The flexo ink market.

Flexo ink manufacturers reported that 2007 was a good year, as the industry enjoyed continued growth in packaging.

"The flexo market did well in 2007," said Michael Impastato, vice president business development, Packaging Division, North America for Flint Group. "Flexo grew at a rate similar to the market, not significantly gaining, or losing, share to the other printing applications. Flexo is a very strong competitor in the North American marketplace. While gravure may dominate some forms of packaging in other parts of the world, flexo is the main form of printing for most packaging in North America. We don't see this as changing any time soon."

George Sickinger, chairman, president and CEO of Color Resolutions International (CRI), said that CRI enjoyed growth in 2007, as did the vast majority of its customers."However, the main concern has been and continues to be rising costs," Mr. Sickinger added.

Kenneth Keathley, Environmental Inks & Coatings' director of marketing, said the flexo market was challenging, but there were some bright spots, particularly in UV.

"We made some headway in the UV flexo market," Mr. Keathley said. "We've noticed that the niche markets such as security and metallics are growing much faster than the conventional segments. We anticipate that 2008 will be a good year to launch new products."

David Callif, president of BCM Inks U.S.A., has seen good opportunities emerge in Latin America.

"We feel very good about the Latin American market," said Mr. Callif. "We've seen growth there, but the U.S. market is stagnant at best. We're seeing growth in Central and South America, where there is investment in new plants and equipment."

Flexo Inks and The Environment

There is little doubt that interest in sustainability and the environment are becoming very important drivers in the market, and packaging is among the areas drawing scrutiny.

Mr. Sickinger believes that the sustainability movement will be the impetus for change.

"Sustainability is good for the environment and can result in lowering energy costs and conserving a lot of natural resources," Mr. Sickinger said. "It is the patriotic thing to do given our current energy crisis and has little downside. Sustainability is one of our core values; we have a Sustainability Action Plan and we will be keeping an annual score card of our progress.

"Solvent-based flexo inks have had the best growth rate for years," Mr. Sickinger said. "I believe this will begin to change in favor of water-based and UV inks. Both offer sustainability advantages, and I believe we will see the growth of mid to narrow web presses because of their quick change capability and the shortening of press runs, and water-based and UV formulations will be the chemistries of choice.

"Water-based inks in time will have much higher plant-based resin content and will become the new water-base formulation standard," Mr. Sickinger added. "I'm not referring to soy oil. The technology will go far beyond this and offer superior performance as well. UV inks require less energy to dry and ink waste is minimal, especially if process colors are mainly used. Also, print quality is enhanced as well. However, formulation will need to be made safer for food packaging."

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As its name indicates, Environmental Inks and Coatings emphasizes water- and UV-based technologies, and they are well positioned to provide environmentally-friendly solutions to customers.

"We are seeing more of an interest in shifting toward waterbased technologies," Mr. Keathley said. "Customers are more aware of the 'green' push, and they want more information."

Mr. Impastato noted that environmental issues have impacted inks in the past, and noted that water-based inks also have petrochemical-based ingredients.

"We saw a significant move from solvent-based inks to water-based inks when the Clean Air Act first went into effect years ago," Mr. Impastato said. "Since then, most applications which could utilize water inks have moved to water ink technology. Further moves to water technology are limited due to performance issues with water technology, therefore, I don't see any significant additional movement in that direction.

"It's true that water inks may appear to be more 'green,' but the truth of the matter is, other than the water, all the other ingredients in water inks are petrochemical-based," Mr. Impastato added. "Once this is understood, most people will not see enough of a green advantage to water inks to expend resources and risk performance problems by making a move to water technology.

"This doesn't mean water inks are deficient in performance in general," Mr. Impastato noted. "There are many applications where water inks work well and can provide a high level of performance and improved sustainability. We just need to understand the fit and make sure we are using the most appropriate technology. We may see that as solvent and energy continue to increase in cost, there will be some printers who may look at water inks due to cost reasons. Radiation-cured inks will continue to grow share, taking some volume from both water and solvent inks."

New Press Technologies

One of the key drivers for flexo's growth is the improvement in productivity.

"The most significant development in flexo is speed," Mr. Impastato noted. "The new presses being installed can run at much higher speeds than flexo presses installed just a few years ago. We see presses which will run at well over 2000 fpm. It was only a few years ago when printers said they were printing at high speed, they meant 1300 fpm. The new presses allow productivity gains that make older presses obsolete and could put them at a competitive disadvantage."

Mr. Keathley noted that press improvements are helping to drive growth in flexo. "We have seen press technology improve, to the point where press operators are running inks that aren't as press specific as they used to be," Mr. Keathley noted.

Mr. Sickinger said that flexographic print quality can now rival the other processes and enjoys some cost advantages, so it seems only natural that flexo should outpace the oth ers. "Quick change features and the flexibility to run different chemistries (water and UV), and, perhaps, include digital and rotary screen, allows the flexo press platform to offer the packaging printer and his customers almost limitless options to produce packaging that will command the consumer's attention," Mr. Sickinger said. "Ink companies will need to focus much more technical expertise at the customer interface to deal with the great complexity."

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All in all, Mr. Impastato sees excellent opportunities for flexo in the coming years as consistency continues to improve.

"As flexo standardizes its process and makes high quality graphics a more predictable outcome, it will take share from gravure and potentially from litho," Mr. Impastato said. "There is great upside for flexo print, but only if we can improve predictability and consistency. Flexo must eliminate some of the variability we see during the run to compete effectively with gravure. We need to change the mentality from 'this is a great flexo print' to a mentality of'this is a great print.' To make the next jump in share, flexo printers need to compete with the other print applications, not each other."

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For more coverage on flexo inks, including new products and the outlook for flexo, see the online version of this story at www.inkworldmagazine.com.

David Savastano

Editor