Printing and Packaging Applications
“Thermoprint” Irreversible Colour-change Inks
We offer an ink/lacquer, a “chemithermal”, which can either be coated down onto label stock to produce the familiar “thermal-label”, or can be printed down as a heat-sensitive patch on a printed label. As the surface area required for the variable information (batch-code, sell-by date, bar code), is frequently only a small proportion of the total, it will be cost effective to print this patch when the rest of the label is printed. Compared with the use of thermal label stock, the printing of a small patch of our chemithermal ink can produce much improved margins for the printer.
The normal colour change would be white to black, e.g. TFBK90 (Thermoprint, Flexo, Black, 90C), although other colours and temperatures can be offered.
Thermoprint inks are also used in the manufacture of Security packaging. As tamper-evidence (TE) inks, they offer improved colouration characteristics, better printability, better colour stability, and savings on ink consumption of up to 50% compared with other TE inks.
Let us offer you a FREE sample of Thermoprint; and let us offer a FREE demonstration of how you can get a better TE effect and save on cost.
“Thermoswell” Volume Change Inks
We offer inks (for flexography, screen or gravure), either water-based or solvent-based, which, after coating and drying, will expand when heated. The temperature of the expansion is 100-130C, and this produces a tactile effect or a “soft-touch” feel. Volume increases of a few percent up to several hundred percent are possible. The swelling could be accompanied by a colour change such that “intaglio” text (and codes) could be written by a laser beam. A special form of Thermoswell ink is under development, as a means of printing Braille.
“Relacsil” Release Lacquer
We offer lacquers which modify the adherence of adhesives. If adhering films are “peeled-apart”, and a message has been back-printed with Relacsil, then that message remains readable even if the adhesive has been heated or cooled.
Thus, attempts to enter a sealed package by freeze-hardening the adhesive will still result in the visible evidence when peeled apart.
A variant of Relacsil can be radiation-activated to show the same effect, without the need for back-printing, when exposed to the beam of a low-power CO2 laser. In this way on-demand, variable information can be stored in a covert way until revealed by peeling-apart.
Relacsil is solvent-based.
“Silkotac” Soft-feel Lacquer
This is a water-based lacquer that is designed to produce a silky, tactile feel to the surface onto which it is coated or printed.
“Silmark”
Silmark is a form of high-speed, non-contact, printing that uses the beam from an IR laser to “write” onto the special substrate. The speed of writing (printing) is very high, as also is the quality. Silmark has numerous advantages over conventional techniques for coding which makes it cheaper, better, and greener. Silmark is the coding technology of the future.
Siltech Limited offers a benefits analysis service and is prepared to produce a “turn-key” system or simply provide the consumable ink.