Siegwerk, Komori Develop K-Supply UV Inks

Komori Europe and Siegwerk’s partnership began in 2016 when the former selected the latter as its European partner to manufacture high sensitivity “K-Supply UV inks” exclusively designed for Komori’s innovative H-UV/ LED system.
 
Together, they are now marketing the new inks in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
 
“These novel ‘K-Supply UV inks’ provide consistent color print quality, high-level versatility and hardness as well as an eco-friendly performance,” said Bruno Delanoë, regional sales manager EMEA at Siegwerk. “They are characterized by top-level definition and press stability and match all Lithrone H-UV press requirements.”
 
The newly- developed inks were designed and tested in Siegwerk’s Center of Excellence in Aarberg, Switzerland, the company’s Center of Excellence for UV inks and varnishes.
 
Komori counts 218 press – in the production range from 26’’ to 40’’ sheetfed and up to 38’’ web printing – installations in Europe and more than 880 worldwide.
 
“This partnership enables us to fully exploit all possibilities of our H-UV/ LED technology, and make them available, directly to our customers,” said Peter Minis, marketing manager at Komori Europe.
 
Siegwerk has a standardized and reliable process when it comes to implementing carefully-selected raw materials and intermediate products. It is closely monitored by the company’s quality control team, and fully compliant with the most stringent safety and environmental standards.
 
This also includes compliance with changing regulations and reclassifications in the EuPIA Exclusion Policy. Just recently the commonly used photoinitiators Omnirad-369, Ethyl-4- dimethylaminobenzoat (EDB), 2-Ethylhexyl-4-dimethyl-aminobenzoate (EHA) and 4-Phenylbenzophenon (4-PBZ) were reclassified to CMR (carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction) Category 1B and therefore are voluntarily banned in the printing industry.
 
In compliance with the European regulations, all inks still containing these photoinitiators have to be labeled as toxic for reproduction and, according to the EUPIA rules, have to be reformulated usually within 6 months.
 
Siegwerk reacted and replaced these materials with substitutes equivalent in terms of performance and conformity for food packaging but without harmful properties.