Catherine Diamond, Associate Editor03.23.15
Thanks to a rebounding global economy and more predictable raw material costs, pigment manufacturers have reported solid growth in 2014, and are optimistic for the future. According to a report titled “Pigments (Organic, Inorganic & Specialty) Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Trends, Growth And Forecast 2012 – 2018” by Transparency Market Research, the global pigments market was valued at $17.9 billion in 2009, and was expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.3% through 2018, which would reach $30 billion.
MarketsandMarkets, which publishes numerous industry research reports annually, predicts that shipments of dyes and pigments markets would reach 11 million metric tons by 2018.
“In the pigments market, TiO2 holds the maximum share. Growth in TiO2 market will be favored by strong demand from emerging economies such as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China),” the report added.
However, industry experts do emphasize cautious optimism. When Transparency Market Research released its Pigments report, Hiren Samani, SEO executive at the firm, noted, “The global pigments market does face its set of market inhibitors such as volatile nature of raw materials, rising demands by customers for pigment purity and its safety, growing energy efficient solutions, tightening grip of governmental regulations with regards to production of pigments, and preference of solvent-borne and water-borne dispersions as compared to pigment powders.
Peter O’Loughlin, Sun Chemical’s director of marketing for performance pigments, said that his company continued to see a positive upswing in the global pigments market last year, particularly in the high-performance and special effect pigments markets, but “it remains a highly competitive market.
“Sun Chemical increasingly sees the supplier base becoming more global as regional suppliers enter other regions and markets,” O’Loughlin added. “The competitive pressure, however, tends to give rise to regional requirements as producers respond to local needs and requirements.
“We expect an increased focus on technical service, quality, performance and environmental considerations. We are always looking to other pigment markets, global technology and consumer trends that influence pigment consumption. The trends can be driven both by legislation and the end consumer,” O’Loughlin said.
Gary Wulf, VP of operations and general manager at Sincol USA, said that 2014 was “a good year with sales increases in target growth markets.”
Wulf believes that much of that growth was due to the company’s increased exposure in the industry, and also to a stabilizing global economy with increased pigment consumption reflecting increased consumer demand.
“We expect the climate for pigment consumption in 2015 to continue to expand with the general health of the global economy,” Wulf said. “For Sincol in particular, we expect growth to exceed the general growth of the economy due to our emphasis on development of higher performance pigments demanded by industry.”
Wulf also noted that investing in environmental measures is paying off for Sincol.
“Our investment in pollution control will see dividends as well with the closure of more pigment manufacturing plants in both China and India,” Wulf reported.
Oliver Pfefferkorn, sales director at Union Colours Limited, said that Union Colours is seeing growth in the ink industries of developing countries, while other than for packaging inks, Europe remains a soft market. He added that regulatory issues are having an impact on pigment suppliers.
“Increasing awareness of REACh, not just in Europe but in countries wanting to export into Europe, has started to limit some pigment producers, which is positive for those companies who decided to invest,” Pfefferkorn added.
Kane Henneke, marketing manager of polymers and inks at Orion Engineered Carbons, said that Orion fared very well during the past year.
“Demand for carbon black worldwide continued to increase in 2014,” Henneke added.
Birla Carbon, a global manufacturer of carbon black additives, saw solid growth in 2014, particularly in specialty carbon black.
“The market grew on a global basis, with higher growth in Asia and lower growth in Western Europe,” a company representative said. “Carbon black demand for packaging inks continues to grow on a global basis. News ink and publication ink are seeing good growth trends in India and China as well as the other growing Asia economies.
“The globalization of the customer base has been a major change in the specialty carbon black industry. Our customers require solutions to meet both the regional and global needs of their customers.”
Raw Material Concerns
Diana C. Latham, director of operations at Trust Chem USA, said that the pigment industry is seeing many more competitors from Asia, which can be a cause for concern in terms of regulations.
“With Asia continually raising its requirements for environmental protection, we expect to see certain intermediates to be in short supply at certain times,” Latham said. “Trust Chem is preparing for these circumstances by securing higher inventories to minimize any interruption in manufacturing.”
Sun Chemical’s O’Loughlin said that raw materials were mostly stable in 2014.
“Sun Chemical Performance Pigments anticipates environmental and regulatory compliance will continue to drive up costs for pigment producers,” O’Loughlin said. “The impact will be significantly higher for Chinese and Indian producers. The economic slowdown in China and tighter financial policy will impact local Chinese producers. Sun will continue to monitor the key raw material indexes and focus our manufacturing team on process and raw material productivity.”
Pfefferkorn said that limitation of pigment intermediates is a primary concern. This is due, he said, to the new Chinese effluent controls implemented on January 1 of this year.
“It is not easy to predict which intermediates will be affected and when,” Pfefferkorn said. “This limitation and resulting tight demand drives raw material prices upwards, although against this we are seeing lower oil pricing having a price easing effect. The biggest problem for pigment users are in Europe, where the soft euro has added substantial cost for pigments, the majority of which are manufactured on a U.S. dollar base.”
Andy Grabacki, VP of sales and marketing at General Press Color, said that his company has “more concerns with supply than price.”
“There are fewer and fewer domestic raw material suppliers of pigments, which leads to more challenges for the flush supplier, such as more difficult inventory management, longer lead times in receiving material, foreign pigments are less consistent which adds to more lab and manufacturing time and less high performance pigment availability. Due to the state of the industry, we have found many suppliers not offering pigments they used to because volumes are no longer there,” Grabacki said.
Henneke said that raw materials such as oil feedstock have fluctuated both in price and consistency of supply. “We here at Orion are constantly fine-tuning our supply chain and our forecasting to secure appropriate feedstocks in order to deliver consistent quality and performance in the grades our customers demand from us,” Henneke said.
Don McBride, chief operating officer at Heucotech, Ltd., said that there are potential concerns regarding the pricing and availability of raw materials. "These concerns still exist as companies continue to respond to increased environmental pressures from local governments," he said. "In 2014, certain AZO pigments fell into this category, however, supply concerns have eased, and a portion of the related cost increases have receded. In order to better secure supply, Heubach has made the investment to produce crudes for Quinacridone and Indanthrone as well as expansion of Phthalocyanine crude capacity."
A Changing Industry
The pigment industry has seen many changes during the past few decades. According to Wulf at Sincol, the pigment industry has gone through dramatic changes during the last 10 to 20 years.
“Perhaps the most dramatic has been the shift of manufacture in the U.S. and Europe to China and India,” he said. “Recent actions to improve environmental issues has caused a lot of consolidations and shutdowns, further limiting the available sources.”
Henneke, of Orion Engineered Carbons, said that his company has seen a push towards “more advanced grades that offer better dispersibility and better optical density with improved consistency.”
Sun Chemical’s O’Loughlin said that the one thing that has been consistent over the last two decades has been demand for pigments with unique performance properties, tailored specifically for end users’ applications. This includes stability/flocculation resistance in zero VOC systems, enhanced chemical and bleach resistance, increased strength and more value, and improved dispersability.
“Environmental regulations and social change for sustainable raw materials with less environmental impact are driving rapid change and innovation in all segments of the ink market,” O’Loughlin said. “The trend is well established in Europe and the United States, but is quickly growing in other regions.
“Consumers today have access to more information than ever before, and increasingly educate themselves prior to making purchases to be sure the product meets their socio-environmental requirements. Ink manufacturers are responding, and this in turn drives upstream suppliers, including pigment suppliers.”
In addition to these changes, O’Loughlin said that Sun Chemical has seen a significant increase in water- and solvent-based packaging inks using both flexographic and gravure printing processes.
“In the packaging ink market segment, the trend in the market is moving toward functional and sensory packaging,” he said. “The packaging market faces different challenges than other market segments, such as low migration, the push toward smaller package size, recyclability and other efforts to reduce the impact of packaging on the environment.
“These trends in the packaging inks market have resulted in a greater demand for higher quality and more consistent pigments that are both color stable and viscosity stable, compatible with a wide range of resin systems, and print on a wide variety of substrates.”
“We have also seen a significant increase in the amount of printing on packaging for food products,” O’Loughlin added. “This has led to the growth of a wider variety of colors and special effect pigments, which in turn has led to the need for a wider selection of pigment color index types and special mica and metallic pigments.”
“There has been significant growth of alternative ink types, such as UV and EB inks,” O’Loughlin noted. “These types of inks place an even greater demand on pigment properties such as viscosity stability and compatibility. The growth of digital printing and the special demands it places on the pigments for quality of dispersion, viscosity and consistency, is another trend we are seeing.”
John Erbeck, of Emerald Performance Materials, said that companies are focused on new food regulations, as well as REACH compliance.
"There is a lot of concern over food safety globally, and this concern translates through to coatings, adhesives and ink used in food packaging," Erbeck said. "In Europe, for instance, EC(10) 2011, was originally developed to address plastic articles in contact with food, but more recently is being applied to a wide scope of packaging materials. Studies have shown that certain components, even those in indirect contact, may migrate into the food or beverage under certain conditions.
"For example, certain mineral oil saturated and aromatic components used in printing inks are one area that has been identified as a concern. This is expected to influence package design and material selection, as well as additional consideration for the use of recycled paper and paperboard components in food packaging applications."
Nancy Ikehara, who handles corporate communications for Toyo Ink, said that In Japan, domestic demand for gravure inks for packaging has remained stagnant. "However," she said, "sales of eco-friendly inks for packaging in the largest market segment is expanding in Southeast Asia and India. High-function pigments and materials for LCD color filters continue to rebound in Taiwan and South Korea. Sales of commodity-type pigments are also on the rise in Southeast Asia."
The following listing includes new pigment products introduced to the printing ink industry in the past year.
Dominion Colour Corporation
515 Consumers Road, Suite 700
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2J 4Z2
Phone: (416) 791-4200
Web: www.dominioncolour.com
E-mail: marketing@dominioncolour.com
New Products: DCC Yellow 3GMX-Si
Comments: DCC Yellow 3GMX-Si is the latest example of color pigment innovation from Dominion Colour Corporation. DCC Yellow 3GMX-Si is a bright green shade yellow pigment with exceptional color strength and stir-in characteristics. The SI designation of DCC Yellow 3GMX-SI specified that, in addition to the phenomenal colur strength advantage, DCC Yellow 3GMX-SI can be fully dispersed in five minutes using a high speed cavitation mixer - no milling is required. DCC Yellow 3GMX-SI does not contain APE nor NPE additives.
Orion Engineered Carbons LLC
4501 Magnolia Cove Drive, Suite 106
Kingwood, TX 77345
Phone: (832) 445-3300
Web: www.orioncarbons.com
E-mail: americas@orioncarbons.com
New Products: XPB 446
Comments: Orion is introducing XPB 446 powder for food packaging printing inks. XPB 446 has a comparable technical profile to Special Black 250, and is compliant with the European regulations for toluene extractables, polyaromatic hydrocarbon and benzo(a)pyrene content in carbon black pigments for food packaging inks.
The regulations are EU Commission Regulation No. 10/2011 on plastic materials that come in contact with food; French Avis Séance du 07.11.95 on Carbon Black Pigments for food packaging inks, which is the most stringent specification; and the regulation of most interest to the industry now, Swiss Ordinance SR 817.023.21. XPB 446 is also designed for UV curing and solvent-based flexographic inks.
XPB 446 has very good optical density (slightly better than SPECIAL BLACK 250), very good flow (similar to SPECIAL BLACK 250) and good gloss, which is especially important for flexographic UV inks.
It is a post-treated, low-structured carbon black in powder form that is easy to disperse. The structure and surface area provide low viscosity at high pigment loadings, and the after treatment increases oxygen bearing surface groups which promote excellent pigment wetting for both UV curing and solvent-based binder systems.
Sun Chemical
Performance Pigments
5020 Spring Grove Avenue
Cincinnati, Ohio 45232
Phone: (513) 681-5950
Fax: (513) 632-1316
Web: www.sunchemical.com/performancepigments
E-mail: lynn.campbell@sunchemical.com
New Products: Benda-Lutz UVAL
Comments: This new line of stabilized metallic powders and preparations designed specifically for UV ink systems, provides brilliant metallic effects with exceptional coverage, cure and adhesion.
Benda-Lutz UVAL can be used to produce UV inks with the industry’s best performance in terms of shelf stability, and are ideally suited for growing segments in the printing industry, including labels, flexible packaging and shrink sleeves.
Trust Chem
1050 Main Street, Suite 22
East Greenwich, RI 02818
Phone: (401) 398-7301
Web: www.trustchemusa.com
E-mail: diana@trustchemusa.com
New Products: Trust Chem offers a large variety of color indexes. Major products are in the high performance yellow, orange and red area. The company offers a full range of azo, HP azo, isoindolinone and benzimidazolone pigments tailored for markets including the ink market.
Trust Chem’s latest products are disazo Condensation pigments, including PY93, PY95 and PY128. More recently, Trust Chem started offering PY110.
The company produces a wide range of pigment technologies including phthalocyanine pigments, classical azo, HPP azo, benzimidazolone, disazo condensation, anthraquinone, isoindolinone, isoindoline and quinacridone pigments.
Union Colours Limited
Union House, Hempshaw Lane
Stockport, SK1 4LG, United Kingdom
Phone: 44(0)161-475-7200
Fax: 44(0)161-475-7219
Web: www.unioncolours.com
E-mail: enquiries@unioncolours.com
New Products:
PY 17 – Sincol Yellow 1124-D23 for PU inks
PY 174 – Sincol Yellow 1128-G21 for offset inks
PY 185 – Sinfast Yellow 1184-001 for solvent based inks
PO 16 – Sincol Orange 1155-G16 for solvent-based inks
PO 34 – Sincol Orange 1156-G34 and –G40 for solvent-based and UV inks
PR 57:1 – Sincol Rubine 3164-G38S blue shade for offset inks
PR 184 – Sinfast Red 3129-G35 for water-based inks
PB 15:3 – Sinco Blue 4382-008 for UV inks
PV 23 – Sincar Violet 6260-006 reddish for solvent-based inks
PV 23 – Sincar Violet 6260-007 for UV inks.
MarketsandMarkets, which publishes numerous industry research reports annually, predicts that shipments of dyes and pigments markets would reach 11 million metric tons by 2018.
“In the pigments market, TiO2 holds the maximum share. Growth in TiO2 market will be favored by strong demand from emerging economies such as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China),” the report added.
However, industry experts do emphasize cautious optimism. When Transparency Market Research released its Pigments report, Hiren Samani, SEO executive at the firm, noted, “The global pigments market does face its set of market inhibitors such as volatile nature of raw materials, rising demands by customers for pigment purity and its safety, growing energy efficient solutions, tightening grip of governmental regulations with regards to production of pigments, and preference of solvent-borne and water-borne dispersions as compared to pigment powders.
Peter O’Loughlin, Sun Chemical’s director of marketing for performance pigments, said that his company continued to see a positive upswing in the global pigments market last year, particularly in the high-performance and special effect pigments markets, but “it remains a highly competitive market.
“Sun Chemical increasingly sees the supplier base becoming more global as regional suppliers enter other regions and markets,” O’Loughlin added. “The competitive pressure, however, tends to give rise to regional requirements as producers respond to local needs and requirements.
“We expect an increased focus on technical service, quality, performance and environmental considerations. We are always looking to other pigment markets, global technology and consumer trends that influence pigment consumption. The trends can be driven both by legislation and the end consumer,” O’Loughlin said.
Gary Wulf, VP of operations and general manager at Sincol USA, said that 2014 was “a good year with sales increases in target growth markets.”
Wulf believes that much of that growth was due to the company’s increased exposure in the industry, and also to a stabilizing global economy with increased pigment consumption reflecting increased consumer demand.
“We expect the climate for pigment consumption in 2015 to continue to expand with the general health of the global economy,” Wulf said. “For Sincol in particular, we expect growth to exceed the general growth of the economy due to our emphasis on development of higher performance pigments demanded by industry.”
Wulf also noted that investing in environmental measures is paying off for Sincol.
“Our investment in pollution control will see dividends as well with the closure of more pigment manufacturing plants in both China and India,” Wulf reported.
Oliver Pfefferkorn, sales director at Union Colours Limited, said that Union Colours is seeing growth in the ink industries of developing countries, while other than for packaging inks, Europe remains a soft market. He added that regulatory issues are having an impact on pigment suppliers.
“Increasing awareness of REACh, not just in Europe but in countries wanting to export into Europe, has started to limit some pigment producers, which is positive for those companies who decided to invest,” Pfefferkorn added.
Kane Henneke, marketing manager of polymers and inks at Orion Engineered Carbons, said that Orion fared very well during the past year.
“Demand for carbon black worldwide continued to increase in 2014,” Henneke added.
Birla Carbon, a global manufacturer of carbon black additives, saw solid growth in 2014, particularly in specialty carbon black.
“The market grew on a global basis, with higher growth in Asia and lower growth in Western Europe,” a company representative said. “Carbon black demand for packaging inks continues to grow on a global basis. News ink and publication ink are seeing good growth trends in India and China as well as the other growing Asia economies.
“The globalization of the customer base has been a major change in the specialty carbon black industry. Our customers require solutions to meet both the regional and global needs of their customers.”
Raw Material Concerns
Diana C. Latham, director of operations at Trust Chem USA, said that the pigment industry is seeing many more competitors from Asia, which can be a cause for concern in terms of regulations.
“With Asia continually raising its requirements for environmental protection, we expect to see certain intermediates to be in short supply at certain times,” Latham said. “Trust Chem is preparing for these circumstances by securing higher inventories to minimize any interruption in manufacturing.”
Sun Chemical’s O’Loughlin said that raw materials were mostly stable in 2014.
“Sun Chemical Performance Pigments anticipates environmental and regulatory compliance will continue to drive up costs for pigment producers,” O’Loughlin said. “The impact will be significantly higher for Chinese and Indian producers. The economic slowdown in China and tighter financial policy will impact local Chinese producers. Sun will continue to monitor the key raw material indexes and focus our manufacturing team on process and raw material productivity.”
Pfefferkorn said that limitation of pigment intermediates is a primary concern. This is due, he said, to the new Chinese effluent controls implemented on January 1 of this year.
“It is not easy to predict which intermediates will be affected and when,” Pfefferkorn said. “This limitation and resulting tight demand drives raw material prices upwards, although against this we are seeing lower oil pricing having a price easing effect. The biggest problem for pigment users are in Europe, where the soft euro has added substantial cost for pigments, the majority of which are manufactured on a U.S. dollar base.”
Andy Grabacki, VP of sales and marketing at General Press Color, said that his company has “more concerns with supply than price.”
“There are fewer and fewer domestic raw material suppliers of pigments, which leads to more challenges for the flush supplier, such as more difficult inventory management, longer lead times in receiving material, foreign pigments are less consistent which adds to more lab and manufacturing time and less high performance pigment availability. Due to the state of the industry, we have found many suppliers not offering pigments they used to because volumes are no longer there,” Grabacki said.
Henneke said that raw materials such as oil feedstock have fluctuated both in price and consistency of supply. “We here at Orion are constantly fine-tuning our supply chain and our forecasting to secure appropriate feedstocks in order to deliver consistent quality and performance in the grades our customers demand from us,” Henneke said.
Don McBride, chief operating officer at Heucotech, Ltd., said that there are potential concerns regarding the pricing and availability of raw materials. "These concerns still exist as companies continue to respond to increased environmental pressures from local governments," he said. "In 2014, certain AZO pigments fell into this category, however, supply concerns have eased, and a portion of the related cost increases have receded. In order to better secure supply, Heubach has made the investment to produce crudes for Quinacridone and Indanthrone as well as expansion of Phthalocyanine crude capacity."
A Changing Industry
The pigment industry has seen many changes during the past few decades. According to Wulf at Sincol, the pigment industry has gone through dramatic changes during the last 10 to 20 years.
“Perhaps the most dramatic has been the shift of manufacture in the U.S. and Europe to China and India,” he said. “Recent actions to improve environmental issues has caused a lot of consolidations and shutdowns, further limiting the available sources.”
Henneke, of Orion Engineered Carbons, said that his company has seen a push towards “more advanced grades that offer better dispersibility and better optical density with improved consistency.”
Sun Chemical’s O’Loughlin said that the one thing that has been consistent over the last two decades has been demand for pigments with unique performance properties, tailored specifically for end users’ applications. This includes stability/flocculation resistance in zero VOC systems, enhanced chemical and bleach resistance, increased strength and more value, and improved dispersability.
“Environmental regulations and social change for sustainable raw materials with less environmental impact are driving rapid change and innovation in all segments of the ink market,” O’Loughlin said. “The trend is well established in Europe and the United States, but is quickly growing in other regions.
“Consumers today have access to more information than ever before, and increasingly educate themselves prior to making purchases to be sure the product meets their socio-environmental requirements. Ink manufacturers are responding, and this in turn drives upstream suppliers, including pigment suppliers.”
In addition to these changes, O’Loughlin said that Sun Chemical has seen a significant increase in water- and solvent-based packaging inks using both flexographic and gravure printing processes.
“In the packaging ink market segment, the trend in the market is moving toward functional and sensory packaging,” he said. “The packaging market faces different challenges than other market segments, such as low migration, the push toward smaller package size, recyclability and other efforts to reduce the impact of packaging on the environment.
“These trends in the packaging inks market have resulted in a greater demand for higher quality and more consistent pigments that are both color stable and viscosity stable, compatible with a wide range of resin systems, and print on a wide variety of substrates.”
“We have also seen a significant increase in the amount of printing on packaging for food products,” O’Loughlin added. “This has led to the growth of a wider variety of colors and special effect pigments, which in turn has led to the need for a wider selection of pigment color index types and special mica and metallic pigments.”
“There has been significant growth of alternative ink types, such as UV and EB inks,” O’Loughlin noted. “These types of inks place an even greater demand on pigment properties such as viscosity stability and compatibility. The growth of digital printing and the special demands it places on the pigments for quality of dispersion, viscosity and consistency, is another trend we are seeing.”
John Erbeck, of Emerald Performance Materials, said that companies are focused on new food regulations, as well as REACH compliance.
"There is a lot of concern over food safety globally, and this concern translates through to coatings, adhesives and ink used in food packaging," Erbeck said. "In Europe, for instance, EC(10) 2011, was originally developed to address plastic articles in contact with food, but more recently is being applied to a wide scope of packaging materials. Studies have shown that certain components, even those in indirect contact, may migrate into the food or beverage under certain conditions.
"For example, certain mineral oil saturated and aromatic components used in printing inks are one area that has been identified as a concern. This is expected to influence package design and material selection, as well as additional consideration for the use of recycled paper and paperboard components in food packaging applications."
Nancy Ikehara, who handles corporate communications for Toyo Ink, said that In Japan, domestic demand for gravure inks for packaging has remained stagnant. "However," she said, "sales of eco-friendly inks for packaging in the largest market segment is expanding in Southeast Asia and India. High-function pigments and materials for LCD color filters continue to rebound in Taiwan and South Korea. Sales of commodity-type pigments are also on the rise in Southeast Asia."
The following listing includes new pigment products introduced to the printing ink industry in the past year.
Dominion Colour Corporation
515 Consumers Road, Suite 700
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2J 4Z2
Phone: (416) 791-4200
Web: www.dominioncolour.com
E-mail: marketing@dominioncolour.com
New Products: DCC Yellow 3GMX-Si
Comments: DCC Yellow 3GMX-Si is the latest example of color pigment innovation from Dominion Colour Corporation. DCC Yellow 3GMX-Si is a bright green shade yellow pigment with exceptional color strength and stir-in characteristics. The SI designation of DCC Yellow 3GMX-SI specified that, in addition to the phenomenal colur strength advantage, DCC Yellow 3GMX-SI can be fully dispersed in five minutes using a high speed cavitation mixer - no milling is required. DCC Yellow 3GMX-SI does not contain APE nor NPE additives.
Orion Engineered Carbons LLC
4501 Magnolia Cove Drive, Suite 106
Kingwood, TX 77345
Phone: (832) 445-3300
Web: www.orioncarbons.com
E-mail: americas@orioncarbons.com
New Products: XPB 446
Comments: Orion is introducing XPB 446 powder for food packaging printing inks. XPB 446 has a comparable technical profile to Special Black 250, and is compliant with the European regulations for toluene extractables, polyaromatic hydrocarbon and benzo(a)pyrene content in carbon black pigments for food packaging inks.
The regulations are EU Commission Regulation No. 10/2011 on plastic materials that come in contact with food; French Avis Séance du 07.11.95 on Carbon Black Pigments for food packaging inks, which is the most stringent specification; and the regulation of most interest to the industry now, Swiss Ordinance SR 817.023.21. XPB 446 is also designed for UV curing and solvent-based flexographic inks.
XPB 446 has very good optical density (slightly better than SPECIAL BLACK 250), very good flow (similar to SPECIAL BLACK 250) and good gloss, which is especially important for flexographic UV inks.
It is a post-treated, low-structured carbon black in powder form that is easy to disperse. The structure and surface area provide low viscosity at high pigment loadings, and the after treatment increases oxygen bearing surface groups which promote excellent pigment wetting for both UV curing and solvent-based binder systems.
Sun Chemical
Performance Pigments
5020 Spring Grove Avenue
Cincinnati, Ohio 45232
Phone: (513) 681-5950
Fax: (513) 632-1316
Web: www.sunchemical.com/performancepigments
E-mail: lynn.campbell@sunchemical.com
New Products: Benda-Lutz UVAL
Comments: This new line of stabilized metallic powders and preparations designed specifically for UV ink systems, provides brilliant metallic effects with exceptional coverage, cure and adhesion.
Benda-Lutz UVAL can be used to produce UV inks with the industry’s best performance in terms of shelf stability, and are ideally suited for growing segments in the printing industry, including labels, flexible packaging and shrink sleeves.
Trust Chem
1050 Main Street, Suite 22
East Greenwich, RI 02818
Phone: (401) 398-7301
Web: www.trustchemusa.com
E-mail: diana@trustchemusa.com
New Products: Trust Chem offers a large variety of color indexes. Major products are in the high performance yellow, orange and red area. The company offers a full range of azo, HP azo, isoindolinone and benzimidazolone pigments tailored for markets including the ink market.
Trust Chem’s latest products are disazo Condensation pigments, including PY93, PY95 and PY128. More recently, Trust Chem started offering PY110.
The company produces a wide range of pigment technologies including phthalocyanine pigments, classical azo, HPP azo, benzimidazolone, disazo condensation, anthraquinone, isoindolinone, isoindoline and quinacridone pigments.
Union Colours Limited
Union House, Hempshaw Lane
Stockport, SK1 4LG, United Kingdom
Phone: 44(0)161-475-7200
Fax: 44(0)161-475-7219
Web: www.unioncolours.com
E-mail: enquiries@unioncolours.com
New Products:
PY 17 – Sincol Yellow 1124-D23 for PU inks
PY 174 – Sincol Yellow 1128-G21 for offset inks
PY 185 – Sinfast Yellow 1184-001 for solvent based inks
PO 16 – Sincol Orange 1155-G16 for solvent-based inks
PO 34 – Sincol Orange 1156-G34 and –G40 for solvent-based and UV inks
PR 57:1 – Sincol Rubine 3164-G38S blue shade for offset inks
PR 184 – Sinfast Red 3129-G35 for water-based inks
PB 15:3 – Sinco Blue 4382-008 for UV inks
PV 23 – Sincar Violet 6260-006 reddish for solvent-based inks
PV 23 – Sincar Violet 6260-007 for UV inks.