Sean Milmo, European Editor07.31.15
The European printing ink industry has a long-standing reliance on imports of commodity organic pigments and their intermediates from Asia, mainly China.
However at the premium end of the market, it has been able to take advantage of an expanding output in Europe of specialty pigments. Some domestic European pigment producers have been importing basic pigments from Asia, which they have turned into finished, value-added products.
Now a rising proportion of the higher margin pigments are being entirely developed, formulated and manufactured in Europe with the help of new technologies and applications.
Interest in High-End Pigments
A big impetus has been coming from packaging, the most dynamic of the printing ink segments in Europe. Another major driving force behind the trend is an expansion in industrial printing in Europe, helped by the increasing use of digital printing in sectors like ceramics, glass and metals.
Also, new pigment technologies have been developed that serve not just printing ink production but also mainstream coatings sectors as well.
As a result, pigment manufacturers in Europe have been able to use single technological platforms to generate products or pigment systems that can be marketed in several different downstream markets, including printing inks.
This awareness that novel pigments can be transferred across markets has led to a surge in innovation in colorants in Europe. It has even been boosting mergers and acquisitions. Huntsman has transformed, through takeovers, its pigments operation in Europe. Whereas previously it was predominantly titanium dioxide (TiO2), it now also consists of specialty TiO2 products, organic pigments and inorganics such as iron oxides, all of which have given the company a stronger presence in printing and industrial inks.
Merck KGaA has recently introduced a range of three red-effect pigments that extend from warm orange-red to a pinkish-red to deeper, darker shades.
They have been primarily targeted at the automotive and plastics industry. But one in the range with a highly chromatic styling and strong hiding power has also been developed for printing applications.
The three effect pigments are based on a new technology comprising aluminum platelets, which are first coated with a passivation or low reactive layer and then a metal oxide layer to provide a range of interference colors. It is a process that is likely to be extended even further to broaden the company’s access to different printing ink sectors as well as different coatings markets.
Merck is developing what it claims is a “revolutionary” printing technique, at least for its effect pigments. It is based on the primary colors red, green and blue (RGB), which it says offers more options and flexibility than the established CMYK model of cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
With the company’s RGB method, which was due to be launched in mid-2015, the primary colors are printed with a white shade on a dark background, in contrast to the CMYK system in which colors are layered generally on a white or light background.
“RGB printing represents a whole new ball game,” said Peter Clauter, Merck’s marketing manager for printing inks. “It offers new dimensions in effect printing and a new way to differentiate your prints from those of the competition.”
In recent years much of the innovation in pigments has come from achieving differences in the size, shape and surfaces of their particles. This has been made possible by the introduction of grinding equipment able to produce pigment particles varying in size from several hundred microns to low double-digit nanometers.
But it is the way these different particles are distributed which determines the appearance, quality, functionality and processability of the inks.
The difficulties that ink and coatings producers have in attaining optimal particle distribution at a low cost has been a big driver behind the expansion of pigment producers into the supply of pigment dispersions. By buying pigment preparations, inks and coatings producers avoid the expense of installing and operating their own grinding and mixing machinery, as well as the analytical equipment to monitor particle size during the milling process.
An alternative to dispersions are predispersed pigment chips, which can be dissolved into a paste form with varnish during ink production. They have the advantage of offering high color intensity and brilliance.
A growing number of Asian pigment makers are exporting chips into Europe, where they are meeting stronger competition from domestic producers.
Mifal S.r.l. strengthened its position in the market last year when it took over the predispersions chips business of Italian ink producer Samixcolor Spa.
Among the fast growing outlets for dispersion and predispersion pigments are formulators of inkjet inks, which will not operate properly without a delicately balanced distribution of pigment particles.
The rising efficiency of particle size distribution in digital inks – and to a lesser extent the other main printing processes of screen, flexo, gravure and offset – has enabled the European printing sector to make inroads into relatively new areas like textiles, ceramics, glass and metals.
This has opened up new opportunities for printing inks in the broad market of interior décor, now comprising a wide range of different substrates to which inks and their pigments can be applied.
In textiles, advances in digital technologies have led to more textile printing work being transferred back from China and India to Europe.
“With regard to textiles, there is a noticeable shift from low labor cost supply to digital-based premium applications developed in Europe to provide fast delivery in roll-to-roll and direct-to-garment printed items,” said Sean Smyth, a print consultant, in a blog at the recent FESPA 2015.
This return of textile printing back to Europe has given domestic pigment makers another group of new customers. In a survey of print providers, FESPA found that the great majority of print providers expected garment and textile décor printing to grow as a proportion of their business.
The FESPA study also showed that among wide format and other print providers, there was an accelerating move into industrial applications such as laminates, glass and ceramics.
“(Wide format) business owners who are most optimistic about the future are those who understand that they need to identify ways to add new applications and acquire new customers,” said Neil Felton, FESPA’s chief executive.
For pigment producers, diversification by their customers into sectors like ceramics and glass has presented technological challenges, particularly in the development of heat-resistant and highly durable pigments.
With printing on flat glass, for example, complex and expensive ink formulations are required, which has tended to slow down the expansion of the segment.
A major problem is the adhesion of printed images on the glass. One method is including micro-particles of glass in a screen ink formulation. These are then melted in temperatures of more than 550°C so that once they are cooled they affix the combined pigments onto the glass surface.
Another technique is to produce ceramic pigments by high temperature calcination of chromophore raw materials. The pigments can then be applied to the glass in digital printing inks.
For producers of pigments in high temperature processes, a big hurdle is health, safety, environmental regulations in Europe, which ban or restrict the use of certain dangerous metals.
REACH, the EU’s eight-year-old legislation on the registration, evaluation and authorisation of industrial chemicals, has come to a stage at which the future of a number of long-standing pigments considered a risk to health and the environment is at stake.
Their producers and importers are having to persuade the Helsinki-based European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), responsible for administering REACH, that the pigments should be allowed to remain on the European market.
Lead chromates are an example of a class of pigment which ECHA has labeled as a substance of very high concern (SVHC) on the grounds that they can be carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic for reproduction (CMR).
Lead chromate producers in Europe like Cappelle and BASF are switching completely to substitutes like bismuth vanadate pigments. BASF announced earlier this year that it is considerably increasing its production capacity for bismuth vanadate at Besigheim, Germany.
Pigments which could migrate from packaging inks into food products are arousing anxieties, not so much among regulators but food processors and retailers.
The only European regulation applying specifically to food packaging inks is a national ordinance on food contact materials in Switzerland, a non-EU country, which came into effect five years ago. It sets out a positive list of chemicals which can be used in packaging inks..
With the absence of specific regulations elsewhere in the region the Swiss ordinance has been adopted as an international standard by some brand owners for application in their packaging supply chains. The German government has been close to finalizing a similar but stricter draft ordinance which once approved could become an equivalent of an EU standard for international food companies and supermarket chains.
Some multinational brand owners are laying down detailed specifications to packaging suppliers to curb the dangers of migration. But because of the lack of explicit regulations on the issue they have been adapting legislation on other sectors and applying its demands to food packaging.
With many pigment producers in Europe having high grade R&D facilities, laboratories and quality control capabilities, the tightening grip of regulations and standards in the region gives them another means of gaining an advantage over their competitors.
European Editor Sean Milmo is an Essex, UK-based writer specializing in coverage of the chemical industry.
However at the premium end of the market, it has been able to take advantage of an expanding output in Europe of specialty pigments. Some domestic European pigment producers have been importing basic pigments from Asia, which they have turned into finished, value-added products.
Now a rising proportion of the higher margin pigments are being entirely developed, formulated and manufactured in Europe with the help of new technologies and applications.
Interest in High-End Pigments
A big impetus has been coming from packaging, the most dynamic of the printing ink segments in Europe. Another major driving force behind the trend is an expansion in industrial printing in Europe, helped by the increasing use of digital printing in sectors like ceramics, glass and metals.
Also, new pigment technologies have been developed that serve not just printing ink production but also mainstream coatings sectors as well.
As a result, pigment manufacturers in Europe have been able to use single technological platforms to generate products or pigment systems that can be marketed in several different downstream markets, including printing inks.
This awareness that novel pigments can be transferred across markets has led to a surge in innovation in colorants in Europe. It has even been boosting mergers and acquisitions. Huntsman has transformed, through takeovers, its pigments operation in Europe. Whereas previously it was predominantly titanium dioxide (TiO2), it now also consists of specialty TiO2 products, organic pigments and inorganics such as iron oxides, all of which have given the company a stronger presence in printing and industrial inks.
Merck KGaA has recently introduced a range of three red-effect pigments that extend from warm orange-red to a pinkish-red to deeper, darker shades.
They have been primarily targeted at the automotive and plastics industry. But one in the range with a highly chromatic styling and strong hiding power has also been developed for printing applications.
The three effect pigments are based on a new technology comprising aluminum platelets, which are first coated with a passivation or low reactive layer and then a metal oxide layer to provide a range of interference colors. It is a process that is likely to be extended even further to broaden the company’s access to different printing ink sectors as well as different coatings markets.
Merck is developing what it claims is a “revolutionary” printing technique, at least for its effect pigments. It is based on the primary colors red, green and blue (RGB), which it says offers more options and flexibility than the established CMYK model of cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
With the company’s RGB method, which was due to be launched in mid-2015, the primary colors are printed with a white shade on a dark background, in contrast to the CMYK system in which colors are layered generally on a white or light background.
“RGB printing represents a whole new ball game,” said Peter Clauter, Merck’s marketing manager for printing inks. “It offers new dimensions in effect printing and a new way to differentiate your prints from those of the competition.”
In recent years much of the innovation in pigments has come from achieving differences in the size, shape and surfaces of their particles. This has been made possible by the introduction of grinding equipment able to produce pigment particles varying in size from several hundred microns to low double-digit nanometers.
But it is the way these different particles are distributed which determines the appearance, quality, functionality and processability of the inks.
The difficulties that ink and coatings producers have in attaining optimal particle distribution at a low cost has been a big driver behind the expansion of pigment producers into the supply of pigment dispersions. By buying pigment preparations, inks and coatings producers avoid the expense of installing and operating their own grinding and mixing machinery, as well as the analytical equipment to monitor particle size during the milling process.
An alternative to dispersions are predispersed pigment chips, which can be dissolved into a paste form with varnish during ink production. They have the advantage of offering high color intensity and brilliance.
A growing number of Asian pigment makers are exporting chips into Europe, where they are meeting stronger competition from domestic producers.
Mifal S.r.l. strengthened its position in the market last year when it took over the predispersions chips business of Italian ink producer Samixcolor Spa.
Among the fast growing outlets for dispersion and predispersion pigments are formulators of inkjet inks, which will not operate properly without a delicately balanced distribution of pigment particles.
The rising efficiency of particle size distribution in digital inks – and to a lesser extent the other main printing processes of screen, flexo, gravure and offset – has enabled the European printing sector to make inroads into relatively new areas like textiles, ceramics, glass and metals.
This has opened up new opportunities for printing inks in the broad market of interior décor, now comprising a wide range of different substrates to which inks and their pigments can be applied.
In textiles, advances in digital technologies have led to more textile printing work being transferred back from China and India to Europe.
“With regard to textiles, there is a noticeable shift from low labor cost supply to digital-based premium applications developed in Europe to provide fast delivery in roll-to-roll and direct-to-garment printed items,” said Sean Smyth, a print consultant, in a blog at the recent FESPA 2015.
This return of textile printing back to Europe has given domestic pigment makers another group of new customers. In a survey of print providers, FESPA found that the great majority of print providers expected garment and textile décor printing to grow as a proportion of their business.
The FESPA study also showed that among wide format and other print providers, there was an accelerating move into industrial applications such as laminates, glass and ceramics.
“(Wide format) business owners who are most optimistic about the future are those who understand that they need to identify ways to add new applications and acquire new customers,” said Neil Felton, FESPA’s chief executive.
For pigment producers, diversification by their customers into sectors like ceramics and glass has presented technological challenges, particularly in the development of heat-resistant and highly durable pigments.
With printing on flat glass, for example, complex and expensive ink formulations are required, which has tended to slow down the expansion of the segment.
A major problem is the adhesion of printed images on the glass. One method is including micro-particles of glass in a screen ink formulation. These are then melted in temperatures of more than 550°C so that once they are cooled they affix the combined pigments onto the glass surface.
Another technique is to produce ceramic pigments by high temperature calcination of chromophore raw materials. The pigments can then be applied to the glass in digital printing inks.
For producers of pigments in high temperature processes, a big hurdle is health, safety, environmental regulations in Europe, which ban or restrict the use of certain dangerous metals.
REACH, the EU’s eight-year-old legislation on the registration, evaluation and authorisation of industrial chemicals, has come to a stage at which the future of a number of long-standing pigments considered a risk to health and the environment is at stake.
Their producers and importers are having to persuade the Helsinki-based European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), responsible for administering REACH, that the pigments should be allowed to remain on the European market.
Lead chromates are an example of a class of pigment which ECHA has labeled as a substance of very high concern (SVHC) on the grounds that they can be carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic for reproduction (CMR).
Lead chromate producers in Europe like Cappelle and BASF are switching completely to substitutes like bismuth vanadate pigments. BASF announced earlier this year that it is considerably increasing its production capacity for bismuth vanadate at Besigheim, Germany.
Pigments which could migrate from packaging inks into food products are arousing anxieties, not so much among regulators but food processors and retailers.
The only European regulation applying specifically to food packaging inks is a national ordinance on food contact materials in Switzerland, a non-EU country, which came into effect five years ago. It sets out a positive list of chemicals which can be used in packaging inks..
With the absence of specific regulations elsewhere in the region the Swiss ordinance has been adopted as an international standard by some brand owners for application in their packaging supply chains. The German government has been close to finalizing a similar but stricter draft ordinance which once approved could become an equivalent of an EU standard for international food companies and supermarket chains.
Some multinational brand owners are laying down detailed specifications to packaging suppliers to curb the dangers of migration. But because of the lack of explicit regulations on the issue they have been adapting legislation on other sectors and applying its demands to food packaging.
With many pigment producers in Europe having high grade R&D facilities, laboratories and quality control capabilities, the tightening grip of regulations and standards in the region gives them another means of gaining an advantage over their competitors.
European Editor Sean Milmo is an Essex, UK-based writer specializing in coverage of the chemical industry.