SIT was the inks wing of Sensient Technologies and makes a range of high-performance inkjet inks, including water-based sublimation, pigmented, reactive dye, and acid dye inks for textile applications.

The deal, the terms of which were not disclosed, was signed last month.

“We are delighted to welcome the employees of SIT to the Sun Chemical family and we are excited about the prospects of combining our offerings in digital technology, capability, products and services to the valued customers and distribution and technology partners of the Sensient inks business and Sun Chemical,” said Sun Chemical global director, Digital Business, Peter Saunders.

In a statement, Sun said it believed that post-Covid industry landscape was would accelerate digital and inket migration in many markets, including fast fashion and packaging, and that the SIT deal combined with other strategic organic investments would put the group in a strong position to seize the digital opportunities.

SIT manufactures inks for a wide range of applications, from textiles, to corrugated packaging and display graphics. Its edible inks are used for printing onto sweets, cakes, and pharmaceutical pills and capsules.

Its brand names are ElvaJet, Xennia and SensiJet and the inks work with a range of printheads including Fujifilm Dimatix, Epson, Ricoh, Konica Minolta, Kyocera and Xaar.

Sun Chemical is the world’s biggest ink maker with sales of more than $7.5bn (£5.95bn) and 20,000 employees worldwide. It is part of the giant Japanese DIC Group.