Under the umbrella theme of “Brighter Ideas,” Sun Chemical will present its portfolio of world-class inks for screen, industrial and inkjet printing and for printed at FESPA 2017 in Hamburg, Germany on May 8-12.
 
Stand highlights will include the global launch of FasciaCoat, Sun Chemical’s new hardcoat varnish for dashboard fascia and an addition to the SunHytek range of products for high-tech, appliance panel and automotive applications. Aqueous, formable and VOC-free, FasciaCoat is a hard varnish that dries to a matte finish, minimizing glare, and that has the ability to ‘self-heal’ scratches created during the production process.
 
Highlighting the depth and breadth of its solutions as one of the world’s largest producers of screen inks and a single source for all ink requirements, Sun Chemical will be demonstrating its capabilities and expertise within four zones on the stand: Digital Textiles, Graphics, Industrial, and Partnerships & Technology.
 
Sun Chemical will present its range of four SunTex textile inkjet inks optimized for Epson printheads. Delivering improved ink consumption when compared to leading competitors, SunTex inks are specifically formulated to enable high-speed and long print runs.
 
Included in the product range is SunTex Sonata DTE, a transfer dye sublimation ink series for printing polyester sport garments. This ink has been awarded the Oeko-Tex EcoPass, enabling printers to achieve the Oeko-Tex 100 printed garment certification.
 
Also part of the range is SunTex Sonata DDE, a dye sublimation ink developed to meet the key requirements of direct print to polyester fabrics, such as flags and banners, where strong colors, high ‘print-through’ to deliver color reproduction on the reverse side of the fabric as required for double-sided flags.
 
Sun Chemical will also be presenting its SunTex Encore PDE pigment ink. Encore PDE is the result of many years of R&D and is formulated to deliver improved color vibrancy, while maintaining excellent wash and wet-rub resistance. Encore PDE can be printed directly onto both natural and synthetic textile fabrics, such as cotton, viscose, silk and polycotton, which are widely used for interior decoration and home furnishing.
 
Completing the range is SunTex Concerto RDE, a reactive dye ink series that delivers excellent color vibrancy when printing directly to fabrics, such as silk and cotton, while maintaining the soft ‘feel’ or ‘hand’, a key requirement for clothing garments.
 
At FESPA 2017, Sun Chemical will show the SunPromo range of inks for screen graphic applications. Sun Chemical will also highlight its Streamline range of solvent-based, alternative inkjet inks, designed for wide and super wide format printers. For the wide format market, Sun Chemical will be presenting Streamline ESL 3, a fully color-matched and compatible ink series to the latest Roland Eco Sol Max 3 ink series.
 
Streamline ESL 3 is the latest product formulated from Sun Chemical’s highly successful HPQ-LO (High Print Quality - Low Odor) backbone ink chemistry platform, the first alternative solvent ink platform to achieve the Greenguard & Greenguard Gold certification for indoor emissions. The Streamline ESL (Roland), Ultima (Mimaki). MUTLO (Mutoh) and SGX (Epson) ink ranges are fully Greenguard Gold certified.
 
Sun Chemical continues its commitment to the Super Wide Format (SWF) solvent inkjet market with further improvements to reduce customer ink consumption costs.
 
For the many large format graphic printers who produce billboards that are frequently replaced, Streamline offers the option to use the Streamline Rapide Magenta and Yellow SWF solvent inks.
 
On display in the Industrial zone will be a range of Sun Chemical’s industrial products including SunHytek heat and humidity-resistant ink solutions (including FasciaCoat) for high-tech, appliance panel and automotive applications, where a combination of high visual impact and long-term durability is required,
 
SunCarte are high peel strength, color consistent screen and offset inks, adhesives and varnishes for laminated plastic cards. SunPoly screen inks are formulated for high-speed screen printing on a variety of container substrates.
 
In the Partnerships & Technology zone, SunJet, the global inkjet division of Sun Chemical, will highlight the capabilities of its joint development projects with OEM partners, system integrators and printhead manufacturers through the presentation of its latest breakthrough ink chemistries and digital technologies for a broad range of market sectors including: graphics, décor, textile, industrial and packaging.
 
SunJet will be showcasing Aquacure, its next-generation functional aqueous inkjet ink. This ink chemistry, which combines the best of water-based and UV curing ink technology, delivers performance and production benefits and provides a development platform upon which new inks can be introduced to meet the future needs of the expanding wide format graphics sector. In addition, through its unique composition of up to 80% water and low odor properties, Aquacure presents a reduced health, safety and environmental profile, significantly reducing hazard labelling compared to current solvent and UV chemistry.
 
Also on display will be the SunTronic range of advanced materials for printed electronic applications, including smart packaging solutions, such as printed antennae, which add functionality to packaging, labels or point of sale collateral by allowing it to interact with a phone through NFC or RFID.
 
In addition, Sun Chemical will also be demonstrating its smart packaging solution Touchcode, a series of printed conductors embedded in cards, labels and packaging that interact with touchscreen enabled devices, smartphones and tablets. More cost-effective than NFC or RFID and invisible unlike barcodes or QR codes, the technology effectively ensures brand authenticity as well as brand awareness and stronger promotions.
 
A further highlight will be Sun Chemical’s nanosilver ink, which has been designed for use with industry leading inkjet and aerosol jet systems in printed electronics. Sun Chemical’s nanosilver inks deliver the industry’s best performing low temperature sintering properties and the unique chemistry offers long open life, superior jetting performance and compatibility with most commercial and industrial printheads. With Sun Chemical’s nanosilver inks, it now becomes possible to work with one nanosilver from prototype to production.
 
SunJet will also be showing DIC’s proprietary SEPAREL hollow fiber membrane technology for the degassing (removal of dissolved gasses) of inkjet ink, resulting in consistently smooth printing, reduced substrate and ink waste, shortened printer cleaning times and lower printer cleaning costs.