INX International Ink

John Hrdlick, COO for INX International Ink, has been chosen as the Printing Ink Pioneer Award recipient by the National Association of Printing Ink Manufacturers at NAPIM’s annual convention, which was held April 6-9 in Bonita Springs, FL.

SCHAUMBURG, Ill.—Sakata Inx worldwide operations announced an agreement with the ownership group of Czech Republic-based, Megaink Digital a.s., taking a majority interest in Megaink Digital a.s. The company will now offer customers a broad spectrum of digital ink products and services for wide- and super-wide-format printing as a member of INX Digital, the digital arm of INX International Ink Co. “We are delighted to join forces with an established, European-based leader in digital ink systems,” said INX International President and CEO Rick Clendenning. “Megaink Digital will strengthen our ability to service digital printing operations worldwide—particularly in rapidly growing areas such as Eastern Europe,

SCHAUMBURG, Ill.—Sakata Inx worldwide operations announced an agreement with the ownership group of Czech Republic-based, Megaink Digital a.s., taking a majority interest in Megaink Digital a.s. The company will offer customers a broad spectrum of digital ink products and services for wide and super-wide format printing as a member of INX Digital, the digital arm of INX International Ink Co. “We are delighted to join forces with an established, European-based leader in digital ink systems,” said INX International President and CEO Rick Clendenning. “Megaink Digital will strengthen our ability to service digital printing operations world-wide—particularly in rapidly growing areas such as Eastern Europe, as

Coatings are somewhat unsung heroes in the package-printing world. They provide many important functions, yet most people don’t even know they’re there. These people don’t care either—except that if the coatings weren’t there, they might not like the label or package as much, might even complain about it, or worse yet, might not buy the product. Whoa, Nellie! “Houston, We’ve got a problem.” “Iceberg dead ahead!” Now, we’ve got somebody’s heart pumpin’. Coatings to the rescue No, coatings can’t help much when it comes to world calamities, but if the heart that’s “pumpin’” happens to be a product manager, now we’re playing in

Package printing is not for the faint of heart. One needs to look no further than packaging ink systems to get an understanding of the complex nature of printed products for the packaging market. Inks can be water-based, solvent-based, or radiation-cured systems; they can be developed for specific processes such as offset, flexo, gravure, or screen; and can be compatible (or not compatible) with different coating, lamination, or adhesive systems. Some are designed for use with specific substrates, while others are applicable for a wide range of substrates. These are just the basic, top-level considerations. Beyond these, there are a multitude of functional,

With the use of shrink-sleeve labeling for product decoration growing at a double-digit rate, suppliers of shrink film inks are developing a steady stream of products to carve out a piece of the action. But in addition to the normal adhesion issues that are common with non-porous film applications, shrink inks have several other factors to contend with that make their development more challenging. Some of these issues include distortion (cracking, delamination, etc.), blocking, coefficient of friction (COF), and in food and beverage applications, low odor. Demanding applications Shrink labeling is growing in popularity because it offers brand managers at least two advantages. It