David Savastano, Editor10.27.22
There is a lot going on in the printing and ink industries, whether it is new technologies or new regulatory mandates. The National Association of Printing Ink Manufacturers’ (NAPIM) Annual Technical Conference offers attendees the opportunity to keep abreast of and even get ahead of these changes.
This year’s conference was held at the Oak Brook Hill Resort and Conference Center in Oak Brook, IL from Oct. 18-20, 2022, and attendees heard about the changes the industry is facing in the coming years.
George Fuchs, director, regulatory affairs and technology at NAPIM, said that NAPIM was very happy with the 2022 NAPIM Fall Technical Conference.
“Our program planning committee did a terrific job in selecting topics and speakers for this year’s event,” Fuchs said.
“The US economy recovered very quickly after the pandemic, but the evidence is mixed as to whether we are in a recession,” Dr. Youngblood observed. “Growth in real GDP in first two quarters of 2022 were in the negative, which is an informal indicator of a recession. However, it is subject to revisions. There is growth in real output, which is another indicator.”
On the ink side, Dr. Youngblood noted that many key input costs have increased on a year-over-year basis. Ink prices are up 10.7%; dyes and pigment are up17.6%, and freight and trucking costs have increased 21.9%.
“Flexo ink prices have doubled the increase of commodities but gravure ink prices have hardly changed at all,” he added.
Among his observations are that 71.4% of ink companies and suppliers report that their travel budgets have been affected by COVID-19. In terms of sustainability, 60% say they are receiving more sustainability interest from customers, 50% said they reformulated their products due to sustainability, while 35% said they made major changes.
In terms of sales, 80% of responders said they had more than 5% or more growth in sales in 2021, and 84% of responders had increased profits in 2021. In addition, 52.6% say they are looking to source more US-based products in the coming years.
Susan Bailey of Michelman and president of RadTech North America, presented “North American UV+EB Market Overview,” a look at the energy curing market.
Bailey pointed out that the energy curable market is 65% conventional UV, 20% UV LED, 10% EB 10% and 5% dual cure, with LED growing from 15% of the market two years ago.
“There’s a large interest in sustainability, lowering cost and LED,” Bailey added. “We show 203,000 metric tons of UV+EB product usage, which is up 13% in the last two-year period. Value is up more than 7%. 3D printing/additive manufacturing is the highest growth segment at more than 11%, while inkjet is up more than 6%. Overprint varnishes make up 26% of volume, inks 22% and wood coatings at 18%. Meanwhile, regulations are the biggest challenge and biggest opportunity.”
Russ Szadowski, director analytical R&D at INX International Ink Co., and featured the following speakers:
• BASF – Regina Escandon Millet
• Evonik - Dr. Kai Yang
• MGT – Max Tubelsky
• Keim Additec – A CHT Group Company – Bruce Berglund
• Albert – Ken Kisner and Nick Talken
• Brilliant Color – Darren Bianchi
Afterward, NAPIM held a reception and its tabletop exhibits.
“We opened the conference with ink and graphic arts market presentations covering the economy, printing ink and the UV/EC markets,” Fuchs noted. “Each one of these presentations provided detailed insights into our market that are of great interest and value to our attendees. We were also really excited about this year’s Supplier Spotlights. This is a relatively recent addition to our opening session and has proven to be a real event highlight.”
Apostol talked about the importance of matching color, using L’Oreal as an example, as they need the color to match on many substrates, including labels, boxes, caps, and even printing on glass.
Gardner then discussed X-Rite’s new Exact2 portable color measurement tool.
“With ink formulation today, base inks require a great deal of QC, as different manufacturing locations may make these same base inks,” Gardner observed. “The end user then has to match the colors. At the end of the day, we’re asking a very easy question – is it the same target color?. as the target? Technology drives us to where we are headed.”
R&D people in the ink industry will tell you that bringing in young employees is a key challenge they are facing. Dr. George Gilsan, Distinguished Professor & Coordinator, Reese Graphic Communications Management Program, Appalachian State University, discussed the importance of internships.
“Internships have challenges and opportunities,” Dr. Glisan noted. “You get a chance to bring someone in and do a look-see, just as they do with you.
“An internship is a course that we offer, but it is also a two-page contract between the company, university and the student,” he added. “Everyone has responsibilities. The company is required to have an on-site supervisor, there has to be defined duties, expectations, hours, and you must evaluate the student performance. The company has to provide a safe, secure, non-discriminatory workplace, and it doesn’t always work out well.”
Dr. Glisan noted that one challenge is that students do not know the ink industry. “They know ink and they know substrates and color theory, but they don’t know the industry,” he said.
“Industry needs to adapt and prepare for intake of young people who are different than us and show them that they are wanted here. Give interns the opportunities to do something,” he concluded. “They want to be convinced that you have a position for them that gives them a chance for personal growth and success, and they want to like the people they work with.”
Fuchs noted that Dr. Glisan’s presentation on strengthening student internships was of particular interest.
"The ink industry, along with other manufacturing industries, has a strong interest in attracting younger employees to this space," said Fuchs. "Both the presentation and the follow-up Q&A provided detailed guidance and suggestions for improving industry recruitment and retentions programs.”
Andy Karp/Peter Lish of McAndrews then discussed “Patents and Trade Secrets in the Printing Ink Industry.”
“Patents give you the right to exclude others from making, using or selling the invention,” Karp explained. “Patents are disclosed to the public, but trade secrets aren’t. It is a legal document and a technical document. It has to be novel and non-obvious, like a red chair. Trade secrets protects information from being misappropriated.”
“We’ve had many different issues with raw materials,” Crans said. “In the past few years, we’ve had COVID-19, strange weather issues, cargo ship and truck driver issues, and a changing regulatory landscape that is constantly evolving.”
Crans noted that UV inkjet inks require oligomers, monomers, photinitiators and synergists and additives that fine-tune performance, adding that supply has not been consistent recently.
“You could be pretty confident that suppliers could meet their contracts but obviously the last years have turned things on their heads,” said Crans. “We all learned the lesson of needing to ensure material availability, but practically, how do you do that?
“Acrylate monomers use acrylic acid as a key raw material, and that is a material you can track, a derivative of propylene, which is a derivative of naptha, which is a derivative of crude oil,” he noted. “General availability significantly improved in mid-2022. Through 2021 there was a lot of shortness in the market and force majeures. However, isocyanates are continuing to get tighter and go up significantly in price. Close collaboration up and down the supply chain is vital to minimize disruptions.”
Regulatory issues were up next, with Ford serving again as moderator. James Votaw of Keller & Heckman began with his talk on “The New Toxic Substance Control Act and the Printing Ink Industry.”
“EPA is very active in regulating existing chemicals and setting precedent for future TSCA regulations,” Votaw said. “EPA’s chemicals office is not equipped to address its current workload, resulting in delay and under-informed decision making. There are long delays for processing, and a big backlog, up to one year or more. It’s more important than ever to be aware of what EPA is doing. Industry needs to push back on unwarranted regulation with litigation.”
Jay West of the American Chemical Council followed with “PerfluoroAlkyl Substances (PFAS): What's Happening and What You Can Do About It.” West contended that not all PFAS are alike, adding that most of the attention to date on PFAS has focused on a handful of substances that are no longer produced in the US, Europe and Japan.
“PFAS can be divided into chemically distinct groups with different properties and thus different health and environmental profiles,” said West. “It is neither scientifically accurate nor appropriate to regulate all PFAS as one class. Today’s PFAS are essential to modern life and an important enabling technology.
“Fluoropolymers are one branch,” West added. “Fluoropolymers are practically insoluble in water and cannot cross the cell membrane due to their size. They are not bioavailable or bioaccumulative. Clinical studies of patients receiving permanently implanted PTFE cardiovascular medical devices demonstrate no chronic toxicity or carcinogenicity. This has the potential to pull in thousands of products and cause massive disruptions.”
David Wawer, executive director, Color Pigments Manufacturers Association (CPMA), discussed the pigment industry’s experience with the EPA’s interest in Pigment Violet 29 in his talk, “EPA's Risk Management Program for Pigment Violet 29.”
Wawer noted that CI Pigment Yellow 83, CI Pigment Yellow 65 and CI Pigment Red 52:1 are under scrutiny, and the costs are escalating. He noted that companies need to budget for these tests and understand the TSCA Chemicals Risk Evaluation and Risk Management Regulatory Process.
“The EPA has mismanaged the process and makes assumptions not based on fact, and the current administration political appointee’s position is that all chemicals are hazardous. Going forward, these substances will require more extensive test orders, as well as risk evaluation fees, chemical consortium fees, test order fees and test order laboratory fees,” said Wawer. “These fees didn’t exist during the PV 29 testing.”
SOCMA’s Robert Helminiak then discussed “The Federal Regulatory and Legislative Landscape and the Potential Impacts on November Elections.”
Helminiak pointed out that the Risk Management Program (RMP) rule requires facilities that use extremely hazardous substances to develop risk management steps, which identify the potential effects of an accident, steps the facilities is taking to prevent an accident, and spells out emergency response procedures should an accident occur.
“The challenge is that the language the EPA is using doesn’t have a security protection for the facilities and there is no protection for trade secrets,” added Helminiak. “Fenceline monitoring is not mandated in RMP, but we want comment on it. That is problematic because it doesn’t work well, and you will need all kinds of monitors all over the perimeter.”
The Lawter Lecture Series Presentation, voted the top technical paper, closed the session. Laura Schultz of Loyola University, who was working with INX, gave the talk, which was titled “Quantifying and Qualifying Risks Associated with Photoinitiators in Cured Ink,” which featured studies on photoinitators after they have been cured.
“Our responsibility to the customer is prioritizing safety and production of the highest quality products,” said Schultz. “PI 369 is categorized as a reproductive toxin. Reactions aren’t perfect – it leaves residual original structure of the reactant. How much PI is present after curing, and how does this translate to safety concerns?”
Fuchs said that this year’s Lawter Lecture Series Competition winner, Laura Schultz of Loyola University, was a real standout.
“Ms. Schultz’ Lecture Series Award presentation was very impressive by any measure but even more so as she is still an undergrad at Loyola University,” Fuchs added. “Kudos to Ms. Schultz and her industry sponsor INX International.”
”The Technical Conference then celebrated the Annual Reception & Awards Dinner, with the NAPIM Technical Associate Member Service Award being presented to Mike Oberski of Sun Chemical Performance Pigments.
“I was very gratified to see Mike Oberski of Sun Chemical win this year’s Technical Achievement Member Service Award,” Fuchs said. “Mike is a very knowledgeable, long time ‘ink guy’ and has been an invaluable and continuing technical resource for NAPIM for many years.”
“We are essentially a recycling pulp mill,” Johnson said. “We get 2.2 million pounds of recovered paper very day – 33 or 34 semi trucks. We recycle more than 318 thousand tons of paper every year, which comes out to 26 million pounds of trash, 610 million gallons of water saved, and 7.62 million trees.” Johnson noted that soft touch inks have been a challenge, while Sustana had made some improvements to handle UV materials.
John Heaney of Advertiser Printing then covered “The Sustainable Future of Print.” Advertiser Printing is a fourth-generation commercial printer based in St. Louis.
“We are known regionally for our concern for the environment,” said Heaney. “We added wind power, solar arrays, and even an EV charging station. Why did we make sustainability a focal point? Carbon is cash. For example, our solar array is 101 panels, and we got it for 30 cents on the dollar. The program ended very quickly. It paid itself off six years ago, and we are generating energy back to the grid.”
“Voice of the Industry,” a new feature that welcomed audience participation, followed, with attendees offering topics such as digital printing and sustainability as focal points for future technical conferences.
After Voice of the Industry, Stewart Rissley of Schold gave a talk on “Optimizing Ink Manufacturing Equipment.”
Rissley pointed out that the target is production of a homogenous suspension, dispersion of aggregates/agglomerates and uniform distribution in the liquid, wetting of the powders and liquids and de-aeration.
“Pre-mix is critical before it goes to the media mill,” Rissley noted. “Some companies expect that the mill will do the work. Sometimes it is just a matter of running the pre-mix another 15 minutes. A good pre-mixing process facilitates the grinding process; mills can use the smaller grinding media and less air bubbles, and reduces risk of breakdown and poor qualities.”
I closed the conference with my presentation, “Digital Ink Market Overview,” a look atyeh growth in digital printing in corrugated, textiles and more, as well as some future growth areas for printing and ink.
Ford, the chair of this year’s conference, said the feedback he received was overwhelmingly positive.
“I think it went well,” said Ford. “We had good attendance and good speakers – I liked the future topic session, which gave us some good ideas for the future. We need to engage the youth coming into the industry.”
Fuchs noted that the Technical, Regulatory and New Technology tracks featured discussions on a wide-variety of relevant industry issues like patenting and trademarking, ink manufacturing equipment optimization, sustainability, state and federal regulatory impacts and color formulation, among others.
“Listening to each of these presentations impressed upon me the importance and relevance of the NAPIM Fall Technical Conference as no other event focuses so directly on our industry and its issues,” Fuchs concluded.
This year’s conference was held at the Oak Brook Hill Resort and Conference Center in Oak Brook, IL from Oct. 18-20, 2022, and attendees heard about the changes the industry is facing in the coming years.
George Fuchs, director, regulatory affairs and technology at NAPIM, said that NAPIM was very happy with the 2022 NAPIM Fall Technical Conference.
“Our program planning committee did a terrific job in selecting topics and speakers for this year’s event,” Fuchs said.
Opening Session
James Ford, NAPIM Technical Conference chair and technical director of Flint Group, moderated the opening session, which opened with Dr. Michael Youngblood, professor of economics at Rock Valley College, who gave the keynote talk, “Economic Overview with a Focus on the Ink and Printing Industries.”“The US economy recovered very quickly after the pandemic, but the evidence is mixed as to whether we are in a recession,” Dr. Youngblood observed. “Growth in real GDP in first two quarters of 2022 were in the negative, which is an informal indicator of a recession. However, it is subject to revisions. There is growth in real output, which is another indicator.”
On the ink side, Dr. Youngblood noted that many key input costs have increased on a year-over-year basis. Ink prices are up 10.7%; dyes and pigment are up17.6%, and freight and trucking costs have increased 21.9%.
“Flexo ink prices have doubled the increase of commodities but gravure ink prices have hardly changed at all,” he added.
Among his observations are that 71.4% of ink companies and suppliers report that their travel budgets have been affected by COVID-19. In terms of sustainability, 60% say they are receiving more sustainability interest from customers, 50% said they reformulated their products due to sustainability, while 35% said they made major changes.
In terms of sales, 80% of responders said they had more than 5% or more growth in sales in 2021, and 84% of responders had increased profits in 2021. In addition, 52.6% say they are looking to source more US-based products in the coming years.
Susan Bailey of Michelman and president of RadTech North America, presented “North American UV+EB Market Overview,” a look at the energy curing market.
Bailey pointed out that the energy curable market is 65% conventional UV, 20% UV LED, 10% EB 10% and 5% dual cure, with LED growing from 15% of the market two years ago.
“There’s a large interest in sustainability, lowering cost and LED,” Bailey added. “We show 203,000 metric tons of UV+EB product usage, which is up 13% in the last two-year period. Value is up more than 7%. 3D printing/additive manufacturing is the highest growth segment at more than 11%, while inkjet is up more than 6%. Overprint varnishes make up 26% of volume, inks 22% and wood coatings at 18%. Meanwhile, regulations are the biggest challenge and biggest opportunity.”
Russ Szadowski, director analytical R&D at INX International Ink Co., and featured the following speakers:
• BASF – Regina Escandon Millet
• Evonik - Dr. Kai Yang
• MGT – Max Tubelsky
• Keim Additec – A CHT Group Company – Bruce Berglund
• Albert – Ken Kisner and Nick Talken
• Brilliant Color – Darren Bianchi
Afterward, NAPIM held a reception and its tabletop exhibits.
“We opened the conference with ink and graphic arts market presentations covering the economy, printing ink and the UV/EC markets,” Fuchs noted. “Each one of these presentations provided detailed insights into our market that are of great interest and value to our attendees. We were also really excited about this year’s Supplier Spotlights. This is a relatively recent addition to our opening session and has proven to be a real event highlight.”
Technology and Regulatory Sessions
The Wednesday, Oct. 19 schedule featured two sessions. Moderator Scot Pedersen of Siegwerk led the morning session, which covered technology and R&D issues. The first talk, “How Cloud Software and Measurement Technologies are Improving Process Efficiency in the Ink Industry,” was presented by Buzz Apostol and J. Michael Gardner of X-Rite.Apostol talked about the importance of matching color, using L’Oreal as an example, as they need the color to match on many substrates, including labels, boxes, caps, and even printing on glass.
Gardner then discussed X-Rite’s new Exact2 portable color measurement tool.
“With ink formulation today, base inks require a great deal of QC, as different manufacturing locations may make these same base inks,” Gardner observed. “The end user then has to match the colors. At the end of the day, we’re asking a very easy question – is it the same target color?. as the target? Technology drives us to where we are headed.”
R&D people in the ink industry will tell you that bringing in young employees is a key challenge they are facing. Dr. George Gilsan, Distinguished Professor & Coordinator, Reese Graphic Communications Management Program, Appalachian State University, discussed the importance of internships.
“Internships have challenges and opportunities,” Dr. Glisan noted. “You get a chance to bring someone in and do a look-see, just as they do with you.
“An internship is a course that we offer, but it is also a two-page contract between the company, university and the student,” he added. “Everyone has responsibilities. The company is required to have an on-site supervisor, there has to be defined duties, expectations, hours, and you must evaluate the student performance. The company has to provide a safe, secure, non-discriminatory workplace, and it doesn’t always work out well.”
Dr. Glisan noted that one challenge is that students do not know the ink industry. “They know ink and they know substrates and color theory, but they don’t know the industry,” he said.
“Industry needs to adapt and prepare for intake of young people who are different than us and show them that they are wanted here. Give interns the opportunities to do something,” he concluded. “They want to be convinced that you have a position for them that gives them a chance for personal growth and success, and they want to like the people they work with.”
Fuchs noted that Dr. Glisan’s presentation on strengthening student internships was of particular interest.
"The ink industry, along with other manufacturing industries, has a strong interest in attracting younger employees to this space," said Fuchs. "Both the presentation and the follow-up Q&A provided detailed guidance and suggestions for improving industry recruitment and retentions programs.”
Andy Karp/Peter Lish of McAndrews then discussed “Patents and Trade Secrets in the Printing Ink Industry.”
“Patents give you the right to exclude others from making, using or selling the invention,” Karp explained. “Patents are disclosed to the public, but trade secrets aren’t. It is a legal document and a technical document. It has to be novel and non-obvious, like a red chair. Trade secrets protects information from being misappropriated.”
“We’ve had many different issues with raw materials,” Crans said. “In the past few years, we’ve had COVID-19, strange weather issues, cargo ship and truck driver issues, and a changing regulatory landscape that is constantly evolving.”
Crans noted that UV inkjet inks require oligomers, monomers, photinitiators and synergists and additives that fine-tune performance, adding that supply has not been consistent recently.
“You could be pretty confident that suppliers could meet their contracts but obviously the last years have turned things on their heads,” said Crans. “We all learned the lesson of needing to ensure material availability, but practically, how do you do that?
“Acrylate monomers use acrylic acid as a key raw material, and that is a material you can track, a derivative of propylene, which is a derivative of naptha, which is a derivative of crude oil,” he noted. “General availability significantly improved in mid-2022. Through 2021 there was a lot of shortness in the market and force majeures. However, isocyanates are continuing to get tighter and go up significantly in price. Close collaboration up and down the supply chain is vital to minimize disruptions.”
Regulatory issues were up next, with Ford serving again as moderator. James Votaw of Keller & Heckman began with his talk on “The New Toxic Substance Control Act and the Printing Ink Industry.”
“EPA is very active in regulating existing chemicals and setting precedent for future TSCA regulations,” Votaw said. “EPA’s chemicals office is not equipped to address its current workload, resulting in delay and under-informed decision making. There are long delays for processing, and a big backlog, up to one year or more. It’s more important than ever to be aware of what EPA is doing. Industry needs to push back on unwarranted regulation with litigation.”
Jay West of the American Chemical Council followed with “PerfluoroAlkyl Substances (PFAS): What's Happening and What You Can Do About It.” West contended that not all PFAS are alike, adding that most of the attention to date on PFAS has focused on a handful of substances that are no longer produced in the US, Europe and Japan.
“PFAS can be divided into chemically distinct groups with different properties and thus different health and environmental profiles,” said West. “It is neither scientifically accurate nor appropriate to regulate all PFAS as one class. Today’s PFAS are essential to modern life and an important enabling technology.
“Fluoropolymers are one branch,” West added. “Fluoropolymers are practically insoluble in water and cannot cross the cell membrane due to their size. They are not bioavailable or bioaccumulative. Clinical studies of patients receiving permanently implanted PTFE cardiovascular medical devices demonstrate no chronic toxicity or carcinogenicity. This has the potential to pull in thousands of products and cause massive disruptions.”
David Wawer, executive director, Color Pigments Manufacturers Association (CPMA), discussed the pigment industry’s experience with the EPA’s interest in Pigment Violet 29 in his talk, “EPA's Risk Management Program for Pigment Violet 29.”
Wawer noted that CI Pigment Yellow 83, CI Pigment Yellow 65 and CI Pigment Red 52:1 are under scrutiny, and the costs are escalating. He noted that companies need to budget for these tests and understand the TSCA Chemicals Risk Evaluation and Risk Management Regulatory Process.
“The EPA has mismanaged the process and makes assumptions not based on fact, and the current administration political appointee’s position is that all chemicals are hazardous. Going forward, these substances will require more extensive test orders, as well as risk evaluation fees, chemical consortium fees, test order fees and test order laboratory fees,” said Wawer. “These fees didn’t exist during the PV 29 testing.”
SOCMA’s Robert Helminiak then discussed “The Federal Regulatory and Legislative Landscape and the Potential Impacts on November Elections.”
Helminiak pointed out that the Risk Management Program (RMP) rule requires facilities that use extremely hazardous substances to develop risk management steps, which identify the potential effects of an accident, steps the facilities is taking to prevent an accident, and spells out emergency response procedures should an accident occur.
“The challenge is that the language the EPA is using doesn’t have a security protection for the facilities and there is no protection for trade secrets,” added Helminiak. “Fenceline monitoring is not mandated in RMP, but we want comment on it. That is problematic because it doesn’t work well, and you will need all kinds of monitors all over the perimeter.”
The Lawter Lecture Series Presentation, voted the top technical paper, closed the session. Laura Schultz of Loyola University, who was working with INX, gave the talk, which was titled “Quantifying and Qualifying Risks Associated with Photoinitiators in Cured Ink,” which featured studies on photoinitators after they have been cured.
“Our responsibility to the customer is prioritizing safety and production of the highest quality products,” said Schultz. “PI 369 is categorized as a reproductive toxin. Reactions aren’t perfect – it leaves residual original structure of the reactant. How much PI is present after curing, and how does this translate to safety concerns?”
Fuchs said that this year’s Lawter Lecture Series Competition winner, Laura Schultz of Loyola University, was a real standout.
“Ms. Schultz’ Lecture Series Award presentation was very impressive by any measure but even more so as she is still an undergrad at Loyola University,” Fuchs added. “Kudos to Ms. Schultz and her industry sponsor INX International.”
”The Technical Conference then celebrated the Annual Reception & Awards Dinner, with the NAPIM Technical Associate Member Service Award being presented to Mike Oberski of Sun Chemical Performance Pigments.
“I was very gratified to see Mike Oberski of Sun Chemical win this year’s Technical Achievement Member Service Award,” Fuchs said. “Mike is a very knowledgeable, long time ‘ink guy’ and has been an invaluable and continuing technical resource for NAPIM for many years.”
New Technologies
Fuchs moderated the New Technologies session, which was held Thursday. The session began with Greg Johnson of Sustana Group, who covered “Sustana's Sustainability Story.” Sustana Fiber deinks paper waste and recycles it for food and beverage packaging.“We are essentially a recycling pulp mill,” Johnson said. “We get 2.2 million pounds of recovered paper very day – 33 or 34 semi trucks. We recycle more than 318 thousand tons of paper every year, which comes out to 26 million pounds of trash, 610 million gallons of water saved, and 7.62 million trees.” Johnson noted that soft touch inks have been a challenge, while Sustana had made some improvements to handle UV materials.
John Heaney of Advertiser Printing then covered “The Sustainable Future of Print.” Advertiser Printing is a fourth-generation commercial printer based in St. Louis.
“We are known regionally for our concern for the environment,” said Heaney. “We added wind power, solar arrays, and even an EV charging station. Why did we make sustainability a focal point? Carbon is cash. For example, our solar array is 101 panels, and we got it for 30 cents on the dollar. The program ended very quickly. It paid itself off six years ago, and we are generating energy back to the grid.”
“Voice of the Industry,” a new feature that welcomed audience participation, followed, with attendees offering topics such as digital printing and sustainability as focal points for future technical conferences.
After Voice of the Industry, Stewart Rissley of Schold gave a talk on “Optimizing Ink Manufacturing Equipment.”
Rissley pointed out that the target is production of a homogenous suspension, dispersion of aggregates/agglomerates and uniform distribution in the liquid, wetting of the powders and liquids and de-aeration.
“Pre-mix is critical before it goes to the media mill,” Rissley noted. “Some companies expect that the mill will do the work. Sometimes it is just a matter of running the pre-mix another 15 minutes. A good pre-mixing process facilitates the grinding process; mills can use the smaller grinding media and less air bubbles, and reduces risk of breakdown and poor qualities.”
I closed the conference with my presentation, “Digital Ink Market Overview,” a look atyeh growth in digital printing in corrugated, textiles and more, as well as some future growth areas for printing and ink.
Ford, the chair of this year’s conference, said the feedback he received was overwhelmingly positive.
“I think it went well,” said Ford. “We had good attendance and good speakers – I liked the future topic session, which gave us some good ideas for the future. We need to engage the youth coming into the industry.”
Fuchs noted that the Technical, Regulatory and New Technology tracks featured discussions on a wide-variety of relevant industry issues like patenting and trademarking, ink manufacturing equipment optimization, sustainability, state and federal regulatory impacts and color formulation, among others.
“Listening to each of these presentations impressed upon me the importance and relevance of the NAPIM Fall Technical Conference as no other event focuses so directly on our industry and its issues,” Fuchs concluded.