FESPA 2017, an innovation showcase for screen and digital printers to take place this May in Germany. Sun Chemical will demonstrate its capabilities and expertise within four zones: Digital Textiles, Graphics, Industrial, and Partnerships and Technology.

Highlights at the exhibition stand include: the global launch of FasciaCoat, the company’s new hardcoat varnish for dashboard fascia, which, along with an addition to the SunHytek range of products for high-tech appliance panels and automotive applications, is an aqueous, formable and VOC-free hard varnish that dries to a matte finish; and is designed to minimise glare. The new varnish is also said to hold the ability to ‘self-heal’ scratches created during the production process.

For digital textiles, Sun will present its range of four SunTex textile inkjet inks that are optimised for Epson print-heads. These inks are specifically formulated to enable high-speed and long print runs and are said to offer improve ink consumption.

From the same range, SunTex Sonata DTE, is a transfer dye sublimation ink series for printing polyester sport garments. This ink has been awarded the Oeko-Tex EcoPass and enables printers to achieve the Oeko-Tex 100 printed garment certification.

SunTex Sonata DDE is a dye sublimation ink developed to meet the key requirements of direct print to polyester fabrics, delivering excellent ‘show-through’ properties for double-sided output such as flags and banners. SunTex Sonata DDE is also claimed to offer excellent wash and bleed fastness, a critical feature for outdoor printed fabric applications.

Furthermore, Sun will showcase its innovative SunTex Encore PDE pigment ink, which Sun says is formulated to deliver improved colour vibrancy, while maintaining excellent wash and wet-rub resistance. Sun also claims Encore PDE can be printed directly onto both natural and synthetic textile fabrics, such as cotton, viscose, silk and polycotton, which are widely used for interior decoration and home furnishing.

Completing this range is SunTex Concerto RDE, a reactive dye ink series for colour vibrancy when printing directly to fabrics, such as silk and cotton, while maintaining the soft 'feel' or 'hand', a key requirement for clothing garments.

There will also be print demonstrations at the stand, which will demonstrate the performance of Sonata DTE inks. The printer will also showcase the latest Ecoproisu ink pouch system, which is developed to enable extended running and greater economy.

To support the screen printing graphics market, technical staff will be on hand to discuss the SunPromo range of inks for a wide range of screen graphic applications. Sun’s Streamline range of solvent-based, alternative inkjet inks, which are designed for wide and super wide format printers, will also be on display. As will Streamline ESL 3, which is said to be suitable for the wide format market, as it is a fully colour-matched and compatible ink series to the latest Roland Eco Sol Max 3 ink series?

Streamline ESL 3 is the latest product formulated from Sun regarded HPQ-LO (High Print Quality - Low Odour) backbone ink chemistry platform, the first alternative solvent ink platform to achieve the Greenguard and Greenguard Gold certification for indoor emissions. The Streamline ESL (Roland), Ultima (Mimaki). MUTLO (Mutoh) and SGX (Epson) ink ranges are fully Greenguard Gold certified.

For large format graphic printers who produce billboards that are frequently replaced, Streamline offers the option to use the Streamline Rapide Magenta and Yellow SWF solvent inks. These inks are used for display prints, such as movie posters at cinemas, which are replaced within a year.

The Streamline Rapide series is available for most super wide format Streamline ranges and offers cost-effective alternatives for environments where premium performance is required, but where outdoor durability extended is not needed.

Sun’s industrial products include: SunHytek– heat and humidity-resistant ink solutions (including FasciaCoat, a new hardcoat varnish for dashboard fascia) for high-tech, appliance panel and automotive applications, where a combination of high visual impact and long-term durability is required.

SunCarte – high peel strength, colour consistent screen and offset inks, adhesives and varnishes for laminated plastic cards.

SunPoly – screen inks formulated for high-speed screen printing on a variety of container substrates.

SunJet, the global inkjet division of Sun Chemical, will highlight the capabilities of its joint development projects with OEM partners, system integrators and printhead manufacturers through the presentation of its latest breakthrough ink chemistries and digital technologies for a broad range of market sectors including: graphics, décor, textile, industrial and packaging.

SunJet will also present Aquacure, its next-generation functional aqueous inkjet ink. This is new ink chemistry, which combines water-based and UV curing ink technology, to deliver performance and production benefits; and provides a development platform upon which new inks can be introduced to meet the future needs of the expanding wide format graphics sector. In addition, Aquacure presents a reduced health, safety and environmental profile through its composition of up to 80 per cent water and low odour properties.

A further aspect of the display will be the SunTronic range of advanced materials for printed electronic applications. These include smart packaging solutions, such as printed antennae, which add functionality to packaging, labels or point of sale collateral by allowing it to interact with smart phones phone through NFC or RFID. In addition, Sun will demonstrate its smart packaging solution Touchcode, which is a series of printed conductors embedded in cards, labels and packaging that interact with touchscreen enabled devices, smartphones and tablets.

A further highlight will be Sun’s nanosilver ink, which has been designed for use with industry leading inkjet and aerosol jet systems in printed electronics. The nanosilver inks deliver low temperature sintering properties and superior jetting performance, and are compatible with most commercial and industrial printheads.

SunJet will also be showing DIC’s proprietary Separel hollow fibre membrane technology for the degassing (removal of dissolved gasses) of inkjet ink, resulting in consistently smooth printing, reduced substrate and ink waste. As well as shortened printer cleaning times and lower printer cleaning costs. The hollow fibre membranes are said to significantly reduce inkjet ink evaporation during degasification and can degasify inkjet ink at any parts per billion (ppb) level.

Sun Chemical is a member of the DIC group and a producer of printing inks, coatings and supplies, pigments, polymers, liquid compounds, solid compounds, and application materials. Together with DIC, it has combined annual sales of more than US$7.5 billion and over 20,000 employees located at 176 subsidiaries across 63 countries. Sun also has 17 R&D centres. Sun Chemical can be found in Hall B5, Stand D20.

FESPA 2017, to be held from 8-12 May, in Hamburg, Germany.