Marabu is showcasing its digital range at drupa, including textile transfer printing and UV direct printing onto glass. When it comes to product safety its screen and pad printing inks provide new solutions.
Product safety – Sensitive products meet extraordinary solutions
Toys, baby products, or medical equipment are sensitive products which have to fulfil strict requirements to guarantee the safety of consumers’ health and wellbeing. It must be guaranteed that neither the substrate itself nor the printing ink contain harmful substances. Marabu provides various possible solutions: In addition to the pad printing inks Tampa® Tex TPX and Tampa® Plus TPL, Marabu has developed new water-based spray inks and paints which meet precisely these specific requirements of sensitive products. There are compliant to EN71-3 as well as PAH- and BPA/BPS-free. At the same time, they offer good resistance and are suited for a wide range of applications. For medical equipment, like disposable syringes with accurate and readable scales, Marabu provides the screen and pad printing ink Mara® Prop PP together with a new opaque black. The PP is easily printable in different climatic conditions and provides good coverage.
Low-migration – New UV screen printing ink for cosmetic packaging
Besides rising technical and optical requirements for printing inks, the focus for cosmetic packaging (like shampoo bottles, toothpaste tubes etc.), is more and more on reducing unwanted transfer from the outer decoration into the content. Ink ingredients should not pass into the cosmetic product in order to protect the consumers’ health. The carefully selected ingredients for the new Ultra Pack UVCP fulfil purity criteria that is based on the requirements for food packaging. This makes the UVCP particularly suited for the decoration of cosmetic packaging. The use for cosmetic packaging is also covered by a basic analysis, and a risk assessment.
Glass decoration with digital UV direct printing, screen or pad printing
At drupa, Marabu showcased the wide variety of digital UV direct printing onto glass. The Ultra Jet inkjet series can be used for high-end designs on flat or curved glass surfaces. Additionally, Marabu will present its Mara® Glass MGL solvent-based screen printing ink and its Tampa® Glass TPGL pad printing ink for glass decoration. MGL is ideal for high-gloss results on flat and hollow glass and its colour range is supplemented by new high-opaque shades. Durable TPGL ink is suitable for a variety of tasks, and performs especially well on rounded objects such as small glass jars for cosmetics. As a universal ink solution for glass printing, the UV-curable Ultra Glass UV ink series have proven their strengths in the market for years. They feature the most comprehensive portfolio of their kind including a new high-gloss silver as well as a new varnish for tactile effects.
Industrial printing solutions for automotive and touch panels
An application segment of growing importance are input devices, such as membrane switches and capacitive touch panels made from glass or plastic. These have become an essential feature of electronic control and operating equipment – and not just in the automotive sector. Marabu offers solvent-based or UV-curable ink systems like the Ultra Switch UVSW for all common makes of foil. Ultra Switch UVSW, for example, cures rapidly and does not clog the mesh screen. What’s more, the ink film manages to combine incredible elasticity with excellent adhesion between the individual layers. The solvent-based Mara® Switch MSW is suitable for front panels and membrane switches, high-quality flat input systems in industrial plants and a variety of controls such as black or white panels. The non-conductive MSW ink system provides high-opaque colour shades as well as high adhesive and moisture-resistance. Moreover, Marabu will present a new package for membrane switches that combines the advantages of screen and digital printing technology. This combination makes the production faster, easily customizable and cost-effective.
The German Printing Ink Industry will be presenting lecture blocks
At drupa 2016, the Sector Group Printing Inks of the German Paint and Printing Ink Association (VdL) will present the versatility of printing inks in twelve lecture blocks. The presentation stand “Link to ink – The combined know how” will be located in Hall 3, stand 3B16. For the first time the German printing ink manufacturers dedicate their resource to provide such a demanding programme at drupa. VdL is herewith supported by the European Printing Ink Association EuPIA. The presentations range from the composition of various inks, explaining their life cycle and issues related to packaging safety. Not be forgotten is colour as a marketing tool, the influence of eco-labels and the challenge arising from energy curing products. The lectures are held in German and in English over several days by renowned experts from the Sector Group “Printing Inks” of VdL. Marabu will present the potentials of digital printing and options of screen printing.
