Consumables

Packaging producers can help brands stand out from their competitors and increase sales thanks to Sappi’s new top liner grade, Fusion. The product, which has been specifically designed for corrugated board, delivers greater shelf impact and enables brands to take advantage of new packaging possibilities. Fusion is ideal for a range of markets, from corrugators, litho laminators, display manufacturers and folding box converters to direct mailers, pre-printers, designers, agencies and co-packers. 

Improving customer satisfaction

The new Fusion range helps users improve customer satisfaction by delivering consistent results – an essential criterion for brands. This premium-quality, high bright, white liner uses 100% bleached virgin fibres, ensuring it is a spotless paper.

“Fusion significantly enhances images and gives products stand-out shelf appeal,” says Kerstin Dietze, Sappi’s Marketing Manager New Business. “The paper’s high brightness and whiteness makes it perfect for brands that demand highly accurate colour reproduction. And it opens up new creative packaging opportunities, as it’s suitable for all finishing techniques, including embossing, hot foil and varnishing.”

Light but strong

The reduced weight of Fusion enables users to produce lighter packaging. This helps their customers reduce the overall weight of their products, which enables them to lower their transport and postage costs. However, Fusion’s light weight compared with other liners doesn’t compromise usage. Its high strength means it can also be used for heavy duty and protective durability applications.

Profitable printing

As a special incentive, Fusion is being offered at one unique price per tonne, regardless of grammage, to help simplify production calculations and comparisons. The result is a final product that represents greater value for money and a significant return on investment.

Proven benefits

Dutch display and packaging producer, Holbox, was one of the first companies in Europe to use Fusion. The new corrugated paper has proved so popular with Holbox’s customers that the company is going to switch most of its former liner demand to the grade’s 180 gsm. Martijn Hol, Director at Holbox, comments: “The brightness and whiteness guarantee our customers’ displays have a striking shelf presence. It adds the extra visual element that can really make a difference to a product’s shelf appeal.”

Meanwhile, German operation Heidenreich Print GmbH has increased productivity thanks to the significantly reduced wash-up times and dusting. Managing Director, Hendrik Heidenreich, comments: “When we used GD liner, wash-ups were required every 2,000 to 4,000 sheets per time. With Fusion it’s every 10,000 or 20,000 sheets, depending on the ink coverage. This keeps us working for longer with fewer interruptions, and saves us money.”

Bordeaux Digital PrintInk, a developer and provider of inkjet inks for the graphic arts industry, will showcase new inkjet ink solutions at Euro-Reklama 2011, Poland's largest trade fair for the large format and digital printing sectors, in Poznan, 12 to 15 April 2011. The full range of solutions, including Bordeaux's Mix & Match  technology, already enjoyed by hundreds of print houses worldwide, will be available on the Polkos stand Hall A3, Booth 28.

"Advances in inkjet inks and printers are enabling us to offer more environmentally friendly and effective solutions with shorter drying times, better colour quality and range as well as greater durability and, above all, solutions which reduce costs, adding more to your bottom line," said Dror Mualem, Bordeaux's VP Sales and Business Development.

Many of Bordeaux's inks are based on the company's Mix & Match technology developed to enable more compatibility for wide and super wide digital printers such as Roland™, Mimaki™, HP™, EFI™, VUTEK™ and many more. Bordeaux's Mix & Match solutions make ink changeover easy and cost-efficient, by eliminating the need to dispose of remaining OEM inks or create new ICC Profiles.

Bordeaux's alternative inks offer an excellent colour gamut, are available in convenient sizes and fully compatible cartridges, bottles and bulk ink system bags for cost efficiency. The inks are produced using pigments and solvents from top worldwide known manufacturers. 

 

Oce, a Canon Group Company and an international leader in digital document management and delivery, today announced it has qualified several products produced by leading fibre paperboard producer M-real Corporation for the Oce Arizona Series of UV flatbed printers. To date, the products qualified include Carta Elega and Carta Integra paperboard and Kemiart topsheet used in corrugate packaging applications.

The Oce Arizona Series of flatbed printers are very versatile in a variety of applications including digital packaging – from prototype creation to custom and short-run packaging on both paperboard and corrugate. By being able to print directly to rigid substrates up to two inches thick and a maximum eight foot by ten foot image area, the Oce Arizona Series of printers enables packaging companies and their customers to realise a host of digitally-derived benefits previously not cost effective when produced traditionally.

Oce North America Product Marketing Manager Randy Paar states, "Oce's qualification of the M-real products now provides packaging companies entering into digital packaging an immediate, high quality, proven result that not only works on the digital flatbed but traditional offset or flexographic presses as well. This means the brand owner can much more confidently and quickly sign-off on a prototype and then see it go into production knowing that the final result will be accurately reproduced on the very same media."

Qualification consisted of producing samples on the Oce Arizona printer at the Oce Knowledge Center in Itasca, IL followed by further evaluation by M-real. The resulting image quality and ink adhesion were exceptional using the Oce IJC256 Series inks, even when printed at high volume production speeds. Using the companion Oce ProCut digital cutting table for creasing and cutting, both ink and substrate demonstrated good structural performance with virtually no cracking, chipping or scuffing of the printed package with either paperboard or corrugated board.

M-real Americas Technical Marketing Manager John Sarik states, "The samples of M-real's Carta Integra and Carta Elega FBB (Folding Box Board) produced on the Oce Arizona printer looked exceptional. They were presented at a company meeting where the images, screen work, and color reproduction were commented on as being top quality. Additionally, previous samples of Kemiart Lite and Kemiart Graph produced on the same printer as combined corrugated board showed very good color intensity, critical for POP display work, and fine detailed screening used in halftone reproductions."

Effect of Great Tohoku Kanto Earthquake (Second Report) from Toyo Ink:

We express our heartfelt sympathy to the victims of the Great Tohoku Kanto Earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011.

This release provides information on the damage sustained by the Group. The damaged confirmed as of the time of writing is as follows:

Effect on production facilities

Manufacturing sites in eastern Japan experienced minor damage, but production capacity has not been affected.

Effect of rolling outages

The quality of some products would be affected significantly if there is an outage in the production process. We are therefore changing production periods to time periods when no outages are planned.

Effect on procurement of materials

Procuring certain raw materials for products in the Printing & Information Related Business, Packaging Materials Related Business, and Polymers & Coatings Related Business of the Group has become difficult. Each operating company is considering initiatives to minimise the effect of this situation on results.

Effect of radiation on products

The Group does not use any raw materials from the evacuation zones around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant designated by the government. Our production sites are at least 200 kilometers away from the plant. In addition, we manufacture products indoors and store them in containers. We therefore believe that the possibility of our products being exposed to radiation is low and that the effect of the radiation leaks on our products is negligible.

 

Polytype announces that its Virtu Vetro ink series for UV-curable production onto glass surfaces has completed a number of performance tests, demonstrating distinction in several key performance areas. The results provide compelling evidence about the excellent compatibility, durability and behaviour of the Virtu Vetro range of CMYK and white inks on float, safety and other glass types for a variety of industrial digital printing applications.
 
Developed by the Swiss manufacturer for its award-winning Virtu range of wide- and superwide-format industrial printing technologies, the inks were printed onto glass panes and examined stringently by an independent, accredited testing laboratory. A primer Virtu bond was used to pretreat the substrate, which was then printed in controlled conditions before being tested extensively in 21 categories.
 
Of particular importance to Virtu users within industrial digital printing disciplines are conclusions showing the ink's outstanding durability. Virtu Vetro is confirmed to perform excellently with tapes and adhesives, even under stressful conditions; one stress assessment undertaken when using a silicone-based adhesive even demonstrates full adhesion after two weeks of continuous testing. Polytype's Virtu Vetro inks are verified as highly resistant to abrasion, scratching, grinding and polishing, and do not chip or flake when cut.
 
The printed glass was also subjected to heat and light conditions and monitored for resistance to commercial and industrial chemicals, such as cleaning products, ensuring that it meets European standards. Shock tests designed to replicate unusual environments were also undertaken, as were standard condensation, water and Xenon arc lamp examinations. In all cases the Virtu Vetro ink range did not crack, peel or discolour.
 
"This latest round of independent examinations validates Polytype's attention to detail and reconfirms our commitment to providing quality printing solutions to our customers," comments Sylvia Muhr, sales director for Polytype's Virtu business unit. "We are proud to see our dedication to excellence in ink performance confirmed independently, proving that the Virtu family of platforms and inks is the right choice for every kind of output, whatever its destination."

 

Due to the serious shortages and unrelenting cost increases of the raw materials needed to manufacture white and Violet 23 packaging inks, effective May 1, 2011, Sun Chemical will raise prices on all solvent- and water-based white inks by a minimum of 10 percent, and all solvent- and water-based Violet 23 inks by a minimum of 20 percent, dependent upon the amount of Violet 23 in the specific colour formulation.
 
Sun Chemical will continue to monitor the situation with raw materials and may need to make further price adjustments for other packaging inks as necessary.
 
"We regret needing to take this action, but the shortages and subsequent increases in costs for the raw materials needed to manufacture packaging inks have placed us in a position where we need to raise our prices," said Tony Renzi, Vice President of Product Management, Liquid Inks, North American Inks, Sun Chemical. "Despite these challenges placing us in this regrettable position, we are looking for ways to work closely with our supply chain partners on controlling our own costs."