Sun Chemical announces its ongoing collaboration with packaging solutions company, Cardbox Packaging. Sun Chemical is supplying Cardbox with SunPak®  FSP EcoPace sheetfed, low migration inks for high productivity, high speed folding carton printing and for its SunHub compact ink dispenser at their Austria site.

In 2023, Cardbox became the first printer worldwide to install the Heidelberg XL106 packaging printing machine that runs at 21,000 sheets per hour, and it is on this machine they now employ the inks. The ongoing collaboration enables Cardbox to validate new products with Sun Chemical before they go to market, while Cardbox may be amongst the first folding carton packaging converters in the world to showcase and produce solutions for high productivity and sustainable packaging printing powered by the new technologies.

Meeting the challenges to further increase productivity means trouble-free printing at the highest possible printing speeds, even on the more problematic carton boards. Sun Chemical worked with Cardbox during the development stage of the new ink range to understand the print demands of high quality, high productivity, high speed printing, as well as to verify the effectiveness of the products across different substrates and job design formats before they went to market.

Using SunPak FSP, Sun Chemical’s flagship sheetfed offset low migration ink for food packaging, as the benchmark, the collaboration with Sun Chemical’s additional beta test partners resulted in the introduction of SunPak® FSP EcoPace – Sun Chemical’s first ink to transition to the new, groundbreaking ‘Pace’ technology platform for sheetfed offset inks. The innovation is the result of extensive research and development into new materials needed to meet the demand for a highly versatile and reliable printing ink that delivers consistent high quality, high productivity printing even on problematic boards and papers where picking and delamination usually occur.

The inks have been designed, tested and proven to guarantee excellent results on high volume long run printing, and equally short run lengths, due to the fast responsive nature on both closed loop and manually adjusted colour control systems.

Similar to all of Sun Chemical’s new sheetfed ink developments, the inks are based on materials from renewable sources resulting in an average BRC (bio renewable content) across the process inks of 77%. This can be further increased by introducing an optional process black whereby the pigment is derived from a non-fossil fuel carbon source, which elevates the BRC of the black to 89%, increasing the average to 84%.

Additionally the formulation is PTFE wax free and carries Cradle to Cradle Material Health Bronze certification, which can be increased to Platinum by introducing an optional process yellow.

More recently, Sun Chemical also provided its SunHub compact ink dispenser to enable Cardbox to become self-sufficient and mix and dispense low volume, high frequency spot colours. The dispenser is cost effective and easy to use, with a small and compact footprint that can manage high frequency, small batch spot colour production on demand. This helps reduce waiting times, the likelihood of over ordering, and the required frequency of deliveries, boosting efficiency and ultimately reducing their carbon footprint. SunHub is currently only available within the EU.

Chris Düringer, Director Technology and Material at Cardbox Packaging comments: “The implementation of SunPak FSP EcoPace proceeded smoothly, ensuring a seamless transition. The switch from FSP to FSP EcoPace has proven to be highly successful both in terms of quality and performance. Additionally, the transition in the colour mixing kitchen went off without a hitch. Even at 21,000b/h, the new FSP EcoPace delivers excellent performance levels. Migration concerns were effectively addressed with no issues or discussions with end customers.

Under production conditions and during long runs, the colour mist is remarkably well-controlled without any anomalies. Our specialists are highly satisfied with the colour performance. There have been no restrictions or problems with the protective coatings used. We have further developments in the pipeline and anticipate additional optimisations in the future.”

Jim Buchanan, Product Director – Sheetfed Systems at Sun Chemical comments: “We have a strong, ongoing collaboration with Cardbox. We support them to ensure they have the products they need to meet their goals, and they work with us to aid the development of our solutions. Their values of sustainability, customer service and efficiency are fully in line with our own, and by working together in collaboration, we’re helping each other to stay true to those values, and work towards shared goals.”