Bordeaux Digital Print Ink Ltd. is a leading manufacturer and marketer of quality inks for the wide format industry and is exhibiting at Grafima 2008. Together with Everest, Bordeaux is expanding large format ink offerings to Serbian customers with its own  top quality compatible ink solutions.

Bordeaux and Everest will launch promotional, sales and support activities, introducting Bordeaux’s advanced ink product lines including a variety of Solvent, Eco and Light Solvents, HAP free Organic Inks, Water and Oil based inks as well as UV curable inks. The Serbian Large Format print industry is already familiar with Bordeaux’s commitment to quality, innovation and service and can enjoy the reliable on-going support for all Bordeaux products, from Everest. The Prime PrJ3 Solvent-Based Inks and perfectly designed for the Mimaki JV3 and Roland SJ Solvent Printers.

Bordeaux has taken an unprecedented step by improving on a best-selling formula that already has proven itself to be a workhorse. The Prime PeNr ECO Inks are a high quality economic solution for the Roland Soljet Pro and the VersusCAMM. It eliminates the need for Profiling or Flushing and is a unique quality Mix and Match solution that enables “hot swapping.” The Plasma Series ink is a proprietary ink for UV-based printers. It offers practically instant drying and long-term outdoor durability. Bordeaux is an industry pioneer in the market of environmentally friendly inks and is proud to present its organic-based Prime Green series.

Triangle Digital INX Co. (TDI) has partnered with LED curing specialist Summit UV in developing EVOLVE UV, a the first UV LED-curing ink to deliver 4-color with single-pass through-cure at speeds of 80 feet per minute or higher, all with no inert curing atmosphere.

TDI has been working with LED-cure inks for awhile but at slower speeds. They key to this technology succeeding is formulating EVOLVE UV to work with Summit UV’s unique, new LED which has the ideal UV wavelength and ample power. This allows Summit UV, along with TDI’s specially designed EVOLVE UV ink set to achieve through cure at far faster speeds than before.

TDI is breaking barriers to digital printing in short-run narrow web label printing and variable-data applications. They are able to get single-pass UV through cure in-line with one LED light at 80 feet per minute at more than triple previous speeds. They also have the ability to tailor EVOLVE UV inks for any substitute, including plastics, film, paper, and metal or certain textiles. They are integrating technologies to provide high-speed printing at low cost with faster start-ups and turnaround with no plates, clean-up or set-up time.

Canson International has introduced a new range of digital inkjet media technology that promises to address the demands of Fine Art and Photo enthusiasts wanting to create reproductions. Canson is the worldwide leader in Fine Art paper making and manufacturing since 1557. Their paper has been used by such famous artists as Picasso, Warhol, and Goya.

Fourteen new Canson Infinity media products offer a choice of four different surface structures: smooth surface, ultra smooth surface, textured surface, and canvas. The Infinity range has unique coating properties engineered to allow optimum color and ensure maximum resistance to aging. The products also offer a superior level of detail and clarity designed to impress the most demanding artists.

The range has been tested and developed with a new process that enables, what the company boasts, as un-rivaled whiteness using Optical Brightening Agents on many of their papers. This technology is intended to address concerns of museum managers, art and photo collectors. The new Canson Infinity Range allows the company to maintain its innovative edge and centuries of paper-making expertise with the most advanced digital printing technologies.

Despite a desire to use environmentally friendly inks, companies do not want to pay much more for them. A price had to be set at the same level as those of petrochemical-based inks. So, vegetable oils derived from GM crops had to be used because a GM strain can be produced faster and with less disease and is more weather-resistant. This keeps its price-per-ton affordable. As a result, it is rare that any printing inks on the market are not based on oils that are partly GM originated.

The same GM ingredients that are in commercial offset inks are also in offset inks for the packaging industry. However, the raw materials that are bought to make the inks do contain genetically-modified elements, but the resultant inks, once manufactured, do not have any GM content. It is the high-temperature process that neutralizes the GM content.

It seems unlikely that printing inks can be bought without GM content. It can be done but the process is complicated and expensive.

The environment has now become one of the most important issues for almost United Kingdom print buyer but the dilemma they are faced with is how much do they buy into it? Some print buyers are taking a cautious route by going after achievable goals and then pursuing one or two more difficult objectives that are important to their company. For example, some companies try to make their print supply chain more environmentally friendly. Another example is the outsourcing of 100% post-consumer recycled paper from France or using printers based on their environmental performance.

To that end, some companies even make sure that the components that make up the inks that they use are eco-friendly. However, only 50% of the inks used in the UK could be labeled as such. Recently, most ink manufacturers are going the vegetable oil route because it is much better and because petrochemical oils are running out causing a rise in prices. Vegetable oil does have its advantages. Vegetable-oil based inks give better rub-resistance but the setting speeds are slower than mineral-oil based inks.