Binders and Varnishes

In the binder and varnish industries, ink manufacturers are targeting innovation at a price affordable to buyers. For ink manufacturers, binders and varnish are key factors in the development of high performance printing inks. Therefore, ink manufacturers are focused on creating new products.

However, one problem that should not be overlooked is that due to high energy and crude oil costs, product prices have become very serious problems. For ink manufacturers, buying economical products has become more critical.

Josh Rosenheck, Business Manager for Noveon Surface Modifiers, said: “On the issue of lithographic printing materials, our customers continue to seek new and innovative systems. However, this new technology must withstand the test of the consumer index, in other words, our The customer is looking for affordable and innovative products.In the polymer, we see good printability and improved re-solubility.In other words, we initially see in the field of flexible printing, high-precision printing needs to be enhanced Printability and resolubility ensure accurate and clear images."

Guy Trerotola, business manager of the offset printing department at Hexion Specialty Chemicals, said: "The sheet-fed materials are facing similar economic challenges and the need to reduce scrap and rapidly meet technology."

Rick Krause, director of Printing and Packaging Marketing at Johnson Polymers in North America, said: "The cost-effective, valuable technology holds a significant advantage in the market. Johnson Polymers continues to invest in the printing press, ink industry, and printing gloss industry. Benefits of innovation in water-based technologies."

John Schultz, Commercial Director of Ink and Binder Resins, Akzo Nobel, said: "From the point of view of the ever-increasing cost of crude oil, resins, and toners, cost-effectiveness has become critical."

Phil Runge, Production Manager at Hexion, said: “For the binders used in publications, the most common customer requirements for us are to reduce costs, splash less ink, have low viscosity, and have a stable rheology. Higher printing speeds and lower quality substrates have contributed to the The use of low viscosity and splatterless binders."

Industry leaders believe that merging in these markets is inevitable, and a vivid example of merger is May 2005: Inksolutions acquires Bria Graphics and becomes the current Westcoast Inksolutions company.

John Jilek, chairman of Inksolutions, said: "This is a further step for our company. It has caused us to move from a previously neglected position to West Coast's dominance. They are very powerful in the field of ink-jet printing that we have just started." Now that the technology has been combined, the Inksolutions family has a complete product line in oily resin varnish."

The importance of binders and varnish
The binder and varnish are very important for the performance of printing inks. When formulators develop inks, special attention is paid to the binder.

Trerotola said: “The binder is one of the elements that determine ink performance. Ink manufacturers want formulators to provide solutions to the challenges they face. Correspondingly, the products we introduced in 2006 will focus on our proprietary resin expertise. And to a certain extent, the cost of a stable connection material.

Jim Volz, vice president of sales and marketing at Kustom Group, said: "The binder produces specific properties of the ink. The binder allows the pigment to pass from the ink fountain and adhere to the substrate. The binder also has properties such as gloss, Anti-friction, and other non-color properties."

Rosenheck said: "The binder and varnish increase the formulation performance. The binder is the carrier of the pigment, which has a huge impact on the printing performance and the film forming properties required for printing."

Krause added: "Aqueous binders are still cost-effective, environmentally friendly and user-friendly for the printing, ink and printing industry."

Rising raw material costs
As a result of the entire ink industry, binders and varnish manufacturers are trying to cope with higher raw material and energy costs.

Dan Romani, head of sales at Hexion, said: “We continue to see unprecedented growth in almost all raw materials, as well as continued growth in the coming months. We believe we have entered a very commercial period where global energy costs are quite high. All manufacturers are affected The direct or indirect impact of energy. We also heard that some key raw materials will further raise the cost of raw materials, especially in the field of rosin resin."

Romani added: "As a business, we are focused on improving the ability to regulate market instability. We believe that Hexion will continue to be a major supplier to this industry, and we thank our customers for their support during this period."

Rosenheck said: "We have continued to see rising raw material costs caused by rising oil prices."

Dan DeLegge, vice president of Inksolutions LLC, said: “Raw material prices continue to rise and oil prices rose sharply in 2005. In early 2006, rosin appeared to be the main product for price increase.”

Market instability makes it difficult for suppliers to plan for future markets.

Runge said: “The raw material continues to rise in price with the current fickleness of the petrochemical market, and the instability of raw material prices seems to have become a consistent theme, making it difficult to anticipate future trends. We currently highly value the global resin market. The supply capacity of CTOs has been shrinking, causing the TOR market to be extremely tight.At the same time, the price of rosin has reached its highest point in 10 years, and its use in North America has been limited.The prices of TOR and gum rosin derivatives have increased in both winter of 2005 and spring of 2006. And the rising prices of rosin and petrochemical semi-finished products will push market prices to higher prices."

Despite the implementation of the price increase measures, they did not make up for the pressure of all the price increases they had undertaken.

Aynessazian said: “Basic energy costs peaked last year, giving people the impression that suppliers have passed on to users at the same rate of energy price increase, but this is not the case. Solvent prices have increased by almost 100%. Varnish and ink companies The same increase cannot be delivered because the market is simply unacceptable. We gradually pass on the increase that our customers can accept, and at the same time our profit margins are getting smaller and smaller."

The ability to pass on price increases to customers is critical to the survival of printing ink manufacturers and their suppliers.

Krause said: “In the past two years, our industry has experienced major structural changes in raw materials and increased raw material costs. Every company in this chain feels an alarming increase in costs, shortages of raw materials, overloaded raw materials, and costs. The pain of monthly changes has caused the company's mergers, restructurings, and the closure of its production and service centers. The successful ink and ink companies have survived. Unsuccessful companies are still struggling."

Developing new trends
To help ink formulators meet new customer needs, the binder and varnish manufacturers have developed new technologies.

Rosenheck said: “We are very excited about the new shear-resistance technology that can prevent the decrease of viscosity under the action of shear force, and at the same time have better fluidity and lower dot gain than the traditional system. Pre-emulsified low-VOC binder systems with reduced lead times, increased stability, and a 20% reduction in the VOC content of thermoset inks are very satisfactory. Both of these techniques can be used in thermosetting inks and sheet-fed systems."

Jilek said: "Specialized products also have a certain amount of space. Inksolutions did not publish a list of new products. Our products are usually tailored to the specific needs of our customers. There are very few products that are sold uniformly in the market. Customers need us to connect materials. With special help from the system, we can make calls and let us provide services to create the right products for our customers.”

At the end of last year, Lucent renamed a large number of LGAT (Lawter Graphic Arts Technologies) products to simplify the product name and product line. For example, thermoset connection