At FTA FORUM INFOFLEX 2026 in Milwaukee, a session titled “Innovating Next-Generation Inks for Safer, More Sustainable Packaging” explored how ink, curing and pressroom technologies are evolving to meet new demands in flexible packaging.

The session featured Jeremy Rohan of Siegwerk, Jennifer Heathcote of GEW, and Keith Nagle of Flint Group, who discussed the changing role of UV, LED and low-migration ink systems in a packaging landscape increasingly shaped by sustainability, regulatory pressure, energy use and brand expectations.

Rohan opened the session by framing flexible packaging as a category with a long history of innovation. While solvent-based and water-based inks continue to dominate many flexible packaging applications, he noted that today’s market forces are pushing printers and suppliers to rethink established approaches.

Supply chain challenges, sustainability goals, mono-material packaging, recyclability requirements and emerging regulations are all putting more pressure on inks to do more than simply deliver color. Inks must now support a package’s end-of-life strategy, meet food safety expectations and help converters operate more efficiently.

“The next decade of the printing industry is going to be very interesting,” Rohan said, pointing to a future pressroom where converters may run multiple ink and curing systems depending on the application.

Revisiting UV for flexible packaging

A central theme of the session was the renewed conversation around UV technology in flexible packaging. While UV curing has long been common in narrow web label production, it has historically seen less adoption in mid-web and wide-web flexible packaging.

Heathcote, vice president of business development at GEW, said part of that divide came from the way print sectors developed in silos. Narrow web printers became comfortable with UV, while wider web flexible packaging converters largely remained with solvent and water-based systems.

“There has been this understanding, or misconception, that you can’t use UV in flexible packaging,” Heathcote said.

She explained that older UV arc lamp systems presented practical limitations for wide-web flexible packaging presses. They generated more heat, required more air handling and were not always well suited to CI press configurations. However, advances in LED curing, excimer technology, nitrogen inerting and measurement systems have changed the equation.

UV curing uses energy in the ultraviolet portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to react and crosslink inks, coatings and adhesives. Unlike solvent- or water-based systems, UV formulations are typically 100% solids, meaning there is no water or solvent carrier that must be evaporated.

That difference is becoming increasingly important as converters look at energy consumption, emissions and operational efficiency.

Sustainability gains in the pressroom

Heathcote emphasized that UV curing has long offered environmental advantages, including little to no VOCs, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and no need for oxidizers or afterburners. With LED systems, she added, exhaust requirements are eliminated altogether.

Those benefits are gaining new relevance as brands and converters examine Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, energy usage and sustainability reporting.

A study commissioned by RadTech and conducted by York University compared multiple packaging constructions using water-based, UV and electron beam technologies. Heathcote highlighted one dog food bag construction as an example. In that scenario, electron beam reduced CO2 emissions by 40% compared to water-based production, while UV reduced CO2 emissions by 13.3%. Energy consumption also dropped significantly, with electron beam showing a 60% reduction and UV showing a 22% reduction versus water-based.

Her point was not that UV or EB is the answer for every application, but that the sustainability discussion has become more nuanced.

“There is a perception that water-based is always the environmentally friendly option,” Heathcote said. “But if the goal is reducing CO2 or energy consumption, other technologies may offer advantages.”

From commodity packaging to brand-driven performance

Nagle, eastern commercial director for Flint Group, placed ink innovation in the context of broader changes in flexible packaging. Decades ago, he said, flexible packaging was largely commodity driven, with priorities centered on cost, protection and volume.

Today, packaging plays a much larger role in brand identity.

“When you look at what is on the shelf today versus decades ago, the package is serving a completely different purpose,” Nagle said. “Now it’s about shelf impact, brand recognition, sustainability and package performance.”

Gravure historically dominated flexible packaging because of its consistency at scale. Solvent inks became the backbone because they provided adhesion, durability and predictable performance. But the rise of flexography changed the market by offering lower capital requirements, faster changeovers and greater flexibility.

With advances in HD plates, expanded gamut printing, sleeves and process control, flexo has become a dominant process in North American flexible packaging. But Nagle noted that even flexo, when relying heavily on solvent or water-based systems, still carries inefficiencies.

That is where UV becomes part of the conversation.

The original appeal of UV in flexible packaging was tied to graphics, performance and instant curing. Eliminating drying as a variable changes both the process and the economics. UV can reduce waste, speed startups, simplify changeovers and support more consistent output.

Migration, food safety and lessons learned

The speakers also addressed one of the most important topics in packaging ink development: migration.

Nagle acknowledged that early UV adoption in flexible packaging was not driven primarily by food safety. It was driven by performance and graphics. The industry later faced serious setbacks tied to migration incidents in Europe, including contamination issues involving printed food packaging.

Those incidents slowed UV adoption and forced the industry to take a more disciplined approach to formulation, testing and process control.

“They weren’t failures of UV,” Nagle said. “They were failures of assumption.”

Today’s low-migration UV inks are very different from those used 20 years ago. Suppliers have rethought photoinitiator strategies, raw material selection and formulation approaches. Nagle noted that the industry now has more advanced migration science, regulatory frameworks such as the Swiss Ordinance, and growing attention to the German Printing Ink Ordinance.

Still, he cautioned that low migration is not just about buying a low-migration ink.

“Low migration is not just ink. It’s a process,” Nagle said. Press conditions, curing performance, materials, handling, ink room procedures and overall workflow all contribute to whether a printed package meets low-migration expectations.

Operational benefits for converters

For converters, the practical advantages of UV center on productivity. Because UV cures instantly, there is no drying tunnel and no evaporation step. That reduces sensitivity to humidity and pressroom conditions, which can affect water-based drying.

UV also uses less ink because it is 100% solids, and it enables immediate finishing in many applications. Nagle pointed out that UV presses can also be more compact, an increasingly important benefit for converters struggling with limited floor space.

“Floor space is one of the hardest resources to come by at printers,” Nagle said.

Removing long hot-air drying tunnels can shorten press configurations, reduce energy consumption and improve throughput. This is particularly relevant as converters look to add capacity without adding square footage.

Heathcote also discussed newer curing technologies that can reduce risk in food packaging. Specialty arc lamp systems with increased UVC output can help lower odor and migration potential. Nitrogen inerting can improve cure efficiency by reducing oxygen inhibition, allowing more energy to go into the chemistry and supporting lower-odor, lower-migration formulations.

She also highlighted advances in UV measurement, where new systems can scan lamp output and provide real-time data to ensure curing consistency over time. For packaging applications where compliance and repeatability are critical, this type of data can provide converters with greater confidence.

Excimer and the rise of matte packaging

Another technology discussed was excimer curing, which Heathcote described as particularly relevant for flexible packaging coatings. Excimer systems can create very low-gloss matte finishes without relying on traditional matting agents.

That matters because matte packaging has become a significant design trend, often associated by consumers with natural, organic or premium products. Traditional matte coatings can be challenging because matting agents may change viscosity over time, affecting transfer and consistency during a run.

Nagle said he has seen samples of excimer technology and believes it can help solve real coating stability challenges for converters.

A changing ink room

The session made clear that the ink room of the future will likely be more diverse, not less. Solvent, water-based, UV, LED, EB and hybrid systems all have roles depending on the application, substrate, regulatory need and sustainability objective.

For label and package printers, the takeaway is not that one chemistry will replace all others. Rather, converters will need to understand where each technology delivers value.

Flexible packaging is evolving quickly, and ink systems are evolving with it. Brands are demanding stronger graphics, greater sustainability and improved performance. Regulators are increasing scrutiny around food contact and recyclability. Converters are being asked to produce shorter runs, reduce waste, control emissions and improve efficiency.

As Nagle put it, sustainability is likely to become a condition of doing business with major brands. That means inks, curing systems and processes will all play a larger role in how converters compete.

For narrow web converters already familiar with UV technology, this evolution may create new opportunities in flexible packaging and adjacent markets. For flexible packaging printers that have long relied on solvent and water-based systems, the message from the session was clear: UV deserves another look.