Anthony Locicero, Associate Editor01.16.19
At a time when raw material costs are on the rise, ink manufacturers are looking for ways to keep their own costs as low as possible for their own customers. The ability to process materials and produce inks more efficiently and accurately is a major step in that direction.
James Ballen, VP of engineering for INX International Ink Co., provided perspective from an ink manufacturer’s POV, with an eye on the ability to improve quality through analytics.
“The future of possible ‘AI’ or artificial intelligence in our lives and the ability to process machines to be interactive with data analytics will be very important,” Ballen said. “If we ever expect to see equipment self-adjust to keep in-line with quality values, we need a high degree of background data to truly understand how an adjustment of the machine will affect both the product being manufactured and the machine itself.
“Much of what our ink equipment does for us can be monitored and boiled down to the amount of electrical energy applied to the product,” Ballen added. “If we can accurately measure this variable along with other critical points such as temperature, pressure, vibration and other machine data, we can consider the ability to someday be able to truly run our equipment in ‘Ghost’ or ‘Lights Out Mode’ and not risk possible quality failures or over processing.”
Marcel Haefliger, managing director of Bühler, said that product quality and consistency are key in the graphic arts industry, and require automation and intelligent controls.
“Due to the small volumes and the wide variety of different end products and colors, versatile production equipment is crucial,” Haefliger said. “Quality, consistency and flexibility require a high degree of automation and an intelligent control concept. Recipe management on the machine and automated processing reduces the complexity for the operator. Data tracking and constant analysis provide consistent product quality.”
Norbert Kern, director of global process technology for Bühler Grinding and Dispersing North America, said he doesn’t expect demand in the graphic arts market to grow heavily.
“In general, the low overall production volumes in the graphic arts market require a small number of large capacity milling and mixing equipment,” he said. “Especially with the new generation of highly efficient processing equipment, the productivity per unit increased a lot. With only a few additional machines or by upgrading to the latest technology, capacity can be increased significantly.”
Jake Dagen, printing ink application specialist, NETZSCH Premier Technologies, said that ink suppliers are focusing on updating their milling and mixing equipment to the newest technology that is available in the market.
“Some techniques and equipment may still be functional and operational, but may not be the most efficient,” Dagen said. “I see the market working towards being the most efficient it can be, while also being flexible in the product they can provide to their customers.
Milling manufacturers see digital inks as an area of growth.
“We do see more and more digital applications in the field of graphic arts,” said Kern. “Compared to commercial and packaging, the volumes are still much lower. Additional flexibility is required to easily change product or colors.”
“We are seeing significant growth on the digital side of mixing and milling equipment,” Dagen added. “One of the main differences is that the digital business segment mostly focuses on particle size.”
Ed D’Errico of Sigma Equipment Corp. sees companies moving to smaller sizes of grinding media.
“Smaller particle sizes can only be achieved with smaller sizes of grinding media,” he said. “Consequently, smaller media sizes don’t have a long lifespan as they wear faster than larger sizes.”
INX’s Ballen noted that small, high-density grinding media is being used more often for nanoparticle dispersions.
“Mixing is getting hard to develop premix dispersions with the grade of pigments we as an industry see today, compared to what we saw years ago. The pigments need much more impact force to de-agglomerate the particles, so standard mixing blade designs from days gone by do not seem to work,” Ballen said. “In speaking with many involved in the area of mixing (ink industry equipment suppliers) they too see this relationship. For years, we as an industry applied high levels of energy into our mixers, costing design, fabrication and operation costs to go up. Colleagues I have spoken to in the industry of inks, paints and coatings believe we need lower energy mixing and better pre-grinding technology that offsets the cost of expenses mixers that have proven to be inadequate in the requirements of today’s targeted milling.
“As we move more into nanoparticle dispersions, we need to use very small, high-density grinding media. With this said, we need our premixes now to be in many cases less than 5-20 microns in order to use the proper size media in our mills,” he added.
Ballen noted that liquid inks and paste inks have their own needs, with liquid inks also ideal for smaller high-density media.
“Milling designs for liquid inks have made great strides in allowing our industry to use the smaller high-density media. This has come at a cost of investment, but when matched with proper pre-grinding and mixing equipment, we can size the grinding machine at a more reasonable size to help reduce capital investments,” Ballen continued. “The logic of ‘bigger is better’ is not necessarily the correct phase in today’s milling technology. With the cost of specialized grinding media being so expensive, we need to match the logic of capital investment with a longer vision than just initial investment, but rather lifetime cost of operation.”
Paste inks are different compared to inks that have lower viscosity and rheology. “In the area of paste inks, we need torque adequate enough to create the necessary shear and that costs money in the mixer design and operation,” Ballen observed. “Again, the method of pigment addition and possible use of smart mixing technology with auto-oscillation and other features will help us keep power levels in check, heat grain in order and process times in reasonable values.”
“In order to get the mixer to give us the best results, we need the dry ingredients to get to the shear point as quickly as possible. Having the shear blade move upwards and downwards gives us the chance to achieve this dry ingredient entrainment as soon as possible,” the VP of engineering said. “There is also a need to prevent air entrainment into our product without the use of a vacuum. The vacuum works as we know, but it does come with a degree of capital investment and operational costs. Designing paste mixers that do not need vacuum can be achieved if the material feeding and mixing entrainment are designed correctly.”
James Ballen, VP of engineering for INX International Ink Co., provided perspective from an ink manufacturer’s POV, with an eye on the ability to improve quality through analytics.
“The future of possible ‘AI’ or artificial intelligence in our lives and the ability to process machines to be interactive with data analytics will be very important,” Ballen said. “If we ever expect to see equipment self-adjust to keep in-line with quality values, we need a high degree of background data to truly understand how an adjustment of the machine will affect both the product being manufactured and the machine itself.
“Much of what our ink equipment does for us can be monitored and boiled down to the amount of electrical energy applied to the product,” Ballen added. “If we can accurately measure this variable along with other critical points such as temperature, pressure, vibration and other machine data, we can consider the ability to someday be able to truly run our equipment in ‘Ghost’ or ‘Lights Out Mode’ and not risk possible quality failures or over processing.”
Marcel Haefliger, managing director of Bühler, said that product quality and consistency are key in the graphic arts industry, and require automation and intelligent controls.
“Due to the small volumes and the wide variety of different end products and colors, versatile production equipment is crucial,” Haefliger said. “Quality, consistency and flexibility require a high degree of automation and an intelligent control concept. Recipe management on the machine and automated processing reduces the complexity for the operator. Data tracking and constant analysis provide consistent product quality.”
Norbert Kern, director of global process technology for Bühler Grinding and Dispersing North America, said he doesn’t expect demand in the graphic arts market to grow heavily.
“In general, the low overall production volumes in the graphic arts market require a small number of large capacity milling and mixing equipment,” he said. “Especially with the new generation of highly efficient processing equipment, the productivity per unit increased a lot. With only a few additional machines or by upgrading to the latest technology, capacity can be increased significantly.”
Jake Dagen, printing ink application specialist, NETZSCH Premier Technologies, said that ink suppliers are focusing on updating their milling and mixing equipment to the newest technology that is available in the market.
“Some techniques and equipment may still be functional and operational, but may not be the most efficient,” Dagen said. “I see the market working towards being the most efficient it can be, while also being flexible in the product they can provide to their customers.
Milling manufacturers see digital inks as an area of growth.
“We do see more and more digital applications in the field of graphic arts,” said Kern. “Compared to commercial and packaging, the volumes are still much lower. Additional flexibility is required to easily change product or colors.”
“We are seeing significant growth on the digital side of mixing and milling equipment,” Dagen added. “One of the main differences is that the digital business segment mostly focuses on particle size.”
Ed D’Errico of Sigma Equipment Corp. sees companies moving to smaller sizes of grinding media.
“Smaller particle sizes can only be achieved with smaller sizes of grinding media,” he said. “Consequently, smaller media sizes don’t have a long lifespan as they wear faster than larger sizes.”
INX’s Ballen noted that small, high-density grinding media is being used more often for nanoparticle dispersions.
“Mixing is getting hard to develop premix dispersions with the grade of pigments we as an industry see today, compared to what we saw years ago. The pigments need much more impact force to de-agglomerate the particles, so standard mixing blade designs from days gone by do not seem to work,” Ballen said. “In speaking with many involved in the area of mixing (ink industry equipment suppliers) they too see this relationship. For years, we as an industry applied high levels of energy into our mixers, costing design, fabrication and operation costs to go up. Colleagues I have spoken to in the industry of inks, paints and coatings believe we need lower energy mixing and better pre-grinding technology that offsets the cost of expenses mixers that have proven to be inadequate in the requirements of today’s targeted milling.
“As we move more into nanoparticle dispersions, we need to use very small, high-density grinding media. With this said, we need our premixes now to be in many cases less than 5-20 microns in order to use the proper size media in our mills,” he added.
Ballen noted that liquid inks and paste inks have their own needs, with liquid inks also ideal for smaller high-density media.
“Milling designs for liquid inks have made great strides in allowing our industry to use the smaller high-density media. This has come at a cost of investment, but when matched with proper pre-grinding and mixing equipment, we can size the grinding machine at a more reasonable size to help reduce capital investments,” Ballen continued. “The logic of ‘bigger is better’ is not necessarily the correct phase in today’s milling technology. With the cost of specialized grinding media being so expensive, we need to match the logic of capital investment with a longer vision than just initial investment, but rather lifetime cost of operation.”
Paste inks are different compared to inks that have lower viscosity and rheology. “In the area of paste inks, we need torque adequate enough to create the necessary shear and that costs money in the mixer design and operation,” Ballen observed. “Again, the method of pigment addition and possible use of smart mixing technology with auto-oscillation and other features will help us keep power levels in check, heat grain in order and process times in reasonable values.”
“In order to get the mixer to give us the best results, we need the dry ingredients to get to the shear point as quickly as possible. Having the shear blade move upwards and downwards gives us the chance to achieve this dry ingredient entrainment as soon as possible,” the VP of engineering said. “There is also a need to prevent air entrainment into our product without the use of a vacuum. The vacuum works as we know, but it does come with a degree of capital investment and operational costs. Designing paste mixers that do not need vacuum can be achieved if the material feeding and mixing entrainment are designed correctly.”