At a recent webinar hosted by PrintWeek, it became clear that the flexo market is growing. As one speaker said: “We are seeing strong growth in the UV flexo market. In Europe, for example, the growth rate is over 5%, which is significant compared to other paint segments. I expect UV flexo applications in the market to continue to grow in the next few years.”
In response to this event, Hubergroup Print Solutions is relaunching its portfolio of UV flexo printers. During the relaunch under the iray brand, the international printing ink specialist with a production facility in Vapi has increased the performance of its products and also added primers, low migration binders and printing inks, and varnishes to its range. Food packaging.
Iray products are used in a wide variety of applications and feature high scratch resistance, good adhesion, low odor and high yield inks. In addition, they are designed for fast printing and fast processing. UV-curable flexographic inks and varnishes for food packaging are new additions to the range of printing ink specialists. Thanks to intensive research and carefully selected raw materials, they meet the high MGA requirements (low migration and low odor) of the Hubergroup, which have been a safe application for food packaging for many years.
Alexander Blasek, Global Project Manager UV Flexo at Hubergroup, said: “While UV flexo is becoming more and more important worldwide, we are seeing differences in technology and applications. Demand for LED products in general is growing, but in North America and Europe, the EU leads the way in regulatory standards, dominates the UV flexo market for food contact materials (FCM). In addition, we found that cathode beam curing (EL) is more popular in the US for the rest of the world. In Asia, Africa and South America, mercury technology still clearly dominates. Asian and African markets also differ in terms of application, favoring more decorative and sophisticated printed images.
Alexander Blasek talks about removing ink from film and paper. “Sustainability is a must for printers and brands,” he said. “Through extensive laboratory testing, we have verified that our inks and varnishes remove ink from film and paper.”
In addition, the PMV department of TU Darmstadt has demonstrated that products can be deinked on paper using the INGEDE 11 method.
Hubergroup has been supplying flexographic UV inks for over 10 years. For the past few years, the company has specialized in the production of UV flexo inks and varnishes for food packaging. The group is working on launching several products on the market in 2022 to meet the highest requirements for FCM (Food Contact Materials) applications.
Post time: Nov-05-2022