Xaar’s new partnerships with BASF and Comec italia

In a bid to shore up its ambitious 2020 plans, the inkjet manufacturer announced the latest partnerships.

It has teamed up with BASF in the 3D printing arena, and the two companies will collaborate on photopolymer jetting. Xaar said the partnership “will enable manufacturers to produce 3D parts with improved properties and lower costs than currently possible”.

Xaar subsidiary Engineered Printing Solutions (EPS) has signed up pad printing specialist Comec Italia as the European distributor for the EPS range of direct-to-shape digital printing systems.

EPS showed a new cylindrical object printer at the InPrint show in Munich where the UV-LED system prints directly onto cylindrical, flat wall or tapered objects at up to 800pph.

Xaar aims to double its sales by 2020 in three years.

Magna introduces UV ink

Magna Colours, the UK-based water-based ink manufacturer announced the launch of its latest MagnaPrint UV-reactive invisible ink range.

Available in dark blue, the ink is set to be used by screen printers and has the ability to function either as a top coat or to be incorporated into a print.

The company is looking to target the Central American and ASEAN markets, where a number of big brands have garment printing outposts.

Magna, which works with the likes of Adidas and Nike, launched a number of new inks last year, including Reflective screen inks and a slow-drying range said to be more environmentally friendly.

Scodix ready with commercial availability of E106 press

Digital enhancement major, Scodix announced that their breakthrough Scodix E106 press for the folding carton market will be commercially available from December 2017.

“We are delighted to be progressing into the commercial phase, still working to the schedule we outlined in 2016. Printers and converters investing in the Scodix E106 will be able to clinch a competitive edge with value-added services that can truly energize brands. The B1 format brings all the advantages of digital enhancement currently being exploited in the commercial market and takes us a step closer a new standard in packaging enhancement,” said Roy Porat, CEO of Scodix.

The Scodix E106 press is said to deliver multiple premium quality applications on one platform. These include Scodix proprietary ‘FoilT, SenseT, SpotT, Variable Data, Cast and CureT’ effects. Brand owners can create products using foil over foil or personalise with the above effects which Scodix claims were previously unachievable in this market.

The B1 press can be seen in action at an Open House from 4-6 December 2017 at Gundlach Packaging Group’s facility in Oerlinghausen, Germany. The next units are planned to be installed in the EU and USA during Q1 2018.

Flint announce new range of IML inks

Flint Group announces the global availability of Novastar D 2000 IML BIO for metallised paper and non-absorbent substrates.

The new low-migration sheetfed ink was launched on 1 October and is intended for label printing without direct food contact. It is derived from vegetable oil rather than mineral oil.

Over the last 5 to 6 years global production of in-mould labels has grown at around 4% per year, due in part to the ability of the technology to enhance the product visibility and brand identification in the market. And we believe in-mould labelling will continue to grow significantly as the manufacturing efficiencies and visual quality it brings gets wider endorsement. Currently in-mould accounts for less than 3% of all labelling, so there is plenty of room for it to grow.

A Flint spokesman said, "While Europe currently holds the largest share of the Global IML market, the main growth opportunities going forward are in North America and, due to an increase in demand for food and beverage products, the emerging markets of China, India and South America.".