Toyo Ink Arets Upgrades UV Flexo Ink for Enhanced Safety

Toyo Ink Arets, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Toyo Ink Group, recently introduced Steraflex, an expanded product lineup of UV flexo inks for label and packaging applications. Now available in two grades—Steraflex and low migration Steraflex FOOD—it provides a complete range of process inks, opaque white and mixing bases to meet the growing global demand for UV flexo solutions. Both inks are designed for use on high-speed flexo presses, providing high speeds, efficiency and economy to flexo printing operations.

Steraflex’s advanced material design allows flexo printers to better leverage the capabilities of high-resolution anilox rolls that require inks of superior fluidity, stability and color intensity. The product delivers superb ink transfer from the high-resolution anilox and excellent lay-down on a wide variety of substrates, resulting in a more vibrant and true-to-life image quality that can rival offset print for labels.

Steraflex’s high-speed curing ability and good adhesion characteristics make it the ideal solution for a wide range of applications including self-adhesive labels and tags, shrink sleeves, flexible packaging and cartons.

Steraflex FOOD for Safe Packaging

New to this year’s lineup is Steraflex FOOD, a UV flexo ink system that exhibits low migration and low odor properties. It is specially formulated to help food label printers and packaging converters achieve desired print performance results while respecting EuPIA guidelines and materials migration limits listed in the Swiss Ordinance.

Based on a low migration polymeric photoinitiator system with minimized use of small molecules, Steraflex FOOD is not only safe for food packaging but also exhibits excellent flow, stability and imaging capabilities. It is ideal for primary food packaging, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and other sensitive applications where high quality print and low migration potential are imperative.

“Recently, ensuring food safety and hygiene has been a priority topic as food packaging converters and brand owners are becoming increasingly aware of environmental health and food safety concerns,” said You Yabe, president of Toyo Ink Arets. “At Toyo Ink Arets, we understand the industry’s need to address environmental and potential chemical migration risks in the packaging structure of consumer products. Steraflex FOOD has been developed to help address these challenges, allowing very low odor and migration levels while offering the highest print quality possible.”

Both Steraflex and Steraflex FOOD are formulated without ITX, Benzophenone and VOCs, making them an environmentally-friendly choice for today’s pressroom.  These products, manufactured at Toyo Ink Arets’ state-of-the-art facility in Europe, are now available globally.

Source: Toyo Ink Group.