regardless of the interface, Evonik Tego has the right technology:

• TEGO Dispers wetting and dispersing additives promote pigment wetting and stabilization thus preventing floating and flooding and settling out of pigments.

• TEGO Foamex defoamers prevent foaming during production and application of waterborne coatings and printing inks. Existing foam is destroyed and entrapped air is avoided. TEGO Foamex defoamers are available as emulsions, solutions and concentrates.

• TEGO Airex deaerators prevent formation of air inclusions and pinholes in coatings. This is particularly important in high viscosity or high solids formulations and indispensible when using Airless-/Airmix application methods.

• TEGO Wet substrate wetting additives permit uniform wetting of coatings and printing inks even on low energy surfaces. Good wetting is a prerequisite for optimum adhesion. Surface defects such as cratering or poor flow and leveling are avoided.

• TEGO Glide & Flow surface additives improve the flow, slip and scratch resistance of coatings. They also prevent cratering and floating of pigments.

Evonik Tego’s range now comprises some 200 products. Around 120 employees in Essen together with colleagues all over the world continuously strive to develop and improve innovative technologies in the field of additives and specialty resins to provide the products of tomorrow for the customers.

As a part of the Evonik Corporation, Tego has exploited the synergy created to pursue its continued development.

Sun Chemical displayed its commitment to the food package printing market through the grand opening of its new state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Frankfurt, Germany.

The plant was built using clean room and HACCP directives to ensure that the best possible standards are adopted in manufacturing of Sun Chemical inks. Representing an investment of €4 million, the new facility is dedicated to the highest level of cleanliness and utilizes the world’s most advanced technology to create high-quality sheetfed packaging inks.

The facility features the most modern mixers and mills on the market, process control computers, as well as two new blending stations. One blending station is specifically used for low migration inks; the other, which is housed in a separate building to avoid cross-contamination, is used for conventional inks.

To ensure the purity of the inks manufactured at the Frankfurt facility, all raw materials are hand-inspected to make sure they contain no contaminants and have low odor as required by strict European food regulations. Additionally, quality control officers are on-site to check product quality at all times.

“Food package printers are facing tremendous challenges today,” said Rudi Lenz, CEO of Sun Chemical. “In addition to cost pressures and stiff competition, they also face demanding sustainability requirements and some of the strictest ink migration standards on the market. Our customers rely on us to provide them with solutions that help them meet those challenges. That’s why Sun Chemical’s investment in the Frankfurt plant shows our commitment to providing excellence for our customers and the food package printing industry. The new high-tech manufacturing equipment will ensure that our customers receive quality inks they can rely on without worry.”

The Frankfurt plant’s centrally located position in Germany provides the ideal location for fast dispatch of products across Europe, ensuring delivery to key markets within two days.

The opening of the Frankfurt plant will make Sun Chemical the only supplier with multiple low migration solutions across its conventional technology inks ranges.

Jonathan Graunke of INX International Ink Co. is one of three panelists scheduled to discuss LED UV Technology on Tuesday, March 9 at the Print UV 2010 conference in Las Vegas. Graunke, the director of energy curable systems at INX, will be joined by representatives from Ryobi and Air Motion Systems for the 10:45 a.m. session that will be held at the Wynn Resort.

With Print UV now in its third year, INX once again will serve as a major sponsor of the two-day event that is dedicated to encouraging and sustaining the growth of UV printing. The UV ink energy curable market has been a source of growth for INX in recent years, both domestically and overseas. Mr. Graunke plans to discuss the company’s latest research work as it pertains to UV LED inks for different applications, relative to current commercial printing models.

“I’m looking forward to this year’s event for several reasons,” Mr. Graunke said. “Print UV is now in its third year and since it is expected to be sold out, it’s on the radar of key people we work with, and hope to work with. Our experience has been it’s a great area to gauge our development work and foster new ideas. The printers who are at this conference are looking for every edge they can find to help their companies. The economy remains an issue, but the feeling is we are at a better point than a year ago and that optimism is spilling over into the conference.”

INX and INX Digital have unveiled several products for the UV markets in the last six months. In addition to the EVOLVE brand of UV inks, the NW100 single pass UV-LED curing narrow web printer debuted at PRINT ’09. It produces brilliant 4-color at through cure speeds up to 80’ per minute.

Faced with increases in the costs of raw materials and the impact of recent events in the global supply chain, Sun Chemical will raise prices in North America by 4 percent for packaging liquid inks with a specific increase of $0.40/lb on bronze metallic inks, 6 percent for energy curable inks, and $0.75/lb for commercial sheetfed blended colors, effective April 1, 2010.

For more than 18 months, raw materials and energy cost volatility have significantly impacted the ink industry. Non-traditional factors recently began impacting the price of major feedstocks and raw materials, including: supply base consolidation and capacity curtailment, significant decline in refinery margins, and rationalized operating rates to diminish demand. The combination of these factors has led to elevated fixed costs on raw material goods.

“Due to the consolidation of raw material suppliers, we now have fewer industry supply options to choose from,” said Tony Renzi, vice president, product management liquid inks, North American Inks, Sun Chemical. “Until we see an improvement in demand or a supply correction is made in the raw materials industry, we will continue to face a higher cost in manufacturing inks.

“At Sun Chemical, we continue to work on controlling our own costs closely with our supply chain partners, to improve our internal operations and to develop new value oriented products that can help customers grow their business, and we will continue to invest in those areas that provide our customers with innovative products and services allowing them to be more competitive and present the best value propositions in the market.”

INX International Ink Co. will have plenty of innovations to show and tell to the metal decorating industry when Cannex de las Americas convenes April 27-29 in Las Vegas. INX will be featuring the new line of EVOLVE Advanced Digital Solutions in booth 517 during the three-day show at the Sands Expo and Convention Center.

Two innovative printers that INX debuted at PRINT ’09 last September will be prominently displayed at Cannex. The new CP100 UV can printer and MD660 UV flatbed printer present interesting new options for metal decorating customers to consider. Both technologies use INX Digital EVOLVE brand UV inks and are supported by a team of digital integration specialists trained to assist and help customers with the transition to digital printing.

The CP100 is designed for the short run production of cylindrical printing and offers high quality, single or multi-pass through-cured 4-color output with an advanced UV LED curing system. Its high speed technology is ideal for 2-piece cans and delivers exceptionally consistent, eye-catching color using proven and patented Xaar print heads. The MD660 is a cost effective solution that produces real metal sample proofs quickly for short run production of decorative tins, general line containers and aerosols. It achieves extremely high resolution over 1000 dpi on coated and uncoated aluminum or steel substrates using proven and reliable print head technology.

Also available from INX is a complete line of ink and coating solutions including 2-piece, flat sheet and digital applications. Ink solutions vary, ranging from conventional to UV, and will feature tactile inks and the new low temperature TP Vision Plus 3 conventional ink system for 3-piece metal decorating applications.

The Lubrizol Corporation announced that Rick Tolin has been named global business director, personal care and home care for Noveon Consumer Specialties. Mr. Tolin will lead the sales, product marketing and technical services organizations globally, with primary responsibility for the continued growth of the personal care segment and for the implementation of global strategic plans.

Mr. Tolin joins the team from the Lubrizol Performance Coatings group, where he served as sales director for the Americas and Europe. He brings a wealth of commercial and leadership experience with him to the Noveon Consumer Specialties team.

“We are excited to have Rick join our team,” Tom Malafronte, senior vice president and general manager of Noveon Consumer Specialties, said. “His knowledge and years of experience in the specialty chemicals business will make him a key customer advocate and well-positioned to continue our work as a leading solutions provider.”

Commenting on his new assignment, Mr. Tolin said, “I am excited to be joining such an outstanding team. Together we will continue the tradition of delivering exceptional solutions and services to our valued customers.”

American Ink Jet Corporation (AIJC) announces the availability of their new ink set for use in the HP Designjet Z6100 printer. The new ink answers market demand for a solution for remanufacturing and recycling the HP No. 91 cartridges as AIJC continues to expand its line of compatible inks for the wide format digital imaging market. The new ink meets all the high quality standards AIJC sets for all of its inks. AIJC’s new 8-color ink set meets OEM standards for color, density, printhead life, image permanence and overall quality of output.

“The Z6100 is one of the top quality high production printers on the market right now, so the market really needs a premium quality ink solution,” stated Michael Andreottola, founder and CEO of American Ink Jet. “Making the best quality ink for the most difficult of printers is exactly what we have always been able to do better than anyone else. The bottom line is customers that use our ink will save a lot of money without sacrificing quality, and that is going to be a huge help in these tough economic times.”

AIJ uses a proprietary sub-micron purification and filtration process to filter inks to less than .5 microns resulting in high quality, trouble free inks. AIJ’s new inks are a “plug and play” solution meaning users do not need to adjust for color or flush existing OEM ink from their printer prior to installing cartridges filled with AIJ inks. The new ink set has been tested with all major media types including coated papers, micro-porous photo papers, tyvek, vinyl, canvas and fine art papers.

Cognis Corporation is increasing prices for all Photomer and Bisomer brand products. The costs for raw materials in the acrylic and methacrylic chain have gone up amid a firming supply environment.

Effective March 15 or as contracts allow, the list and off list price increase for Photomer and Bisomer productsare as follows:

• Photomer 3000 series epoxy acrylates: $0.13/lb.
• Photomer 4000/8000 series monomer acrylates: $0.14/lb.
• Photomer 5000 series polyester acrylates: $0.12/lb.
• Photomer 6000 series urethane acrylates: $0.12/lb.
• Bisomer HEMA, Bisomer HPMA methacrylate monomers, all grades: $0.15/lb.
• All other Bisomer products Adducts, multifunctional monomers and oligomers: $0.12/lb.

ONE SOLUTION’s ONE UV OPAL ink is a new formulation has been designed to work on a large variety of large format inkjet printers. With high quality pigment, a fine dispersion and high curing performances, the OPAL inks outperform any third party products available on the market as well as most of the OEMs.

Benefits of the new UV OPAL inks:
• Extremely large color gamut allowing to reach difficult colors such as reflex blue, Coca-Cola red,… without compromising on others.
• Small particle size and fine dispersion reducing maintenance of the printheads and increasing their life time.
• Perfect surface tension for the 4 process colors preventing overspray and color mixing.
• Improved curing properties balancing correctly true and surface curing to enable excellent adhesion and flexibility on a wide variety of material.
• Low odor and irritancy thanks to a fine selection of raw material.

The UV OPAL ink is produced in ONE SOLUTION’s new production plant in Wavre, Belgium. This ensures more consistency from batch to batch, better logistic and prices more competitive. ONE UV OPAL ink’s competitive price starts at 28€/liter.

Innovalight, Inc., a privately-held firm selling silicon ink-based high efficiency solar cell materials and technology, announced that it has hired Boris Mathiszik as vice president of worldwide sales.

Mr. Mathiszik joins Innovalight from BTU International, where he was managing director for Asia. Based in Shanghai, China since 2006, Mathiszik led rapid sales growth in the region across six offices as well as
managing all of BTU’s manufacturing operations in China. Prior to BTU International, Mr. Mathiszik was vice president of sales for phoenix x-ray, Inc., which was acquired by General Electric.

Mr. Mathiszik will be responsible for building Innovalight’s sales organization and leading the company’s expansion plans with customers internationally. He has relocated from China to Innovalight’s headquarters in California.

Innovalight’s proprietary nanotechnology-based silicon ink and processing technologies allow crystalline silicon solar cell manufacturers to dramatically boost output capacity and solar cell performance, as well as reduce costs with a simplified additional step to already installed manufacturing lines. The opportunity is significant: crystalline silicon solar cell technology accounts for 77% of the commercial solar panel market today, according to Navigant Consulting, Inc., a leading solar industry research firm.

“I am thrilled to be joining Innovalight at this very exciting time in the company’s growth,” said Mr. Mathiszik. “Innovalight has a truly differentiated product that solar cell manufacturing companies want right now.”

“Boris is a great addition and brings enormous solar industry experience to our executive team,” said Conrad Burke, president and CEO for Innovalight. “He has an extraordinary track record of selling into the solar cell manufacturing industry internationally.”

Mr. Mathiszik is a graduate of the European Business School in Frankfurt, Germany and also has an MBA from San Diego State University.

Innovalight has a development roadmap to ultimately bring conversion efficiencies of solar cells to over 20% using its platform for silicon ink and processing technologies. Innovalight has filed for over 60 patents filed for silicon ink and high efficiency solar cells using silicon ink processes.

Shamrock Technologies, Inc., announced that it has named Steven M. Parker as its president and chief operating officer. William B. Neuberg will remain chairman and CEO.

Mr. Parker, a 30-year veteran of advanced materials industries, has held key executive positions at the former Allied-Signal Corp. (now Honeywell), the Ausimont Division of Montedison SpA, Saint-Gobain and, most recently, as division president and commercial director for UK-based Oxford Instruments.

With his background in global business, Mr. Parker served in an advisory role to the Shamrock leadership team during much of 2009.

According to Mr. Neuberg, Mr. Parker has the ideal combination of work experience, leadership skills and business savvy to help Shamrock achieve its ambitious growth goals.

“Shamrock capitalized on the recent economic downturn, reshaping and refocusing our growth goals and strategies,” said Mr. Neuberg. “Steve’s sound advice and counsel were instrumental in helping me sharpen the company’s vision and, in the process, it became apparent that he would be the ideal leader to help make that growth happen.”

Mr. Parker earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Randolph-Macon College and his MBA from Wake Forest University. He holds trustee and directorship positions at a number of academic and industry institutions.

Shamrock Technologies is the world’s leading processor of recycled polytetrafluoro-ethylene (PTFE), and a leading manufacturer of additives for inks and coatings applications. “The name behind the great names,” Shamrock helps satisfy critical needs demanded by formulators whose customers, like airlines, fast food, beverages and overnight delivery just to name a few, represent some of the most recognizable brands in the world.

INX International Ink Co. will place its focus on four key products when the 13th annual Packaging & Label Gravure Association’s (PLGA) Global Operational Conference convenes Feb. 24-26 in Miami. Belle Color, INX Platinum Plus RG43 Metallic ink, Roto-Flex G and Synergy Gravure™will be on display at the event, to be held at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Miami.

“We consider the PLGA Conference to be an important event for us for several reasons,” said Mark Hill, assistant director of research and development and vice president of liquid technology for INX International. “Many of the gravure printers attending do business with the packaging sector, a market where we have invested and support with technology. We also expect to visit with many of our packaging and label converter customers and potential future clients.”

Belle Color rotogravure laminating inks are the company’s signature product for the flexible packaging market. It offers several major ink system advances for retort pouches and boil-in-bag, providing unmatched performance in the retort and high performance lamination market. With a new proprietary resin system that is free of MEK (methyl ethyl ketone) and toluene, Belle Color’s adhesion to treated films is exceptional. This includes newer high barrier options such as AIOx and SIOx coated polyester, and general purpose films like polyolefins, polyester, cellophane, nylon and saran coated films.

Synergy Gravure works with similar treated films including polyester, polypropylene, polyethylene and saran coated films. These high performance adhesive lamination inks work well with a variety of solvent based and solvent-less adhesive systems. The ink blending system is ideal for printers looking to improve printability and reduce ink inventory levels and offers excellent film adhesion, bond strength and resolubility. Synergy Gravure also provides exceptional printability at high press speeds.

Roto-Flex G and INX Platinum Plus RG43 Metallic inks are two products that give printers more options. Roto-Flex G is a base system designed for multiple end use surface print applications where gloss is a consideration. When used in tandem with the proper extender vehicle, it can be used for printing film, foil or paper, and printed either as roto gravure or flexographic. Extremely versatile, it provides excellent gloss and sharp printing at high press speeds and can print on multiple substrates such as films, foils, metalized paper, and paper. It’s the logical choice for printers with multiple applications.

INX Platinum Plus RG43 Metallic ink rounds out the offerings at PLGA. It is a premium grade VMP metallic ink developed to stimulate a foil-like or vacuum metalized appearance when printed roto gravure. This solvent based gravure ink will produce a mirror-like effect on a variety of substrates, ranging from clear and opaque BOPP PS films and treated polyester to synthetic IML and coated paper. It also can be surface or reverse printed.

At the ProSweets 2010 trade fair in Cologne, Siegwerk showed itself to be a competent consultant for the packaging industry. In a special exhibition organized with other members of the German packaging association dvi (Deutsches Verpackungsinstitut), the focus was on so-called LOHAS – a growing segment of the consumer population that attaches great importance to health and sustainability.

As Thomas Bastian, the head of marketing at flexible packaging, said, “Our consultancy services and the idea to focus on this topic were well appreciated. There were interesting discussions with representatives of the packaging industry and confectionary manufacturers.”

Who are LOHAS? – Visitors got detailed information about packaging solutions for this growing consumer group in a special exhibition.

The special show focused on visionary ideas for sustainable packaging – targeting the “LOHAS.” Those letters stand for "Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability” and for a group of consumers who have been a focal point for the advertising industry for some time.

“In the U.S., they constitute about 30 percent of the population and are estimated to amount to 15 percent in Germany already,” Mr. Bastian explained. So the goal of the special show was to show how packaging can win the attention of LOHAS. “That hinges on the choice of the correct materials and the respective color codes. Apart from that, attractive finishing technologies and packaging design are important, too.”

According to Mr. Bastian, visitors were very interest in the special exhibition and welcomed the announcement of a special website on the topic, implemented by Koelnmesse and the dvi.

XSER Coatings LLC has announced its entry as a new player in the UV curable coatings market. XSER Coatings was started by John K. Braddock in New Brunswick, NJ to provide specialty UV coatings for a wide variety of end-use markets. Their lab personnel all have more than 20 years experience formulating UV curable coatings, hold multiple patents and have written more than 30 technical papers.

XSER Coatings' focus is on the specialty UV coatings market, specifically for natural stone and concrete countertops, composite applications, field applied wood and VCT tile coatings, specialty metal and specialty plastic coatings. XSER Coatings will also custom formulate for any application.