UV Inks and varnishes
Industry challenges
Continued growth in markets such as UV labels and UV inks for flexible packaging
- Seeking for adhesion on wide variety of substrates
- Tendency for low filmweight materials
- Digital printing moving towards industrial applications
Constantly more regulatory requirements to support the food packaging industry
- Impact of REACH and related labelling changes (EuPIA, …)
- Brand Owners guidelines (Nestlé, …)
- Food Packaging directives (Swiss Ordinance, …)
Technical developments driven towards better curing response and lower viscosities
- Analogue: combination of high reactivity and low shrinkage materials for flexo printing
- Digital: inkjet printheads with smaller and smaller drop size for better print quality
High performance UV-cure resins for printing inks
We have developed a full range of specialty acrylate resins to offer solutions for all the UV printing technologies:
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Inkjet
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Offset | Flexo | Screen |
Overprint Varnish |
to help formulators create customized and high performance inks with:
- Enhanced adhesion to a wide variety of substrates
- Flexibility
- Hardness
- Chemical resistance
A pioneer in the development of specialty acrylates for UV LED curing systems
We believe UV LED technology to be the future of UV printing, as it consumes less energy than traditional Hg-doped lamps. UV-LED lamps offer a narrow but intense spectral emission, which requires highly functional reactive material that you will find in our product range.
Strong expertise and anticipation of evolving regulations and directives
- Comprehensive and personalized support to address REACH market transition
- Compliance with influential brand owner’s requirements (such as BPA free, organotin free, PETIA free solutions)
- Low migration range of products for food packaging applications, in compliance with the Swiss list and Nestlé guidance notes, with no risk of contamination and a very low potential for migration.
Final formulations can be designed to meet a wide variety of performance properties.
Arkema strives to be at the forefront of the UV, UV LED and EB curable marketplace and our expert team look forward to discussing your ideas.
Capability to meet the challenges in diverse application fields
Our ink solutions address a variety of application-specific challenges, such as:
- Creating UV/EB inks for use in structures like shrink-wrap and laminated packaging
- Improving cured ink properties of UV flexo inks for retortable pouch and thermoformable packaging
- Developing UV/EB screen inks to decorate complex parts like bicycle helmets and rigid packaging
- Formulating lower VOC UV and EB curable inks that allow printers to operate presses at speeds comparable to conventional inks
- Offering inks that are both BPA-free and high performance for food packaging applications
- Increasing the gelation stability of UV inkjet formulations at higher temperatures
| Commercial print | DVDs | Flexible packaging | Direct to pack | Corrugated packaging | Labels | Food packaging | Posters | Printed circuit boards | Metal deco |
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Arkema's offering for packaging
At Arkema, we help packaging companies reinvent their business models to combine quality, competitiveness and strong environmental performance. Arkema offers high performance solutions for more environmentally friendly packaging and to contribute to durable use of packaging disposals.