Spare a thought for ink manufacturers. With rising raw material costs, the only time they seem to get any attention is when they put their prices up. However, more and more printers are finding that they are relying on the ink makers’ products to produce innovative and creative print effects cost effectively. Special inks are slowly muscling in on the territory of top-end finishing.

This is down to the fact that companies are requesting added-value print produced to even tighter deadlines. And while added-value finishing certainly caters for the ‘wow’ factor, the turnaround times are sometimes not as impressive.
As a result, printers are increasingly looking to inks to deliver head-turning print effects without a negative impact on production speeds.

"As the economic downturn continues and consumers continue to keep their outgoings down, anything that can be used to make the visual communication industry more attractive is a must," says Tudor Morgan, European group marketing manager for graphics at ink manufacturer Fujifilm Sericol.

"As a way of adding value to print, it also lends itself to analogue rather than just digital production," he adds.
FujiFilm Sericol markets a range of special ink products, including metallic and fluorescent finishes, inks that create a magnetic-attractable surface, mirror finishes, high-build tactile varnishes and rub-removable colours.

Retail therapy
According to Daniel Pattison, group sales director at display specialist Augustus Martin, features like these are very attractive to print clients, especially retailers looking to encourage thrifty customers to part with their cash.

This view is backed up by research carried out by Point-of-Purchase Advertising International (POPAI), which claims that as much as 75% of consumers’ buying decisions are made in-store. 

"Brands are having to be more innovative in the way they attract the consumer eye as price promotions are not often enough and POS needs to work harder and work well. Our inks can be applied to standard print to add visual impact and engage with the senses – sight, touch and smell," says Pattison.

Augustus Martin developed these options in-house, through its R&D department for added-value ink effects. One product of this approach has been its disruptive inks offering. These inks use reflective light and luminescence to create twinkling or shimmering effects. Additionally, the company uses heat-sensitive inks to create pieces of print that react to changes in temperature. This was particularly effective when rolled out for Tesco’s Christmas campaign last year.

Director of stores marketing at Tesco Andrew Miles says: "The POS was really noticeable and clearly defined the premium values of our Finest range."

The process was used on more than 500,000 individual POS elements across shelves, ceilings and store entrances. During the period, sales jumped 10% to a three-year high.

While Augustus Martin may have opted for the home-grown approach, there are plenty of off-the-shelf options available to printers without the nouse or desire to create their own. As mentioned, Fujifilm Sericol has a number of products, while Mimaki, represented in the UK by supplier Hybrid Services, also offers products in this area. Mimaki’s current portfolio includes clear, white and metallic options.

According to Hybrid Services marketing manager Duncan Jeffries, metallic inks have proved a big draw for printers running Mimaki equipment. Within the outdoor durable market, the take-up from Mimaki customers for the eco-solvent metallic ink has been greatest in the speciality printing sector, where Jeffries says the additional costs of running the inks are readily offset by the higher value end product.

"Be it high-quality bespoke labels or imagery for a brand where a metallic colour features in their corporate palette, the advantages of running a metallic ink within the standard digital printing process are substantial and print finishing, such as applying an over laminate, is no more complex than that for a standard four-colour job," he adds.

Clear advances
The company has also experienced a growing demand for its clear UV ink, which it has now had on the market for several years. "The clear ink can deliver both matt and gloss finishes, dependent upon how it is cured. Able to be output by the printer as a feature in its own right, it is ideal for use as a texture layer, design detail or even Braille," says Jeffries.

Fujifilm’s Morgan is also a firm believer that innovative printers are capitalising on ink development to produce stand-out results on a variety of applications.

"Those customers that have looked to combine these technologies have produced excellent results and, while set-up is more complicated, these users can certainly add greater value to the finished print and therefore command a premium. The latest novelty effect seen with UV inkjet, spot varnish, is one example of where the value of a ‘combination’ print has promoted the development of inkjet solution."
However, while the success of these campaigns is not in doubt, Tim Phillips, marketing manager at industrial inkjet manufacturer Xennia has some food for thought for digital print providers planning to investigate the special inks arena.
"The price of special inks varies," he reveals. "Spot colours and clear coats for example are similar in price to standard inks while metallics are a little higher. Some of the functional inks in future may be more expensive – it is really down to the raw materials and the quantity in which they are purchased and then sold as inks."

Pattison argues though that many of the company’s special effects can’t be created using foiling and embossing or by utilising foiled materials so in that respect, it is not viable to compare possibly cheaper finishing effects with inks.

"Quite simply, our inks produce a piece of print that would be unachievable by post-press finishes," he says.
He adds that its ink finishes can be printed on to sheet sizes of up to 3,200x1,600mm, which is critical for the large print products required by the POS sector and is not easily achieved using standard foiling and embossing.

"Where the required finish is achievable with standard processes, we still find that cost and manufacturing constraint normally favour our approach," says Pattison. "The application of our inks is also an integral part of our printing process and is very accurately applied using a press that gives us more precision and control than could be achieved in a classic finishing process."

While the dust continues to settle from another successful summer of European print tradeshows, much of the focus has inevitably fallen on technological advancements in capital equipment.

However, as many will know, advertisers and marketers will already be well on their way with campaigns for Hallowe’en, Bonfire Night and, of course, Christmas. Therefore there is surely no better time of year to be investigating the special inks and finishes available and the value they can add to the printed product.

THREE INK OPTIONS
Augustus Martin Sensory inks
Sensory inks have been created to increase the viewer’s interaction or dwell time with a piece of print. These inks attempt to engage senses other than just sight, such as touch and smell, which Daniel Pattison, group sales director, claims encourage the viewer to play with the ink. Options include high-build and ‘fizz’ varnishes that are raised above the surface of the print and feel like embossing or Braille with the added option of a textured surface.

The company can also produce rubberised and stone finishes which reproduce the feel of these materials. Alternatively, ‘scratch and sniff’ inks can be made using whatever scent is desired – "If it’s in a bottle we can reproduce it on paper," says Pattison.

"Allowing viewers to interact and play with the print can double and even triple the time spent with a printed item. We have seen some pieces being kept to show friends and had requests for more copies," he says.

Scodix Sense
Scodix will be showing its new Sense technology for the first time at Graph Expo later this year. This system uses a Scodix 1200 high-end inkjet production machine printing a clear polymer to create matt or gloss effects applied in thicknesses up to 70 microns. Sense can be used on substrates of between 150 and 350gsm, such as business cards, greetings cards, book covers, direct mail and marketing collateral.
A fully digital process, variable data can be used to generate specific and personalized tactile features to differentiate a wide range of printed products.
"Currently print enhancement is a post-press analogue process. It is Scodix’s mission to move a number of print enhancements into the digital arena with all the obvious benefits associated with that, such as smaller runs, variable data, cost of entry and quality," says Tony Newton, digital solutions sales director at Image2Output, which supplied the Scodix 1200 press.

Sun Chemical SunInspire Lustre
Sun Chemical has placed great emphasis on its packaging inks and effects and says packaging is "a primary communication tool and a key part of the marketing strategy brand owners adopt to drive sales".

The company claims its special effects, such as SunInspire Lustre, provide "the shimmering, colour change effect" required by a wide range of packaged goods providers. The range spans pearlescent to gloss effects and from frosted to iridescent.

According to Barry Ferne, marketing and business development manager at Sun Chemical, the inks effect is possible using both solvent- and water-based flexo and gravure print technology and on a range of substrates that include paper, board, film and metal foils.

Options available in the lustre range include Smooth White Pearlescent, Bronze Smooth Lustre Pearlescent, Blue Interference Pearlescent and Violet Iridescent Pearlescent.