XenJet Rapide Black will be officially launched at Ipex and orders for the ink will be taken in the middle of this year.

The product is the first to be launched as part of an agreement between Xennia and Hewlett Packard (HP). Further XenJet Rapide colours and supply of bulk ink are also planned for this year.

"The ink has a number of advantages with one being its extended breadth of substrates," said Xennia sales and marketing director Tracey Stephens. "It is a real breakthrough as it's a huge change from what was previously available in the market."

Through a UV cure formulation, the ink can be used on a wide range of plastics, foils, coated stock and other porous and non-porous substrates.

"Non-porous are the key substrates," added Stephens. "Previous inks either did not stick on the substrate or simply did not look good."

"Xennia's new UV curable ink will also expand the usage of HP thermal ink-jet into new markets in the package coding and mail printing industries," said Darren McGrath, supplies product manager at HP Specialty Printing Systems.

According to Xennia, the ink allows for print resolutions of up to 600dpi.

"The potential for UV curable thermal inks is enormous," added Xennia chief executive Alan Hudd.

Xennia will have its own stand at Ipex, but its products will also be on show on HP and Xaar's stands.