Coatings are used to provide product and packaging protection and enhancements in countless ways.

By Tom Polischuk

Siegwerk Ink Packaging also offers all three primary coating technologies. Kent Shah, technical advisor, acknowledges the benefits that each can provide in packaging applications.

Water-based systems can be applied to meet different application needs, he says, such as gloss enhancement, high heat resistance, slip properties, or scratch resistance. “The water-based varnishes are primarily used for porous substrates with limited application for foil and films,” he notes.