Printing inks manufacturer, Siegwerk has introduced new ink range for offset printing and subsequent electron beam (EB) curing suitable for flexible packaging.
The new ink solution is designed to provide flexible packaging printers with low cost of print form and short set-up times while allowing for quicker changeovers between the print jobs.
Siegwerk Flexible Packaging EMEA application technology regional director Dr Stefan Busse said: “In the past, typical print run lengths for example in beverage wrap-around labels were several tens of thousands of squaremeters.
“Today, more and more jobs are printed on wide web machines with only a few thousand squaremeters.
“In order to stay cost-competitive in these markets all cost drivers have to be minimized. That’s why some of our customers are attracted by the low cost of print forms for offset printing plates.”
Siegwerk said it has conducted several industrial print testing on Comexi’s central impression EB offset press, CI8.
During the tests, Siegwerk’s new EB technology provided improved print performance, low dot gain, low water dosing with less emulsification and scumming as well as fast intensity recovery after stops.
Developed in compliance with the relevant product safety standards, the new ink technology is used for a variety of plastic substrates of the flexible packaging market including OPP, acrylic coated PET, among others.
The firm noted that migration tests with trial materials resulted in low migration behavior suitable for food packaging.
The Comexi CI8 offset printer is designed to print up to 8-colours, 7 offset and one flexo EB, with a web width of 900mm or 1100mm and with speed up to 300m/minute.
