DuPont is a leading manufacturer and innovator for digital printing inks with a long history in technology and innovation. The Artistri inkjet inks portfolio is printed worldwide in a variety of industry segments and applications ranging from textile printing (apparel, home furnishings, outdoor signage), commercial and packaging printing (such as books, corrugated board, and now packaging film) and, where the portfolio began, in-home and office printers.
The attractiveness of digital printing over analog print (offset, gravure, and flexographic) is growing year after year, with inks playing a strategic role in this process. Today digital printing delivers unique benefits to brands and end consumers with customization, personalization, converters with short runs (usually unachievable cost-effectively with other printing processes), design flexibility, color brilliance, and doing it sustainably.
DuPont is deeply committed to bringing the advantages of digital printing into the package printing market. With over 45 years of experience in packaging through Cyrel solutions, DuPont supports customers in tag and label, corrugated board, and flexible packaging on their transition from analog to digital printing.Â
Above all, DuPont is committed to developing digital ink solutions to help the sustainable growth of the packaging industry, including a full range of food-compliant ink products for the various market segments of packaging.
The flexible packaging market needs to deliver more short-run orders with increasingly shorter production times, making the combination of digital printing with traditional systems an attractive solution.Â
But bringing digital inkjet to this segment is not without major challenges. Converters look for high-speed solutions on a wide range of substrates (PE, PET, OPP, etc.) with the appropriate drying rate critical to the quality and durability of the print.Â
In addition, direct and reverse printing considerations, the use of white ink, the application of very different finishing methods (lamination, cold seal, etc.), and primer considerations all factor into the challenges of a water-based inkjet solution.Â
DuPont believes that by combining their print technology experience (inks, dispersions, polymers, primers) with that of their industry partners, solutions will be developed and that the digital transition in flexible packaging will increase in the coming years.
Another dimension that water-based inkjet inks bring to the packaging printing world is sustainability. All of us, packaged goods buyers, along with brand owners and retailers, are sensitive to the environmental impact of packaging.Â
Brand owners and printers are focused on lowering the environmental footprint and improving the sustainability of their packaging solutions while keeping high levels of printing quality and printing consistency. Aqueous pigment inks, such as the Artistri line of ink products, are a key asset for digital printing manufacturers to address the sustainability demand of the industry.Â
DuPont partnership with the flexo & gravure press manufacturersÂ
DuPont’s partnerships with the traditional flexo & gravure press manufacturers and the digital printing OEMs enable addressing the current and future market demands and allows the application of product and process features developed from 30+ years of inkjet development.Â
DuPont understands that success depends on cooperating across the printing industry, including printing press manufacturers, drying technology manufacturers (hot air, IR, NIR, etc.), substrate producers, print head suppliers, and pigment & chemical suppliers closely.
Artistri inks are widely used in today’s textile industry (home textile, apparel, and garments) with a product range that includes roll-to-roll and Direct to Garment (DTG) printing pigment inks.Â
Aqueous pigment inks for textiles are delivering benefits to the industry in terms of economics (no post-process capital and investment/cost, reduced time to market), application (can be applied to all fabrics and have a better UV fastness than dye-based ink), and friendly environment solution (no or little water usage, lower power consumption and low chemical footprint).Â
DuPont is confident that working collaboratively with the packaging industry, inkjet solutions for packaging will yield great benefits, from the consumer to all the value chain participants, delivering brilliant, durable colors and a sustainable solution to the toughest printing challenges.
