SICURA Nutriplast 2 New is the company’s low migration ink series for plastic substrates, and SICURA Plast SP Luxe is an odourless ink series for printing on paper and board as well as plastic applications, or other well-established flexo and offset printing solutions. Newly enhanced solutions such as SICURA Low NRGY UV/LED UV are the company’s latest breakthrough in terms of deinkability in UV curing.
‘As low-energy curing UV inks are gaining more and more market share, the consequences of poor deinkability of these inks has reached new dimensions,’ explained Thomas Glaser, head of technology sheetfed at Siegwerk. ‘The problem with deinking UV/LED UV cured prints is that the inks form a solid, chemically and mechanically resistant layer after curing, comparable with an adhesive plastic layer. Although this strong attachment of ink and paper fibers results in a preferable high stability of the ink film, it also complicates the removal of the ink during the recycling process.’
‘Present standard UV/LED UV inks cannot be sufficiently removed from the paper fibre mass often leaving large dirt spots in the recycled paper, thus minimising the final paper quality. Improved deinkability is the first step to full recyclability of UV/LED UV cured prints. That’s why we have made every effort to come up with an enhanced UV/LED UV ink solution with improved deinkability properties to further strengthen the ecological benefits of the general UV/LED UV printing process,’ added Glaser.
With SICURA Low NRGY UV/LED UV, Siegwerk is now offering an UV/LED UV offset ink system that – as the first of its kind – shows outstanding deinkability even comparable to conventional oil-based sheetfed offset inks. Tests have proven the system’s good deinking properties on both high- and low-weight coated paper as well as on uncoated virgin fibre-based newsprint (iNP). Furthermore, the new ink system is free of reclassified photoinitiators 369, EDB, EHA and PBZ and suitable for commercial printing, offering very good printing stability, high gloss levels, excellent dot sharpness and great flow properties as well as fast curing and good mechanical strength.
Siegwerk presented its broad ink and service portfolio for UV printing at UV Days 2019, which took place in Germany from 13-15 May.
SIEGWERK www.siegwerk.com
