Siegwerk to showcase its tailor-made ink and service portfolio at this year’s LABELEXPO EUROPE 2019

Siegwerk, one of the leading global providers of printing inks for packaging applications and labels, will exhibit at this year’s LABELEXPO EUROPE 2019, the world’s largest event for the label and package printing industry taking place in Brussels, Belgium, from September 24 - 27, 2019. By providing a combination of best-in-class performing inks, leading product safety and knowledgeable guidance and support, Siegwerk is always making every effort to help its customers address upcoming trends while meeting their specific needs with cutting-edge ink solutions. Visitors to the trade show can meet with Siegwerk’s experts at Booth 6A/17 in Hall 6 to discuss label and package printing innovations and learn more about the company’s broad offering.

“It’s Siegwerk’s goal to provide our customers with the most efficient ink solutions and support for their individual situations, by being ‘Focused on your needs’,” explains Guido Lander, Vice President Business Unit Narrow Web EMEA at Siegwerk. “At this year’s booth we will highlight our expertise in trending topics like shrink sleeves, plastic tubes and laminates, digital printing as well as upcoming requirements from brand owners regarding sustainable ink solutions and how Siegwerk’s product portfolio enables an efficient recycling of printed films. Visitors can get in touch with our experts to learn more about our latest ink developments and how we can meet their individual needs and challenges. Siegwerk attaches great importance to open dialog with its customers. Understanding their needs is key to the company identifying trending topics and open issues that enable it to channel its research and development activities into the market segments of the future. “That’s why platforms like LABELEXPO are ideal touchpoints for us to share ideas and discuss the latest challenges and requirements with our customers and other industry experts,” adds Guido Lander.

Leading ink solutions for sleeve production

The all-round labeling of containers using sleeves is a growing trend in packaging today as it offers more design opportunities than standard labels. But the sleeve production is a fully developed and complex process and printing inks for sleeves must meet strict requirements, regardless of whether the tube is printed with UV ink or solvent ink. They have to be flexible to not break after shrinking and need to be scratch-proof to endure the disposal process without any damage. Besides, they must be heat-resistant, and need to include pigments that do not bleed out in the steam shrink tunnel. A crucial role is taken on by the full-surface white which is applied on the inner side of the film, generally as the last ink of reverse printing. The white must possess good gliding properties and high scratch-resistance, so that it is not damaged when the sleeves are pulled over the final containers. At LABELEXPO, Siegwerk will present its broad range of UV, LED UV and solvent-based ink systems and special whites for all printing technologies suitable for sleeves used for non-food and food packaging applications. All inks and whites are always available as both standard and low migration ink systems.

New ink developments for plastic tubes and laminates

Plastic tubes and laminates (PTL) are challenging packaging structures especially demanding highly reactive ink series with good adhesion mainly on pre-treated Polyethylene and Polypropylene covering many types of printing processes. Overprint varnishes for PTL manufacturing must offer high chemical resistance to various kinds of filling goods, high scuff resistance as well as good surface slip properties for processing the tubes in filling lines. Optimal post-decoration properties are required for hot-foil stamping or screen printing which often gets applied on top of the tube coating. Siegwerk offers a wide range of specialty solutions for high-end packaging today. Its specialty UV varnishes can be applied on various laminates and tubes based on plastic substrates like PE, PP, ABS, PC and PS. At LABELEXPO, the company will present a new ink development especially for the PTL segment, Sicura Nutritube, a new low migration ink series for dry offset printing is designed for extruded (pre-formed) tubes as well as laminated tubes in web printing.

New digital printing opportunities for labels and packaging

In addition to the company’s broad portfolio of established analog inks for printers, Siegwerk has a strong footprint in digital printing offering UV and water-based inkjet ink solutions for narrow web and large width packaging to equipment manufacturers for both packaging and label applications. The company offers customized ink solutions to end users’ final application requirements. Thereby, customization goes beyond classical color matching for Siegwerk, it also covers optimization of adhesion, mechanical and chemical resistance as well as assessment of migration risk. The company strongly believes that digital printing offers tremendous possibilities for growth in packaging. UV inkjet allows for direct print on 3D objects which increases brand differentiation, helps packaging producers to save labeling materials, reduces waste and achieves overall leaner processes. At LABELEXPO, Siegwerk will present its inkjet ink portfolio for a wide range of applications including food, pharma as well as household, hygiene and industrial packaging.

Sustainable ink solutions for an optimized packaging recyclability in a circular economy 

As one of the leaders in product safety and sustainability, Siegwerk is driving the development of eco-friendly inks. Assessing ways of enhancing the ecological footprint of the company’s inks, with no loss of performance, is one of its key research and development efforts. Sustainability means progress and differentiation for customers that’s why it drives its global engagement for a sustainable future by a wide range of different activities and commitments. Siegwerk has a wealth of experience with inks for paper & board applications and the corresponding need for ultimate deinkability of inks to support paper recycling. 

During the LABELEXPO Siegwerk will present for the first time a newly developed product system which allows for complete de-inking of printed films as they are used for labels, shrink sleeves and other applications, leading to a complete “clean/virgin” recycling of the transparent film in a later process. With SICURA Low NRGY UV/LED UV the company offers a newly developed UV/LED UV offset ink system with impressive deinking properties even comparable to the deinkability of conventional oil-based sheetfed offset inks. Besides, customers find water- and solvent based ink series that are compostable according to DIN EN 13432. With its ink series Sicura Litho NutriEco Siegwerk also markets the world’s first low migration UV ink range for cosmetics and food applications that has been awarded the Gold status of the “Cradle to Cradle® Material Health Certification” by the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA). These inks are safe for recycling processes and adhere to the circular economy approach. These are just a few examples of Siegwerk’s extensive activities to further shape the future of packaging through innovative and sustainable ink solutions that will be presented at the show.