Sun Chemical presentenced its comprehensive portfolio of inks and ink chemistry platforms for screen, industrial and inkjet printing and for printed electronics at FESPA 2017 from 8-12 May 2017 in Hamburg, Germany.
Highlight included the global launch of FasciaCoat, Sun Chemical’s new hardcoat varnish for dashboard fascia and an addition to the SunHytek range of products for high-tech, appliance panel and automotive applications. Aqueous, formable and VOC-free, FasciaCoat is a hard varnish that dries to a matte finish, minimizing glare, and that has the ability to ‘self-heal’ scratches created during the production process.
For digital textile printing, Sun Chemical presented its range of four SunTex textile inkjet inks optimized for Epson print-heads. Included in the product range was SunTex Sonata DTE, a transfer dye sublimation ink series for printing polyester sport garments. This ink has been awarded the OekoTex EcoPass, enabling printers to achieve the Oeko-Tex 100 printed garment certification. Also part of the range was SunTex Sonata DDE, a dye sublimation ink developed to meet the key requirements of direct print to polyester fabrics.
Sun Chemical also presented its innovative SunTex Encore PDE pigment ink. Encore PDE can be printed directly onto both natural and synthetic textile fabrics, such as cotton, viscose, silk and poly cotton, which are widely used for interior decoration and home furnishing.
Completing the range was SunTex Concerto RDE, a reactive dye ink series that delivers excellent color vibrancy when printing directly to fabrics, such as silk and cotton. Sun Chemical also ran print demonstrations on the stand to show the excellent performance of Sonata DTE inks. At the same time, the printer showed the latest ECOPROISU ink pouch system.
For the graphics industry, the company discussed the SunPromo range of inks for the wide range of screen graphic applications. Sun Chemical also highlighted its Streamline range of solvent-based, alternative inkjet inks, designed for wide and super wide format printers. For the wide format market, Sun Chemical presented Streamline ESL 3, a fully colormatched and compatible ink series to the latest Roland Eco Sol Max 3 ink series.
For the many large format graphic printers who produce billboards that are frequently replaced, Streamline offered the option to use the Streamline Rapide Magenta and Yellow SWF solvent inks. These inks are ideal for display prints, such as movie posters at cinemas, which will be replaced within a year.
Sun Chemical’s industrial products at the show were SunHytek for heat and humidity-resistant ink solutions for high-tech, appliance panel and automotive applications, SunCarte for high peel strength, color-consistent screen and offset inks, adhesives and varnishes for laminated plastic cards and SunPoly screen inks formulated for highspeed screen printing on a variety of container substrates.
Partnerships and technology
SunJet, the global inkjet team of Sun Chemical, highlighted the capabilities of its joint development projects with OEM partners, system integrators and printhead manufacturers through the presentation of its latest breakthrough ink chemistries and digital technologies for a broad range of market sectors including: graphics, décor, textile, industrial and packaging.
Collaboration with HP Indigo
Sun Chemical has also entered into a collaboration agreement with HP Indigo to develop cost-effective digital coatings, which would enable the adoption of digital printing in the packaging industry.
The agreement will lead to the development of a comprehensive range of digital coatings to support brand owners, converters and printers alike, including, overprint varnishes and adhesives tailored to complement digital solutions.
