Ink

With a focus on present day challenges involving the printing industry and an eye to the future, INX Digital International Co. is launching its new Prodigy brand. Having created a separate business unit for Prodigy, company officials will formally introduce the brand in their booth (#1323) at the Graphics of the Americas/FESPA Americas show this week in Orlando, FL.

INX Digital International manufactures and distributes inkjet inks and toners for a variety of industrial markets. Well known for its Graphic Arts products used for billboards, banners, vehicle and building wraps and other large format output, the company is supported by the Research & Development capabilities globally of its parent company, Sakata INX of Japan.

In the last year INX Digital has introduced several new product lines of dry and liquid toner, and a variety of customised industrial inkjet inks including textile products and UV curable technologies. The Prodigy business division has a twofold plan that will continue its focus on Graphic Arts for the immediate future and directly serve the OEMs, Integrators and print head companies within the digital market. Willis Reese, INX Digital's Global Director of Business Development who heads the Prodigy team, sees plenty of long term potential on the Industrial side of the business.

"Graphic Arts customers remain very important and instrumental to our Prodigy business, both short and long term," explained Reese. "However, we expect to be in a position to grow the new Industrial side substantially. We are targeting markets such as textile, tile, glass, metal and wood grain, and feel we have a well-balanced portfolio of chemistries including UV, water and solvent-based products that will be attractive to the marketplace soon. I see Prodigy having immediate success this year in specific markets like packaging and labels."

Reese said Prodigy will expand its portfolio with a variety of Dye Textile products, such as acid, reactive and dispersed Dye Textile, as well as pigment and Dye Sublimation Textiles. While the wood grain market is limited to wood laminate, Reese would not rule out direct-to-wood products in the future. To support this expansion, INX Digital has hired additional senior level chemists with a specific focus on the markets the company has strategically aligned itself with.

"We are currently involved in joint development projects with key print head companies that will allow us to market our products with proven and certified chemistries," Reese said. "On the equipment side, Prodigy is actively working with many integrators who are developing print machines to fill niche needs in the Industrial market. INX Digital and Prodigy are globally partnered with key influential technical and commercial entities; we have personnel and/or facilities covering essential areas of the world in the United States, Japan, China, Europe, India and South America. For 2011 and beyond, we are all in and fully committed to significant growth."

Bordeaux Digital PrintInk, a developer and provider of  inkjet inks for the graphic arts industry, today announced that it has added LFDP,  one of Italy's largest suppliers of wide-format digital printing solutions, as its newest distribution partner in Italy.

Under the agreement, LFDP will distribute Bordeaux's Mild-solvent and Eco-solvent inks compatible with Mimaki™ and Roland™  printers as well as, UV and UV-LED inks for wide and super-wide inkjet printers. All Bordeaux ink solutions are fully compatible with the print heads and ink delivery systems. The products are available in cartridges, bottles and Bordeaux bulk ink system bags, depending on the printer for simple ink changeover. LFDP will also provide customer and technical support for Bordeaux's solutions.

LFDP will introduce Bordeaux's latest ink solutions in March at the Medprint 2011 exhibition in Rome, 23 – 26 March (stand no. F19). The key focus will be on Bordeaux's highly successful Mix & Match solutions; developed to minimise waste and save money by eliminating the need to dispose of remaining OEM inks or create new ICC Profiles.  Bordeaux offers these inks in an extra wide colour gamut, having outstanding fade resistance.

"The Italian market is very promising and LFDP's connections and presence will help us expand our business in this market," said Dror Mualem, Bordeaux's VP Sales and Business Development. "While many of our customers initially converted to Bordeaux for the purpose of cost savings, many of them have quickly realised that our leading product lines like the PRMS family, the Mild Solvent inks and UV LED inks are very good alternatives, often preferred over OEM inks because of their outstanding quality and performance."

"Recognising the acute need expressed by printers worldwide to cut costs, Bordeaux has developed a wide range of innovative solutions for wide-format printers that successfully match original ink brands. This makes Bordeaux a natural fit to our existing range of affordable printing products and solutions," said Gianluca Pizzotti, Marketing Manager of LFDP.

Ink Technologies (UK) Ltd (ITL), the popular British manufacturer of after-market ink-jet inks, has announced that it has started the year with an overhaul of its brand and management team. The company name is now Digitl Ink Ltd, with former sales and marketing director Peter Williams moving into the role of managing director.
 
Digitl Ink says that its range of quality-matched alternative inks for small-, wide- and large-format printing applications remains the same, meaning that users will continue to benefit from significant performance advantages and cost savings compared with other solutions. The customer service initiative launched in 2010 will be central to the new company's operation.
 
"Digitl Ink was already the mainstay of our brand identity, so it was a logical transition to make it our name when we decided to reinitiate the company," explains Peter Williams, managing director. "We remain committed to providing consistent, high-quality alternative inks for all leading printer brands, to continuing production in Great Britain, and to offering the best customer service available in this sector."
 
The company's core products remain affordable, quality-matched inks for printers from Roland, Mimaki, Mutoh, Agfa, HP, Seiko and other manufacturers. Solvent, UV-curable and aqueous machine users can all gain from switching to Digitl Ink's consumables, many of which are available in both cartridge and bulk formats. The manufacturer is dedicated to leading innovation in ink technology, as exemplified by its release last year of its Versatile Textile and Vinyl (VTV) product, which enables production onto both fabric and film substrates without ink changeover.
 
All staff have kept their roles since the changeover to the new name, and Digitl Ink will continue to operate from the same premises in Cheadle Hulme, Manchester, UK.  Robin Titterington, formerly managing director of ITL, has left the company to pursue other ventures. "We wish Robin all the best as he moves on from ITL after a decade of commitment to the company, its team and our customers," continues Williams.
 
This year will also see Digitl Ink renovate its presence online, including an expansion into social media for both support and sales purposes.
 
Manufacturer and supplier of alternative small-, wide- and large-format digital ink-jet inks, Digitl Ink is headquartered in Cheshire, in the north of England. All manufacturing and product development takes place in the UK only. Its products span a multitude of applications, including eco- and full-solvent, water-based, UV-curable and coding inks.

INX International Ink Co. and INX Digital International Co. are optimistic about the combined Graphics of the Americas and FESPA Americas show in Orlando. With a number of traditional and digital products and solutions, visitors to booth #1323 will experience another dimension in the new era of today's digital printing world. The three-day show runs from February 24-26 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL.

"We are excited to participate and exhibit at FESPA Americas. INX Digital is supporting this show because it is well positioned to cater to all of the Latin American and North American markets we are involved with," said Ken Kisner, President of INX Digital International.

Kisner indicated the market is gravitating to INX's EVOLVE Advanced Digital Solutions and he's excited about the impending launch of the prodigy brand, which will be previewed at the show. He's also very keen on his company's TRIANGLE brand and figures this will be a pivotal year.

"The Latin American market is a strategic target for our TRIANGLE brand of alternative inks in 2011," Kisner remarked. "This is due in part to the extensive amount of political advertising that will be taking place in the next 12 months and requires shorter advertising cycles. TRIANGLE is well known as a high quality outdoor graphic ink. Combined with the significant amount of interest we are experiencing with our new textile products, we anticipate this FESPA Americas show to accelerate that interest even further."

INX introduced EVOLVE Advanced Digital Solutions to the market in 2010, leading the way for traditional printers and converters to evolve to digital printing with industrial inkjet systems. Digital technology provides operational flexibility for a host of manufacturing and niche capabilities including wide format, super-wide, narrow web, UV flatbed, pre-press and others. EVOLVE has a solution for everything from textiles, wall coverings and flooring to folding cartons, flexible packaging and cylindrical printing.

The dynamic CP100 UV cylindrical printer is one of these solutions. At the show it will produce decorative stainless steel water bottles using UV LED digital inks. Utilising Xaar™ patented through-flow technology, the cost-effective CP100 offers best in class performance and image quality for short-run production. The UV LED digital inks provide faster curing with short turnaround times, in addition to more colour options and consistent output with better adhesion on a large variety of substrates.

Also featured in Orlando this week will be INX Digital's prodigy UV LED-INX ink that will be run on a Human Digital XJet printer, and the global launch of PDQ. The TRIANGLE brand PDQ inks are multipurpose, high performance mild solvent pigmented inks that are ideal for super wide format colour printing systems.

With a wide colour gamut and great adhesion to multiple vinyl and banner stocks—including PVC-based substrates such as self adhesive vinyl (SAV) and banner prints—the PDQ four-colour CMYK inks offer stronger cyans, richer magentas, a jetter black and a true process yellow. True to the company's desire for producing more earth friendly products, PDQ inks are cycloxehanone free.

INX will also have a number of its traditional inks on display in the booth.

 

Because of the rapid increase in interest for high quality, sensibly priced inks, this year’s Sign & Digital UK sees Colorific taking a prominent position at the exhibition. With its broad range of after-market products, all of which are easy to use and promise colour fidelity and the highest quality, its existing series for popular solvent-based machines is being complemented by a new family of superwide-format formulations plus UV-curable alternatives.

Every ink throughout the Colorific series has been tested fully on every compatible printer model, so that there are no compromises or risk of poor performance when users make the transition to the company’s growing range of formulations. Working closely with leading and respected manufacturers, all products meet the highest standards and have been thoroughly field tested on different materials to ensure they meet full reliability, colour and quality criteria.

Colorific’s best known families of inks include products for Roland, Mimaki and Mutoh solvent-based printers, with many featuring mix and match capabilities so that transition from OEM formulations can be carried out on the fly. This means that users can simply carry out a like-for-like exchange without having to flush out or convert their machines.

Alternative ink formulations from Colorific include this popular Mix & Match Pro Series, plus a comprehensive series of eco-solvent products which have been designed to be totally safe for use in unventilated environments. These are complemented by Colorific’s Bio inks which are more than 90 percent biodegradable and compatible with most solvent-based printers with Epson’s popular DX3 and DX4 print-heads, thus covering many machines in use today.

With growing numbers of printer users now relying on Colorific inks for their eco-solvent and solvent-based wide-format machines, the company is responding to increased demand with additional product lines. These will cover superwide-format systems which are still in regular use, plus a new series of UV-curable inks for flat-bed and hybrid units.

The first of these additional market sectors covers the superwide-format arena where users of solvent-based systems such as the NUR Fresco, VUTEk UltraVu 3 and 5 m and Scitex Grandjet and XL-Jet still require reliable ink formulations at a sensible cost. With many older machines no longer covered by original manufacturers, extra benefits of changing to Colorific inks mean that change-over, service and maintenance can also be covered by associate specialist company, Tech8.

Similarly, users of flat-bed and hybrid UV-curable machines are finding ink prices are intolerably high and that, particularly with mature machines, lower cost options are becoming essential in order for businesses to maintain their margins. Again, upgrading to Colorific products removes the worries associated when moving away from original ink suppliers as Tech8 service and support is fully available.

At Sign & Digital UK Colorific will feature all of these ink products, sharing its stand with Tech8 which offers a fully independent support and service cover option for most printers in the field today. There will also be full information on the Colorific comprehensive product warranty and maintenance packages.

For further information on Colorific inks, visit their website at: www.colorificink.com

For further information on Sign and Digital UK 2011, or to register for tickets, visit the Sign and Digital UK 2011 website

Mutoh stays green in the digital signage market with its new MP ink.  Made up of 60 percent bio-based material, and containing no HAPs (hazardous air pollutants) or heavy metals, the ink is made to enhance the output of Mutoh’s ValueJet 1608HS-Hybrid.

Mutoh’s new ink produces a wider colour gamut with increased adhesive and abrasion characteristics. This durable outdoor ink is comprised of renewable resources which are created in state-of-the-art resin chemistry.

“Mutoh is pleased to offer an ink choice to meet the growing demand for environmentally responsible advertising campaigns,” shares Brian Phipps, General Manager of Mutoh America Inc. “Not only are we reducing our carbon footprint, but we are creating products that still give clear, vivid and beautiful prints for our customers.”

MP Ink offers high performance on vinyl, banner and a wide range of plastics. The new ink requires relatively low maintenance compared to competitive products.

The ValueJet 1608HS-Hybrid, is one of Mutoh’s most versatile printers that can create impeccable prints on both rigid and flexible substrates.

Included in the Hybrid is Mutoh’s SpectrovueVM-10 spectrophotometer, a high-resolution “digital prism” that converts visible light to a digital spectrum for on-printer color calibration. Mutoh’s new MP ink and ValueJet 1608HS-Hyrbid streamlines the entire colour management workflow, enhancing productivity, reducing labour time and media waste.