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Food & Beverage Industry

Sun brings brilliance to brand packaging: new products and technologies reinforce the company's expertise in specialty inks for packaging

Food & Drug Packaging, Sept, 2005

As the world's largest producer of printing inks, coatings and pigments, Sun Chemical serves customers all over the world with an expansive product portfolio. Richard Pettifor, president of North American packaging for Sun Chemical, describes the company as technology-driven. Yet the visual impact of the inks outshines the technology behind them.

Specialty inks can give packages that extra oomph needed to win a sale. Even within this specific category, Sun's product options are broad and innovative--from security inks to conductive inks and interactive inks to shelf appeal inks. Here's a run-down of the options available from Sun, with some of its newest products and technologies highlighted:

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* Aroma. Adding scent to packaging is a new way to differentiate and enhance a product.

* Fluorescents. These bright colors create shelf impact.

* Glitter. Improvements include better controlled spread across the roller on a printing press.

* Lamination. New RotoPure[R] HS lamination ink, which provides adhesion and high-lamination bonds, can be printed at high speeds (up to 2,000 feet per minute).

* Laser-engravable primer. For coding/marking, packagers now have the option of any color combination, not just white on dark surfaces. This can also be used to add Braille to a package because the laser mark creates a bubble in the ink.

* Matte. Low-gloss inks offer a new option of creating matte designs, which have gained in popularity recently.

* Metallic. New innovations include high-luster metallic inks printed on a holographic image to create eye-catching designs. Other improvements include maintaining their shiny appearance on shrink labels, instead of turning dull gray, which they had a tendency to do before.

* Metameric. These inks are only visible through a specific color spectrum.

* Phosphorescent. Recent improvements include a longer lasting effect and a smaller particle size, which means the ink can now be printed on a flexographic press, as well as gravure and silkscreen.

* Photochromic. These inks change color in ultraviolet light.

* Retortable. Sun Chemical will launch a new product later this year that can be used for all retort temperatures. Packagers won't have to spec or change inks for different retort applications anymore.

* Security. Used for overt and covert brand security. Covert inks need special instruments to view them. One example (of many) is use of taggants that glow under black light.

* Tactile. By adding texture, these inks not only appeal to the eye: They also invite consumers to touch and handle a package, helping them connect emotionally with the product.

* Thermal/heat transfer. A recent example is the iron-on image of Shrek that General Mills printed on cereal cartons.

* Thermochromic. Now in easier-to-print versions, these inks, which change color depending on the temperature, can be reversible or irreversible.

* Track-and-Trace. Conductive inks can be used as the antennae for radio frequency identification (RFID) chips.

For more information:

Sun Chemical Corp.

800-933-7863; www.sunchemical.com

Food & Beverage Industry

Sun brings brilliance to brand packaging: new products and technologies reinforce the company's expertise in specialty inks for packaging

Food & Drug Packaging, Sept, 2005

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