Sun Chemical Corp.

Judgement Day for the Excellence Awards contest is a special day at the offices of packagePRINTING. This year's contest brought in a total of 82 awards, including 28 first-place awards and the Best of Show. packagePRINTING's 2009 Best of Show honors went to All Stick Label's (ASL, www.allsticklabel.com) "Panama Jack's French Vanilla Cream" entry.

PARSIPPANY, N.J.—Sun Chemical has signed an asset purchase agreement with Graphic Packaging International, Inc., a subsidiary of Graphic Packaging Holding Company, to purchase certain assets and liabilities of Handschy inks, coatings and varnishes business. Handschy is a Graphic Packaging partner. Handschy’s customer lists, formulations and trademarks are included in the agreement.

Graphic Packaging International, Inc., a subsidiary of Graphic Packaging Holding Company, announced that it has entered into an agreement to divest certain assets and liabilities of the Handschy inks coatings and varnishes business to Sun Chemical. The parties plan to close on the transaction at an undetermined date.

Round up of the latest offerings in UV inks and coatings for enhancing durability and high-end graphics.

PHILADELPHIA—A gathering of major equipment and materials companies that are leading development efforts for sustainable packaging for food and consumer products will take place in conjunction with Earth Day 2009 celebrations, Wednesday, April 22. Hosting the daylong converting demonstrations for North American packaging converters and product marketers are specialty materials company Rohm and Haas, along with Nordmeccanica NA, a manufacturer of coating and laminating equipment. Demonstrations will take place at Nordmeccanica’s Long Island facility.

NEW YORK—New York University today named Vyomesh (VJ) Joshi, executive vice president of the Imaging and Printing Group at HP, the winner of the 2009 Prism Award.

PARSIPPANY, NJ—Brian Leen, president of North American Inks at Sun Chemical, announced the appointment of key leaders responsible for the growth and sales of the company’s newly reorganized North American business unit North American Inks has adopted a structure that will provide greater focus on delivering quality, service, and innovation to customers and improve business efficiencies.   Chris Parrilli has been named vice president of customer service centers in Sun Chemical’s North American Inks business unit.

ROSEMONT, Ill.—Despite the current unstable economic situation, Labelexpo Americas—which took place in Rosemont, Ill., Sept. 9-11—still saw a good turnout, with numbers exceeding 12,000. By the end of the show, more than 80 percent of the exhibition space had already been rebooked for Labelexpo Americas 2010. The show saw 420 national and international suppliers bringing their latest developments in technology and materials to demonstrate to the North American market. There were many new presses launched by market leaders: Nilpeter introduced its new FG-line of UV flexo presses; Mark Andy unveiled the Comco C1 ProGlide and demonstrated its updated XP5000 shaftless press. EFI Jetrion

Labelexpo Americas 2008 should have left little doubt in attendees’ minds that digital printing has made major inroads in the package-printing market. This influx is not necessarily representative of other print processes losing market share. Rather, digital printing’s emergence can be attributed to changes in brand owner preferences for shorter runs and the recent surge in regional packaging. Ken Stack, vice president/general manager of EFI Jetrion, stated in his presentation at Labelexpo that four factors are driving label printers toward digital printing: targeted marketing, localization, time to market, and the supply chain. All four factors cause brand owners to migrate toward shorter print runs.

More than 20 years before “sustainability” became the buzz word it is today, Flower City Printing (FCP) was already rethinking the inks it was using in its pressroom. In 1985, Executive Vice President Bill Oliveri began replacing petroleum-based inks with vegetable-based inks, as well as eliminating alcohol in press fountain solutions. “Inks made from renewable resources were already in existence, but mainly used for newspaper production,” Oliveri reflects. “FCP was one of the first printers to experiment with vegetable-based inks for the offset sheetfed industry. Switching to vegetable-based inks [resulted in] a reduction in VOCs (volatile organic compounds), less ink [required] in the