"For years the digital market wasn't big enough to develop metallic inkjet inks," said Eckart's Colin Appleyard.

"Two-and-a-half years ago we decided the market was ready, so we carried out a study and found that we could manufacture a metallic flake that could be jetted."

The specialist pigment firm has developed metallic silver inks for both solvent and UV-cured applications. At the show, the firm showed a Mimaki JV3 160 printing CMYK plus silver.

Also on the company's stand was a narrow web press, supplied by UK manufacturer JF Machines, using Xaar's latest 1001 printheads to apply UV-cured metallics.

Eckart is about to start production of a solvent ink, which is expected to be launched by an unnamed wide-format inkjet supplier before the end of the third quarter of this year.

The UV ink is soon to enter beta trails, but is already attracting interest for packaging applications, many of which have resisted a move to digital production due to the need to use metallic effects.