ECKART Earns ALTANA Innovation Award for New UV-Curing Inks

The ALTANA Innovation Award is presented annually to recognize the most promising new developments within the specialty chemicals group. This year, the award went to an interdisciplinary team from ALTANA’s ECKART division.

The team developed a new high-performance, environmentally friendly formulation for UV-curing printing inks. This formulation incorporates alcohol-based silver dollar pigments along with ultra-thin METALURE effect pigments from ECKART’s latest generation.

These pigments are produced using a specialized physical vapor deposition (PVD) process. This enables smooth, non-flaking surfaces and high-gloss mirror or chrome effects on packaging.

For customers, this unlocks new possibilities for the demanding further processing of effect pigments. In printing, these pigments can present challenges such as smearing or poor adhesion to overprinted coatings.

To address these issues, the award-winning team spent two years developing the new formulation based on PVD and alcohol-based silver dollar pigments.

“This innovative formulation for UV-curing printing inks is a first for the entire market. It delivers exceptional technical performance and complies with regulatory requirements for indirect food contact,” explains Dr. Harald Weiß, CTO at ECKART.

The new formulation ensures robust printability even at high printing speeds. It’s balanced viscosity enables excellent ink transfer and reliable curing. The result is maximum brilliance in colors that remain easy to overprint.

Food safety, health, and environmental compatibility are fully assured – the formulation meets all FPG (Food Packaging Grade) and EH&S standards for indirect food contact.

“With this development, the winning ECKART team has delivered an impressive project that embodies ALTANA’s dynamic culture of innovation,” says Dr. Petra Severit, CTO, ALTANA AG.