The Hednesford, Staffordshire-based company has been awarded exclusive rights to print retail-ready packaging and POS displays using Earthinks water-based flexographic and screen printing inks, which were launched in January.
According to Solar Inks, Earthinks are comparable to synthetic and oil-based inks in terms of colour, price and quality, but replace up to 80% of the petroleum-based synthetics and mineral oils found in standard inks with natural materials.
Weedon will now work with Solar Inks to further develop the inks. The two firms have set up a laboratory at Weedon’s premises where they will look at issues including enhancing colour and coverage and usage for different products including packaging to be used in wet, cold and dry environments.
“There is increasing concern nowadays about sustainability and the environmental effect of manufacturing processes,” said managing director John Weedon. “Such issues are high priorities within Weedon PSC, and indeed throughout the Weedon Group. We recognise that the way we design and manufacture corrugated packaging and displays can have a significant impact.
“Everything we make is recyclable and, wherever possible, we try to minimise damage to the environment in our choice of raw materials.”
Earthinks have been developed by Solar Inks from sustainable and non-polluting resources including soy, starch, sugars, dextrin, tree resin, cellulose and other polysaccharides.
They use natural oils to defoam in place of mineral oils and, according to Solar Inks, they are glycol and silicone-free, contain no heavy metals and have “near-zero VOC levels”.
“The use of Earthinks is the latest step in our drive to use environmentally friendly boards and inks. Alternative so-called natural inks usually only contain up to 5% renewable products but Earthinks are made from 80% natural materials,” said Weedon.
“We think our customers will be pleased that they can now have top print quality while minimising the damage to the world we live in.”
Earthinks can also be used to print flexible packaging, labels, envelopes and a range of paper products on a variety of substrates, including recycled stocks.
