David Savastano, Editor05.18.20
Digital printing has been the strongest growth segment in the ink industry. According to Allied Market Research, the digital ink market accounted for sales of $2.6 billion in 2018, and is estimated to grow at 6.1% CAGR to $4.3 billion by 2026.
Digital printing has made significant inroads into numerous markets. For example, digital textile printing, which will be featured in next month’s Ink World, is a key segment. Meanwhile, packaging and industrial inkjet printing are fast becoming the next major areas of expansion for the technology.
Speaking with industry leaders in the inkjet ink field, it is clear that growth is continuing rapidly, particularly in the packaging market.
Opportunities for Packaging
Digital printing is making inroads into packaging. At first, inkjet was used for customized projects; Coca-Cola’s personalized Coke and Diet Coke bottles, in conjunction with HP, was a major success. Corrugated is becoming an intriguing market, with HP and EFI developing new printers and inks for this segment. Interestingly, HP focuses on water-based inks, while EFI developed UV LED inks.
Niv Ishay, marketing manager, HP PageWide Industrial Corrugated, noted that HP serves the digitally printed corrugated packaging market using its true water-based inks for the HP PageWide Press portfolio, including the HP PageWide T1100 Series and PageWide C500 presses.
“In the past year, our customers have ramped up their high-volume corrugated business amid increased demand from brands taking advantage of digital benefits,” Ishay said.
Ishay noted that food and health sensitive packaging applications account for more than 50% of the corrugated market, adding that water-based ink for digital corrugated printing is a real differentiator.
“PageWide true water-based inks are 100% free of UV-reactive chemistries, and require no additional barriers, enabling converters to meet stringent primary and secondary food packaging standards for sensitive products,” Ishay said. “HP believes that investing in water-based ink solutions for the corrugated markets will have beneficial effects along the entire product lifecycle, for the people who operate our printing systems, for the end users of the printed product, and ultimately for the final reuse, recycling or disposal of that product.”
Jose Miguel Serrano, EFI’s senior business development manager, said that EFI saw growth in 2019 in a variety of markets. Serrano said that one of the biggest growth areas for EFI is in the industrial segments.
“Single-pass corrugated packaging with our Nozomi C18000 LED printer platform has significant market share and higher ink volumes in 2019 because of that,” he added. “Obviously, the pandemic has affected volumes in 2020 and has disrupted everyone’s growth predictions, but when the crisis eases, we expect packaging ink with the Nozomi to be one of the segments that recovers fastest.
“The trend today for corrugated companies, especially the ones focused on packaging for goods (essentials), is not just around maintaining pre-crisis production levels. Many of them are projecting increases,” Serrano said. “Many EFI Nozomi users are producing packaging for goods that are sold in stores that have remained open, which I think we will see translates into a less-negative outlook for packaging. Plus, the increase of ecommerce is likely significant. As that channel becomes more important, we may see more smaller brands look to increase their ecommerce or subscription box offerings – those can benefit from a digital print strategy in a relatively short time period.”
Serrano reported that flexibility is a key value of the Nozomi C18000.
“Users have a broad range of capabilities when adopting our single-pass inkjet corrugated solution, and it has given them a quick answer to changing market demands in light of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “Direct-to-board, single-pass digital print on the EFI Nozomi C18000 is significantly more efficient than multi-step litho-lam processes and can even be more cost-effective solution than many flexo corrugated post-print jobs. The high quality possible – the Nozomi C18000 printer running in six-color mode can reach 97% of Pantone colors – is also very important in corrugated displays. That is another growing market application for our single-pass corrugated inkjet ink.”
Bernd Daiber, global business leader commercial inks, DuPont Image Solutions - Electronics & Imaging, noted that DuPont considers the packaging segment as the biggest growth opportunity for digital printing, driven by water-based inkjet inks for packaging.
“For corrugated board and folding carton, water-based inks acceptance is driven by the need of food compliant and odor-free solutions and the print quality is already matching customer expectations,” Daiber observed. “As a result, we are seeing multiple printer OEMs building new printing presses for water-based inkjet inks for this segment.”
Flexible packaging is more challenging when it comes to water-based inkjet inks.
“The most technically challenging segment, but most promising volume wise, is flexible film packaging,” Daiber added. “Productivity is the main challenge as high drying speeds are needed. DuPont Image Solutions is working on several collaborative projects to generate water inkjet ink solutions that meet the food packaging industry standards with regards to speed, adhesion, lamination capabilities and food regulations.”
Epson has focused its efforts on package proofing.
“The Epson SureColor S80600 has been able to pair nicely with the package proofing industry,” said David Lopez, associate product manager, Professional Imaging, Epson America. “The SureColor S80600 has one of the largest color gamuts in its class, with the ability to achieve 98.2% of the Pantone color library.”
Jay Roberts, Roland DGA product manager, UV printers, said that Roland DGA has seen an increase in business opportunities within in the packaging market.
“We expect to see continued growth,” Roberts added. “The recent launch of our new Roland IU-1000F high-volume UV flatbed printer will help drive both opportunities and demand. The IU-1000F offers the speed and production capability to keep up with requirements of the short-run packaging market as well as the increase in prototyping.”
Phil Jackman, global product manager, digital, Sun Chemical, reported that the digital business of Sun Chemical, under the SunJet brand, grew strongly in the past year and widened its product and technology portfolio.
“We have seen continued growth in wide and super-wide formats in the graphics market,” Jackman added. “Narrow web and label opportunities have increased as digital press numbers and capabilities are being realized. Coding and marking, imprinting and personalized print applications have grown in most geographies.
“The market opportunities continue to grow and we’re seeing packaging customers begin to fully accept digital print technology,” Jackman observed. “The digital value proposition continues to gain momentum as run lengths in many conventional print markets reduce. In addition to this, market trends continue to demonstrate the need to reduce lead times to eliminate the risks of obsolescence, and to improve the efficiency of print processes against the backdrop of increasing numbers of SKUs and levels of complexity. The placement of industrial, high productivity machines in corrugated, folding carton and flexible packaging has marked the start of the digital revolution in packaging.”
Marc Johnson, director of global product marketing for Memjet, said that Memjet sees a great deal of opportunity in all areas of packaging, including corrugated, folding carton, label and flexible packaging.
“This opportunity comes as manufacturers and retailers are using packaging to differentiate their products, enhance their customer’s experience, support expanded SKUs, and comply with changing regulatory requirements,” Johnson noted.
“Packaging needs to be designed faster and brought to market more quickly than ever before. This fast pace makes effectively managing the package design and production workflow more critical than ever. Memjet OEMs are providing just-in-time, digital printing solutions that address these new opportunities and deliver the quality, color and speed required to keep pace with these market trends. These solutions use Memjet’s water-based inks, which are far better for employees, customers and the environment.”
Simon Daplyn, marketing manager, Sensient Imaging Technologies, reported that he is seeing a substantial interest in Sensient’s packaging ink solutions, particularly for emerging application areas such as flexible and metal packaging.
“For these types of packaging, the compliance requirements are often more stringent for safety reasons – especially when printing onto packaging for food,” Daplyn said. “In those instances, we’re seeing growing interest in our water-based inks as an alternative to traditional solvent-based and UV-cured inks, as they offer a lower migration potential.”
Warren Catchpole, market manager – Wikoff Digital, said that Wikoff Color’s digital inkjet business enjoyed good growth over the past year.
“The market for digital packaging is growing at a significant rate as printers and converters begin to incorporate digital technologies into their production mix,” Catchpole said. “As the packaging market constantly evolves, industry expectations require ink suppliers to offer a growing range of products, including digital inkjet.”
Matthieu Carni, director business unit inkjet at Siegwerk, said that Siegwerk is looking back on a successful 2019.
“Primarily our UV inkjet ink business for packaging and label applications has experienced significant growth within the past year,” Carni added. “Today, inkjet technology is already fully adopted in the label printing industry and has very high potential for the packaging market offering tremendous possibilities for growth. The broader variety of print jobs, tight management of working capital and the make-on-demand philosophy are reducing the average run length, making conventional print technologies less attractive.
Carni noted that digital printing can answer these challenges by maximizing the print job flexibility and speed to market while minimizing machine setup-time and prepress costs.
“From our perspective, the most promising technologies are UV and water-based inkjet,” Carni reported. “Water-based inkjet inks are well suited for thin or porous substrates in applications with high demands on product safety and regulations and therefore is the most promising technology introduced for single pass large width printing on flexible packaging and corrugated applications. UV curable inkjet inks are a perfect fit for thick polymeric substrates for labels and direct-to-object printing enabling new business opportunities. Thereby, it does not only open up new approaches for brand differentiation but also helps packaging producers to save labeling materials, reduce waste and achieve overall leaner processes. Generally talking about growth opportunities, we see main chances in the direct-to-pack segment, where the flexibility of inkjet printing solutions is already drawing brand owners’ attention. And when looking at the large width segment, corrugated and flexible packaging are definitively the two segments with the biggest growth opportunity going forward.”
Food Packaging
Along those lines, inkjet ink manufacturers are seeing more interest in food packaging, and are helping customers meet regulatory mandates.
“Food packaging is an area where we’re constantly seeing interest,” said Jackman. “One of the main priorities for brand owners, converters and customers is compliance and the issue of migration. Once mainly concerned with conventional printing, migration and compliance are also important factors in digital printing and if not handled correctly, could have potentially severe consequences, such as damage to a brand’s reputation and risks to consumer health.
“During the packaging design stage, particular attention is spent on ensuring the correct materials are used to protect the various food products, namely board, film, foil or plastic,” Jackman added. “The selection of inks and coatings are just as important. To ensure Sun Chemical inks meet the necessary requirements and legislation, there are a number of factors that need to be considered, including an understanding of the legislation that regulates package printing; a knowledge of migration and the prescribed limits; and a responsibility for ensuring that packaging is correct for its end-use utilizing correct testing protocols through all key players on the supply chain.
“Today, packaging must meet several requirements including providing shelf appeal, increased levels of communication on packages, be recyclable and sustainable, extend the shelf life, and be lightweight, while also taking into account the complex regulatory landscape, as the industry strives to make food packaging safer,” Jackman continued. “Digital printing can make a positive impact on packaging.”
“One of the best potential synergies of product packaging and digital printing is in the food and beverage markets, largely due to short lifespan of packaged items, which requires fast turnaround time,” Ishay observed. “A few years ago, a package design became obsolete only after one to two years on the shelf. Nowadays, the same package is replaced at least every six months for marketing and seasonal campaigns, expansion of SKUs and refreshing designs for shelf appeal.”
Ishay added that HP PageWide true water-based inks are designed by HP to meet worldwide regulatory requirements and to address a broad range of health and environmental considerations throughout the entire life cycle of a print from production to disposal.
“HP developed its PageWide A30 and CV150 true water-based inks specifically with the corrugated packaging and display market’s needs in mind,” he said. “While UV inks contain reactive chemistries such as photoinitiators, which can migrate through packaging media and contaminate food, HP PageWide true water-based inks do not contain any UV reactive component and contain no hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) and very low volatile organic compounds (VOCs), thus providing additional health and safety benefits.
'In addition, HP’s water-based inks are odorless, enabling a wide range of packaging applications, including primary and secondary packaging for sensitive uses such as food and personal care while requiring no additional barriers. There is also the industry expectation that digitally printed media could be recycled in standard recycling processes used today for flexo or analog printed media with no need for any extra special process. To date, only HP PageWide Industrial true water-based inks have been recognized as offering a leading environmental profile, verified by Papiertechnische Stiftung (PTS) of Germany to be easily recyclable using standard industry recycling technology.”
“HP is the only vendor to have fulfilled the Intertek Guidelines for the Safe Use of Printing Inks to provide safety requirements in accordance with global regulatory and industry guidance, including Swiss Ordinance, Nestlé Guidance, FDA, EU Framework, and others,” Ishay concluded. “HP PageWide true water-based inks are uniquely certified for stringent UL ECOLOGO. HP PageWide users can promote the circular economy and improve their sustainability offering to their customers.”
“On the food packaging front, we are seeing more interest in utilizing digital inkjet to meet the growing environmental sensitivities, as well as an ongoing need to increase revenues while reducing operating costs,” Catchpole said. “To help our customers meet regulatory standards, Wikoff Digital has recently introduced a food packaging compliant digital primer that is getting enthusiastic reviews in the food packaging industry. Benzo-free UV digital primers are also drawing the attention of converters who want to be environmentally responsible. In addition, Wikoff Digital has developed a set of EB-cure inks in response to the industry-wide need for a digital ink that meets strict food safety requirements. While EB curing technology can require some upfront capital to implement, it represents an excellent approach to take when the objective is to achieve high safety standards—an important consideration in the food, beverage and personal care industries.”
“The interest is coming from end-users producing various types of packaging,” said Roberts. “There is significant demand from those who print food packaging, and many of the files we print are for external cartons of food products. We always encourage our dealers to discuss the regulatory requirements with their clients. It’s imperative that they understand both the local and federal guidelines for printing. We make it a point to include our SDS information and share any insights we may have regarding potential issues.”
“The expectations from our customers in the food industry is for us to deliver water-based ink solutions, odor-free and 100% food compliant as an alternative to UV curing ink systems,” Daiber said. “The inks we are developing will be for the entire range of the food industry from paper, corrugated board, folding carton up to the various flex film substrates.”
“Many Memjet OEM partners are creating printing equipment for label and package converting. For these OEMs, food packaging is likely to be on the top of their customers’ list of objectives. That’s because the majority of labels produced today are for food and beverage products,” Johnson said. “For many printers, food contact materials (FCM) compliance is a complex and confusing set of regulations that lack any harmonization. And it’s not likely to get any less complicated soon.
“But as more and more label and package providers adopt digital printing solutions, many can realize the FCM compliance benefits by choosing the right inks - like Memjet’s aqueous-based inks. Free from toxic and reactive chemistries found in UV curable, solvent, and liquid toner inks, Memjet water-based inks are inherently safer for the earth and for the people handling them – making them an essential differentiator for OEMs creating FCM compliant solutions,” added Johnson.
“We are seeing significant interest in digital inkjet solutions for food packaging,” said Daplyn. “Our experienced regulatory team supports our chemists in ensuring they are developing solutions with compliance in mind. Our expertise in this area helps customers navigate the shifting legislative requirements of the marketplace, to give them compliance they can trust. Our digital inkjet technology for food packaging is being developed with safety and compliance in mind, without compromising on color quality or aesthetic appeal. Our extensive regulatory knowledge and experience in aqueous inkjet formulation allow for precise development to meet strict market requirements. Sensient champions the use of water-based digital inks such as SensiJet SX which, if formulated correctly, can help to lower the risk of migration by utilizing water as the carrier for the pigment as opposed to chemicals.”
“We do see a growing interest in digital printing for food packaging,” Carni said. “Our inkjet portfolio already includes migration optimized inkjet inks for sensitive food and pharma packaging that are individually adjusted to the final application and not only for given printing equipment. As we don’t believe in ‘one fits all’ solutions, we only offer customized ink solutions to the users’ needs – this means for the final application and not only for given printing equipment. For us customization goes beyond classical color matching, it also involves optimization of adhesion, mechanical and chemical resistance properties as well as an assessment of migration risks.
“Product safety is and will remain the most important and challenging aspect especially in food packaging,” added Carni. “Steadily increasing regulatory efforts worldwide have considerably changed the general standards for ink formulations, also impacting inkjet inks. Over the years, we have built up our own innovation hub for digital printing solutions in Annemasse, France, by pooling R&D and production as well as testing capacities concretely for inkjet technology. Optimal testing opportunities at our technical center enable us to simulate and test printing results on almost all kinds of flat substrates using different printing head technologies. Besides, we have a team exclusively dedicated to safety regarding both regulatory compliance and brand owner requirements to always ensure that our products are safe for the end-use applications. It is all about transparency along the value chain.”
Digital printing has made significant inroads into numerous markets. For example, digital textile printing, which will be featured in next month’s Ink World, is a key segment. Meanwhile, packaging and industrial inkjet printing are fast becoming the next major areas of expansion for the technology.
Speaking with industry leaders in the inkjet ink field, it is clear that growth is continuing rapidly, particularly in the packaging market.
Opportunities for Packaging
Digital printing is making inroads into packaging. At first, inkjet was used for customized projects; Coca-Cola’s personalized Coke and Diet Coke bottles, in conjunction with HP, was a major success. Corrugated is becoming an intriguing market, with HP and EFI developing new printers and inks for this segment. Interestingly, HP focuses on water-based inks, while EFI developed UV LED inks.
Niv Ishay, marketing manager, HP PageWide Industrial Corrugated, noted that HP serves the digitally printed corrugated packaging market using its true water-based inks for the HP PageWide Press portfolio, including the HP PageWide T1100 Series and PageWide C500 presses.
“In the past year, our customers have ramped up their high-volume corrugated business amid increased demand from brands taking advantage of digital benefits,” Ishay said.
Ishay noted that food and health sensitive packaging applications account for more than 50% of the corrugated market, adding that water-based ink for digital corrugated printing is a real differentiator.
“PageWide true water-based inks are 100% free of UV-reactive chemistries, and require no additional barriers, enabling converters to meet stringent primary and secondary food packaging standards for sensitive products,” Ishay said. “HP believes that investing in water-based ink solutions for the corrugated markets will have beneficial effects along the entire product lifecycle, for the people who operate our printing systems, for the end users of the printed product, and ultimately for the final reuse, recycling or disposal of that product.”
Jose Miguel Serrano, EFI’s senior business development manager, said that EFI saw growth in 2019 in a variety of markets. Serrano said that one of the biggest growth areas for EFI is in the industrial segments.
“Single-pass corrugated packaging with our Nozomi C18000 LED printer platform has significant market share and higher ink volumes in 2019 because of that,” he added. “Obviously, the pandemic has affected volumes in 2020 and has disrupted everyone’s growth predictions, but when the crisis eases, we expect packaging ink with the Nozomi to be one of the segments that recovers fastest.
“The trend today for corrugated companies, especially the ones focused on packaging for goods (essentials), is not just around maintaining pre-crisis production levels. Many of them are projecting increases,” Serrano said. “Many EFI Nozomi users are producing packaging for goods that are sold in stores that have remained open, which I think we will see translates into a less-negative outlook for packaging. Plus, the increase of ecommerce is likely significant. As that channel becomes more important, we may see more smaller brands look to increase their ecommerce or subscription box offerings – those can benefit from a digital print strategy in a relatively short time period.”
Serrano reported that flexibility is a key value of the Nozomi C18000.
“Users have a broad range of capabilities when adopting our single-pass inkjet corrugated solution, and it has given them a quick answer to changing market demands in light of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “Direct-to-board, single-pass digital print on the EFI Nozomi C18000 is significantly more efficient than multi-step litho-lam processes and can even be more cost-effective solution than many flexo corrugated post-print jobs. The high quality possible – the Nozomi C18000 printer running in six-color mode can reach 97% of Pantone colors – is also very important in corrugated displays. That is another growing market application for our single-pass corrugated inkjet ink.”
Bernd Daiber, global business leader commercial inks, DuPont Image Solutions - Electronics & Imaging, noted that DuPont considers the packaging segment as the biggest growth opportunity for digital printing, driven by water-based inkjet inks for packaging.
“For corrugated board and folding carton, water-based inks acceptance is driven by the need of food compliant and odor-free solutions and the print quality is already matching customer expectations,” Daiber observed. “As a result, we are seeing multiple printer OEMs building new printing presses for water-based inkjet inks for this segment.”
Flexible packaging is more challenging when it comes to water-based inkjet inks.
“The most technically challenging segment, but most promising volume wise, is flexible film packaging,” Daiber added. “Productivity is the main challenge as high drying speeds are needed. DuPont Image Solutions is working on several collaborative projects to generate water inkjet ink solutions that meet the food packaging industry standards with regards to speed, adhesion, lamination capabilities and food regulations.”
Epson has focused its efforts on package proofing.
“The Epson SureColor S80600 has been able to pair nicely with the package proofing industry,” said David Lopez, associate product manager, Professional Imaging, Epson America. “The SureColor S80600 has one of the largest color gamuts in its class, with the ability to achieve 98.2% of the Pantone color library.”
Jay Roberts, Roland DGA product manager, UV printers, said that Roland DGA has seen an increase in business opportunities within in the packaging market.
“We expect to see continued growth,” Roberts added. “The recent launch of our new Roland IU-1000F high-volume UV flatbed printer will help drive both opportunities and demand. The IU-1000F offers the speed and production capability to keep up with requirements of the short-run packaging market as well as the increase in prototyping.”
Phil Jackman, global product manager, digital, Sun Chemical, reported that the digital business of Sun Chemical, under the SunJet brand, grew strongly in the past year and widened its product and technology portfolio.
“We have seen continued growth in wide and super-wide formats in the graphics market,” Jackman added. “Narrow web and label opportunities have increased as digital press numbers and capabilities are being realized. Coding and marking, imprinting and personalized print applications have grown in most geographies.
“The market opportunities continue to grow and we’re seeing packaging customers begin to fully accept digital print technology,” Jackman observed. “The digital value proposition continues to gain momentum as run lengths in many conventional print markets reduce. In addition to this, market trends continue to demonstrate the need to reduce lead times to eliminate the risks of obsolescence, and to improve the efficiency of print processes against the backdrop of increasing numbers of SKUs and levels of complexity. The placement of industrial, high productivity machines in corrugated, folding carton and flexible packaging has marked the start of the digital revolution in packaging.”
Marc Johnson, director of global product marketing for Memjet, said that Memjet sees a great deal of opportunity in all areas of packaging, including corrugated, folding carton, label and flexible packaging.
“This opportunity comes as manufacturers and retailers are using packaging to differentiate their products, enhance their customer’s experience, support expanded SKUs, and comply with changing regulatory requirements,” Johnson noted.
“Packaging needs to be designed faster and brought to market more quickly than ever before. This fast pace makes effectively managing the package design and production workflow more critical than ever. Memjet OEMs are providing just-in-time, digital printing solutions that address these new opportunities and deliver the quality, color and speed required to keep pace with these market trends. These solutions use Memjet’s water-based inks, which are far better for employees, customers and the environment.”
Simon Daplyn, marketing manager, Sensient Imaging Technologies, reported that he is seeing a substantial interest in Sensient’s packaging ink solutions, particularly for emerging application areas such as flexible and metal packaging.
“For these types of packaging, the compliance requirements are often more stringent for safety reasons – especially when printing onto packaging for food,” Daplyn said. “In those instances, we’re seeing growing interest in our water-based inks as an alternative to traditional solvent-based and UV-cured inks, as they offer a lower migration potential.”
Warren Catchpole, market manager – Wikoff Digital, said that Wikoff Color’s digital inkjet business enjoyed good growth over the past year.
“The market for digital packaging is growing at a significant rate as printers and converters begin to incorporate digital technologies into their production mix,” Catchpole said. “As the packaging market constantly evolves, industry expectations require ink suppliers to offer a growing range of products, including digital inkjet.”
Matthieu Carni, director business unit inkjet at Siegwerk, said that Siegwerk is looking back on a successful 2019.
“Primarily our UV inkjet ink business for packaging and label applications has experienced significant growth within the past year,” Carni added. “Today, inkjet technology is already fully adopted in the label printing industry and has very high potential for the packaging market offering tremendous possibilities for growth. The broader variety of print jobs, tight management of working capital and the make-on-demand philosophy are reducing the average run length, making conventional print technologies less attractive.
Carni noted that digital printing can answer these challenges by maximizing the print job flexibility and speed to market while minimizing machine setup-time and prepress costs.
“From our perspective, the most promising technologies are UV and water-based inkjet,” Carni reported. “Water-based inkjet inks are well suited for thin or porous substrates in applications with high demands on product safety and regulations and therefore is the most promising technology introduced for single pass large width printing on flexible packaging and corrugated applications. UV curable inkjet inks are a perfect fit for thick polymeric substrates for labels and direct-to-object printing enabling new business opportunities. Thereby, it does not only open up new approaches for brand differentiation but also helps packaging producers to save labeling materials, reduce waste and achieve overall leaner processes. Generally talking about growth opportunities, we see main chances in the direct-to-pack segment, where the flexibility of inkjet printing solutions is already drawing brand owners’ attention. And when looking at the large width segment, corrugated and flexible packaging are definitively the two segments with the biggest growth opportunity going forward.”
Food Packaging
Along those lines, inkjet ink manufacturers are seeing more interest in food packaging, and are helping customers meet regulatory mandates.
“Food packaging is an area where we’re constantly seeing interest,” said Jackman. “One of the main priorities for brand owners, converters and customers is compliance and the issue of migration. Once mainly concerned with conventional printing, migration and compliance are also important factors in digital printing and if not handled correctly, could have potentially severe consequences, such as damage to a brand’s reputation and risks to consumer health.
“During the packaging design stage, particular attention is spent on ensuring the correct materials are used to protect the various food products, namely board, film, foil or plastic,” Jackman added. “The selection of inks and coatings are just as important. To ensure Sun Chemical inks meet the necessary requirements and legislation, there are a number of factors that need to be considered, including an understanding of the legislation that regulates package printing; a knowledge of migration and the prescribed limits; and a responsibility for ensuring that packaging is correct for its end-use utilizing correct testing protocols through all key players on the supply chain.
“Today, packaging must meet several requirements including providing shelf appeal, increased levels of communication on packages, be recyclable and sustainable, extend the shelf life, and be lightweight, while also taking into account the complex regulatory landscape, as the industry strives to make food packaging safer,” Jackman continued. “Digital printing can make a positive impact on packaging.”
“One of the best potential synergies of product packaging and digital printing is in the food and beverage markets, largely due to short lifespan of packaged items, which requires fast turnaround time,” Ishay observed. “A few years ago, a package design became obsolete only after one to two years on the shelf. Nowadays, the same package is replaced at least every six months for marketing and seasonal campaigns, expansion of SKUs and refreshing designs for shelf appeal.”
Ishay added that HP PageWide true water-based inks are designed by HP to meet worldwide regulatory requirements and to address a broad range of health and environmental considerations throughout the entire life cycle of a print from production to disposal.
“HP developed its PageWide A30 and CV150 true water-based inks specifically with the corrugated packaging and display market’s needs in mind,” he said. “While UV inks contain reactive chemistries such as photoinitiators, which can migrate through packaging media and contaminate food, HP PageWide true water-based inks do not contain any UV reactive component and contain no hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) and very low volatile organic compounds (VOCs), thus providing additional health and safety benefits.
'In addition, HP’s water-based inks are odorless, enabling a wide range of packaging applications, including primary and secondary packaging for sensitive uses such as food and personal care while requiring no additional barriers. There is also the industry expectation that digitally printed media could be recycled in standard recycling processes used today for flexo or analog printed media with no need for any extra special process. To date, only HP PageWide Industrial true water-based inks have been recognized as offering a leading environmental profile, verified by Papiertechnische Stiftung (PTS) of Germany to be easily recyclable using standard industry recycling technology.”
“HP is the only vendor to have fulfilled the Intertek Guidelines for the Safe Use of Printing Inks to provide safety requirements in accordance with global regulatory and industry guidance, including Swiss Ordinance, Nestlé Guidance, FDA, EU Framework, and others,” Ishay concluded. “HP PageWide true water-based inks are uniquely certified for stringent UL ECOLOGO. HP PageWide users can promote the circular economy and improve their sustainability offering to their customers.”
“On the food packaging front, we are seeing more interest in utilizing digital inkjet to meet the growing environmental sensitivities, as well as an ongoing need to increase revenues while reducing operating costs,” Catchpole said. “To help our customers meet regulatory standards, Wikoff Digital has recently introduced a food packaging compliant digital primer that is getting enthusiastic reviews in the food packaging industry. Benzo-free UV digital primers are also drawing the attention of converters who want to be environmentally responsible. In addition, Wikoff Digital has developed a set of EB-cure inks in response to the industry-wide need for a digital ink that meets strict food safety requirements. While EB curing technology can require some upfront capital to implement, it represents an excellent approach to take when the objective is to achieve high safety standards—an important consideration in the food, beverage and personal care industries.”
“The interest is coming from end-users producing various types of packaging,” said Roberts. “There is significant demand from those who print food packaging, and many of the files we print are for external cartons of food products. We always encourage our dealers to discuss the regulatory requirements with their clients. It’s imperative that they understand both the local and federal guidelines for printing. We make it a point to include our SDS information and share any insights we may have regarding potential issues.”
“The expectations from our customers in the food industry is for us to deliver water-based ink solutions, odor-free and 100% food compliant as an alternative to UV curing ink systems,” Daiber said. “The inks we are developing will be for the entire range of the food industry from paper, corrugated board, folding carton up to the various flex film substrates.”
“Many Memjet OEM partners are creating printing equipment for label and package converting. For these OEMs, food packaging is likely to be on the top of their customers’ list of objectives. That’s because the majority of labels produced today are for food and beverage products,” Johnson said. “For many printers, food contact materials (FCM) compliance is a complex and confusing set of regulations that lack any harmonization. And it’s not likely to get any less complicated soon.
“But as more and more label and package providers adopt digital printing solutions, many can realize the FCM compliance benefits by choosing the right inks - like Memjet’s aqueous-based inks. Free from toxic and reactive chemistries found in UV curable, solvent, and liquid toner inks, Memjet water-based inks are inherently safer for the earth and for the people handling them – making them an essential differentiator for OEMs creating FCM compliant solutions,” added Johnson.
“We are seeing significant interest in digital inkjet solutions for food packaging,” said Daplyn. “Our experienced regulatory team supports our chemists in ensuring they are developing solutions with compliance in mind. Our expertise in this area helps customers navigate the shifting legislative requirements of the marketplace, to give them compliance they can trust. Our digital inkjet technology for food packaging is being developed with safety and compliance in mind, without compromising on color quality or aesthetic appeal. Our extensive regulatory knowledge and experience in aqueous inkjet formulation allow for precise development to meet strict market requirements. Sensient champions the use of water-based digital inks such as SensiJet SX which, if formulated correctly, can help to lower the risk of migration by utilizing water as the carrier for the pigment as opposed to chemicals.”
“We do see a growing interest in digital printing for food packaging,” Carni said. “Our inkjet portfolio already includes migration optimized inkjet inks for sensitive food and pharma packaging that are individually adjusted to the final application and not only for given printing equipment. As we don’t believe in ‘one fits all’ solutions, we only offer customized ink solutions to the users’ needs – this means for the final application and not only for given printing equipment. For us customization goes beyond classical color matching, it also involves optimization of adhesion, mechanical and chemical resistance properties as well as an assessment of migration risks.
“Product safety is and will remain the most important and challenging aspect especially in food packaging,” added Carni. “Steadily increasing regulatory efforts worldwide have considerably changed the general standards for ink formulations, also impacting inkjet inks. Over the years, we have built up our own innovation hub for digital printing solutions in Annemasse, France, by pooling R&D and production as well as testing capacities concretely for inkjet technology. Optimal testing opportunities at our technical center enable us to simulate and test printing results on almost all kinds of flat substrates using different printing head technologies. Besides, we have a team exclusively dedicated to safety regarding both regulatory compliance and brand owner requirements to always ensure that our products are safe for the end-use applications. It is all about transparency along the value chain.”
