Based on the company’s next-generation ink platform, two new inks now join its SolarFlex line of narrow-web, UV flexo inks – SolarFlex Integra and SolarFlex FSP. The new products “are the result of two years of intensive development work and a year of optimization through customer validation trials, to ensure the ranges provide the robust characteristics required by customers,” said Sun Chemical. The inks feature consistent flow and viscosity properties across the colour range, superb printability and ink transfer, and extremely low foaming characteristics “for the most reliable press performance.” The new SolarFlex Integra inks have been designed for label, sleeve and packaging markets that have no requirements for migration-compliant food packaging, and replace the SolarFlex Nova SL range. Primarily for surface printing on flexible films and labels where migration-compliant food packaging is required, the new SolarFlex FSP inks offer “a significant upgrade on previous migration-compliant, UV flexo product ranges.”
Produced from a new platform of pigment concentrates, both ink ranges have increased colour intensity and density while maintaining the consistent rheology across the range of colours. As they’re produced from a single range of concentrates, switching from SolarFlex Integra to SolarFlex FSP can be done without affecting the colours achieved on-press. Adhesion onto impervious substrates and hold-out on absorbent substrates have also both been significantly improved, broadening the range of substrates that can be used with both inks.