Toray
Graphics in the Czech Republic, a leading manufacturer of waterless offset
plate technology, today reported that UK-based Classic Colours, a manufacturer
of offset inks, has transitioned virtually all of its ink production from
conventional oil-based offset inks to more environmentally sound UV-curable
waterless offset inks. The company occupies a 5,000 square foot facility
operated by eight employees plus the management team. The company produces
about 70 tons of ink annually.
“Back
in 1989, as my employment with an ink manufacturer was coming to an end, I was
approached by a Swedish company representative who arrived with a box of
waterless inks from Japan,” explains David Grey, Managing Director. “I was
intrigued by the idea and suggested to my employer that we conduct a
development project. Upon receiving a flat ‘no’ to the request, I decided to
start my own business as one of the first ink manufacturers in Europe to
provide waterless offset inks. Thus Classic Colours was born!”
The
Classic Colours relationship with Toray, now in its 28th year, has been an
important element in the company’s success with waterless offset inks. Classic
Colours also works closely with a number of press manufacturers, including
Codimag, a French manufacturer of offset label presses, and KBA, the German
manufacturer of Genius and of other UV waterless presses. Classic Colours’
distribution network includes Marks-3zet, also a Toray distributor, and many
other companies worldwide.
“When
we started, the bulk of our manufacturing was conventional oil-based inks,”
Grey adds, “but within a few years we were about 50/50 waterless and
conventional. These days, our production is almost exclusively waterless offset
inks, and most are UV-curable.
In
addition to higher quality and more efficient printing on plastics, Grey points
out that waterless offset has many other benefits. “Obviously,” he states,
“reduction of water usage is a key one. The rollers in the press last longer
because you eliminate the chemicals that cause the corrosion of bearings and
also affect the roller compounds. Perhaps most importantly, it’s the simplicity
of the operation. Once you have taken on the initial learning curve, the
waterless printing process is much less complex than water-based offset
printing. Another great advantage is that a flexo press operator familiar with
operating Anilox inking can easily make the transition to Anilox inked
waterless offset printing; flexography doesn’t use dampening solution either,
and the operator won’t need to learn about ink/water balance.
Classic
Colours is also developing a brand-new ink, its UniVersal-LM family of
products. “These new ink formulations can be cured with all lamp types,
including Mercury-UV, Iron/Gallium low energy UV, and LED-UV, which is
increasingly popular,” Grey says. “In the near future, many printing plants
will have mixed curing technology, especially as they begin upgrading their
operations to LED cooler cure UV. With the UniVersal-LM family of inks, they
will have no worries about errors when using the wrong ink for the curing
system.”
UniVersal-LM
inks combine Classic Colours’ proven waterless ink formulations with special
photo initiators that will cure under different lights and that have extremely
low migration. “Many of our customers are using our inks for label printing,
and they want to be able to expand into applications such as sensitive food
packaging,” Grey reports. “We are in the process of testing these low migration
inks with a number of analytical laboratories, and early results have been
excellent. Prior to going to market next year, we hope to have the appropriate
certifications that will give customers the confidence that low migration
standards will be meet. UniVersal-LM will be available as process and Pantone
colors, as well as silver and gold. We think these inks will be a game-changer
for waterless offset, and we’re excited about their prospects. Our thanks go to
Codimag and Toray for their help in producing test samples for laboratory
analysis.”
Grey
points out that an added advantage of UniVersal-LM inks is that they are not
restricted to projects that require food grade inks. “Operations can switch
between food-grade and other applications seamlessly,” he says, “without the
need for time-consuming wash-ups between jobs since all the inks used are food
grade.”
