So how do you make your business more competitive?

The obvious measure to take is to ensure your manufacturing costs are closely controlled.  However, this alone is not enough, as costs can only be cut so far before they start affecting your ability to deliver to your customers.  Therefore, you need to look for other ways to add value to your products, which will in turn lead to increased profitability.

One of the most successful ways of doing this is to embrace new innovations and technologies.  As the world’s largest producer of printing inks and pigments, Sun Chemical is committed to researching and developing market-leading innovations.  It has a global product line of high value printing solutions for all common print processes that will help you grow and maintain a lead on your competitors.

Case Study – Cationic Inks for UV Flexo Printing

Sun Chemical has a passion for innovative solutions and the infrastructure to deliver global practices and expertise locally.  Sun Chemical has long been active in the Narrow-Web market and has unparalleled experience in UV technology, being at the forefront of formulating UV flexo inks since the early 90s.

Recently, Sun Chemical launched Solarcat™, a world first in Cationic UV technology.  Solarcat™ offers the highest performance cured ink film in UV technology.  This innovative product is part of Sun Chemical’s Solaris product portfolio, dedicated to the narrow-web market, and launched in Europe at LabelExpo-Europe 2005. Solarcat™ has low viscosity and excellent flexo printability, and is the technology of choice for high specification packaging, shrink sleeves, retortable packaging and high specification labels.

Technical aspects of cationic inks

Cationic curing inks are based on quite distinctly different chemistry to the Free Radical curing systems generally associated with UV curing. Where the latter are based mainly on acrylates, cationic products are based on cycloaliphatic epoxy resins, which are crosslinked through a reaction with an acid species, generated when a cationic initiator is exposed to UV light. Once started, the polymerisation reaction continues until all available reactive species are bound into the crosslinked polymer, leading to low odour and low migration cured film properties.
This curing mechanism brings some advantages to cationic systems compared to their free radical curing counterparts, especially when printing on plastics and non-absorbent substrates.

Cationic curing systems have low shrinkage on curing, which leads to superior adhesion across a much wider range of substrates. In turn, this improved adhesion imparts other properties, such as excellent shrink performance, making them ideal for shrink sleeve applications. The cured films also have excellent chemical resistance and, assuming correct pigment choice, cationic inks can withstand retorting at high temperatures in alkaline conditions for long periods, making them ideal for retortable packaging. The inks also have good adhesion to aluminium, making them of interest in the pet food and foil closure market.

To-date, the market for this technology is specialised in high specification packaging and industrial applications. In packaging the main usage is in shrink sleeve applications, where the technology is shown to have a performance advantage, retortable sausage casings, some plastic cup applications, food display trays for supermarkets, labels requiring specific resistance properties, foil closures and selected narrow web flexible packaging.  Cationic curable coatings also find far wider uses, including beer and beverage cans, automotive and aerospace applications, where their inherent chemical resistance and durability are an advantage.

Solarcat™ is a true innovation in its field, delivering world leading productivity.  It is the first time in the world that full-strength Cationic inks have cured at up to 250m/m under normal press-room conditions. 

The other innovative features include:

• No hazardous photoinitiator by-products, which opens new applications
• An improved environment, virtually odour free in the press room
• High colour strength and excellent mileage and high fidelity printing
• Adhesion to a wide range of substrates, far in advance of free radical curing systems
• Exceptional shrink film performance
• Superior product resistance properties for label printing applications
  

The new cationic technology is based on unique photoinitiator technology developed by Sun Chemical and is subject to several patent applications.

With these market-leading properties, Solarcat™ can help your products stand out above the rest.  It could open up new business opportunities, particularly in growing sectors such as shrink sleeve and retort work, and could help grow your UV business in emerging applications.

In addition to adding value to your products, using Solarcat™ can be translated into cost savings.  The product allows you to run your presses at a faster speed, improving productivity, and has improved mileage compared to existing products.

Felipe Mellado, Corporate Vice-President, Marketing and Technology, Sun Chemical Europe, said: “The creation of Solaris signals our commitment to the needs of the growing narrow-web market. With the development of Solarcat, Sun Chemical is demonstrating the commitment to building productivity, innovation, global reach and local service into the Solaris product line.”

Jonathan Sexton, Sun Chemical’s European Product Manager, Narrow-Web Labels, said: “The Solarcat inks display exceptional technical performance combined with ground-breaking productivity and solve many of the drawbacks of existing cationic technologies.”

Solarcat™ offers a unique product that stretches the boundaries of UV flexo printing and provides you with significant technological advantages over your competitors.  In Sun Chemical, you have a partner who offers world leading technology together with an unrivalled customer support service. Just Imagine.

• For further information, please contact Jonathan Sexton on +33 3 44 90 60 17  or visit: www.sunchemical.com/solaris