Marabu at Glasstec: Digital Glass Printing on the Rise

The inquiries at Marabu’s stand at this year’s Glasstec clearly showed the current trend in the glass industry. These inquiries were primarily about UV-curable primers, including combining them with hot stamping, and digital glass printing solutions, especially full coverage of glass surfaces using roller-coating with the new Marashield UV-CGL shades. Marabu has positioned itself as a strong partner for both digital and analog methods.
 
Marabu presented an alternative to high-cost ceramic inks to achieve glossy gold and silver effects – hot stamping with UV inks. The visual is screen printed on the glass surface using Ultraglass UVGL primer, and also functions as a hot stamping cliché. The foil adheres to the UVGL primer-treated areas. The result is high-gloss gold and silver effects at a significantly reduced cost.
 
The Ultraglass UV ink series proved extremely popular, and have been a leading universal glass printing ink for years. The wide range of products, including basic and high-opaque shades, metallic effects and etch imitations, achieve outstanding results in practice. The formulations do not contain heavy metals, meaning that unlike ceramic inks, they can freely be used to decorate drinking glasses, bottles and cosmetics packaging. In addition to conventional UV curing using iron or mercury-doped lamps, there is also an Ultraglass UV-version for UV-LED curing available, extending the scope of application.
 
At the event, Marabu presented the solvent-based MGL Maraglass screen printing ink and TPGL Tampaglass for pad printing. MGL is suited to high-gloss decorative printing on flat glass. On curved surfaces, such as cosmetics packaging, the TPGL inks truly shine. TPGL inks are highly versatile and durable. Both products can be used on a wide range of substrates, and feature brilliant, precise shades. They were developed according to the latest standards and comply with both the rigorous EU guidelines and current hazardous materials regulations.
 
The current trend towards personalized packaging is not the only reason for the growing popularity of digital glass printing. Digital printing is a broad field, and Marabu is right at the center. Both UV-curable inkjet inks, suitable for fast and clean print results on glass and PET bottles, and Marashield liquid coatings proved very popular. The liquid coatings can be used as primer, finish, and to protect high-quality digital prints; thanks to the new UV-CGL shades, they can also be used for full coverage of glass surfaces using roller-coating. This makes them especially attractive for interior decorating. Marashield UV-curable liquid coating was also very well received at the 2014 SGIA (Specialty Graphic Imaging Association) Expo in Las Vegas – they even received the SGIA Product of the Year award.
 
Marashield liquid coatings also perform well when combined with digital printing inks. When applied as a primer, Marashield UV-PGL can be used as a bonding layer for the UV curable UltraJet Inkjet series. Applications include custom-printed glass kitchen wall panels, photorealistic window surfaces, high-quality images and signs, and glass worktops. The option of combining digital printing and screen printing inks is also becoming more and more attractive to users.