Sun Chemical to Showcase Solutions for Glass Decorating at Deco ‘17

Sun Chemical will showcase a range of products specially formulated for glass, including organic UV screen inks, pre-treatment sprays, and special effects solutions during Deco ’17 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on April 22-24.

“Many of our brand owner customers prefer to use glass because of its rigid barrier which protects food or beverages from the migration of substances,” said Chris Parrilli, Vice President and Product Manager for Industrial Applications, North American Inks, Sun Chemical. “However, the greatest challenge with glass has been the limitations in directly decorating the glass itself, which makes it difficult to represent product branding and imagery that utilize brand colors. Our line of UV inks formulated for glass gives brand owners a wide range of bright, vibrant effects that can liven up glass and ceramic packaging to create stand-out shelf presence.”

Glass decorators visiting booth #219 will be introduced to Sun Chemical’s SunVetro family of organic screen inks and learn how to print bright, strong brand colors withSunMatch base colors to simulate Pantone shades. With virtually limitless color options available from simple mixing systems, the entire Pantone color range can be made from a base ink range of 12 mono-pigmented colors, with the cured color fully repeatable time after time.

Booth visitors can also discover the SunVetro VTGL series of UV screen inks, a two-component system designed for printing onto glass, coated metals, and ceramics, as well as mirroring applications. These inks offer excellent adhesion to glass substrates, high gloss, excellent abrasion and chemical resistance, 100 percent solids with no heavy metals or volatile organic compounds, and additives to provide numerous special effects. Formulated to cure with both mercury vapor and LED UV sources, the SunVetro VTGL series has a color matching system available with smart scale and ink dispensing systems.

Since glass containers commonly have anti-scuff coatings applied during manufacture, pre-treatment of the glass is critical to achieve optimum adhesion. In order to help alter the surface of the glass, SunVetro Glasprep spray pre-treatment is an aqueous coating that can be applied to the glass as a fine mist and must be thoroughly flame dried prior to decorating.

The SunVetro family of products can be used for ceramics, glass containers such as beer/wine beverage bottles, drinkware, cosmetics, and medical vials. They can also be used on glass for cell phones, computer screens, gaming machine mirrors, and furniture.

During the show, Sun Chemical will highlight its special effect inks, such as metallic, thermochromic, fluorescent, tactile, and etch effects. Thermochromic inks can be applied directly onto glass to indicate the ideal temperature of wines or beers, or can be used as a promotional message that appears at a specific temperature.

Fluorescent and phosphorescent colors can shine brightly in black UV or glow in the dark. Acid-etch or sandblasted effects can be printed onto bottles and cured in the same way colored inks are, or alternatively, frosted bottles can have windows spot printed by using a gloss clear varnish in the desired area.

Creating this effect through the use of inks and coatings can significantly reduce the cost and environmental concerns associated with traditional acid etching and sandblasting. Other surface effects, such as tactile effects to enhance the luxurious feel and quality appeal or non-slip finishes for practicality, can also be created.