INX International Ink Co. will feature a wide range of sustainable ink solutions at this year’s FTA Forum and INFOFLEX 2024. The event is being held May 5-8 at the Loews Kansas City Hotel and Convention Center.

“We are excited to connect with flexographic industry professionals and support this event,” says Renee Schouten, INX vice president of marketing. “The Forum and INFOFLEX gives us a unique opportunity to demonstrate the latest flexo ink innovations, and explain our dedication to sustainability and partner collaboration. We understand how innovation thrives when diverse perspectives come together, and at this event we can explore new technology ideas that can shape the future of our industry.”

Schouten points out that as the flexographic industry continues to evolve, it is important to have an ink partner dedicated to producing superior, environmentally conscious products in tandem with excellent customer service and support.

“At INX, we provide a partnership for growth. Our R&D division develops every new product with a sustainable purpose. We know the carbon footprint of packaging materials can be reduced by using eco and environmentally friendly inks and contribute to a circular economy. Two solutions we debuted at last year’s show, DuraINX HRC natural-based inks and Ecostage GB-XA coatings, are examples that help brand owners and printers fulfill their sustainability objectives.”

DuraINX HRC is a solvent ink formulated with high performance pigments and components and up to 40% bio renewable content for flexographic outdoor bag printing. It features excellent high speed printability and long-lasting properties with product, fade, and rub/scuff resistance. It withstands environmental exposure and printers using it are realizing higher color strength compared to competitive bag systems.

Ecostage GB-XA is a transparent oxygen barrier coating that improves sustainability and recycling efforts. A cost effective alternative to film options, it allows mono-material packaging to replace multi-layer packaging for specific food applications and improves recycling and package lightweighting efforts. The chlorine and metal-free coatings produce excellent barrier performance on polyester and polyolefin films, with dry film weights as low as 0.6g/m2.

Several robust solutions that use renewable, natural-based raw materials from ethical and sustainably managed sources and benefit brand owners and customers, will also be featured in booth 133.

Brand owners and food packaging providers choose INXhrc natural-based inks for several reasons beyond being safer, more sustainable, and reducing their regulatory risk. With clean, bio-renewable and sustainable ingredients, CO2 emissions are significantly downsized without sacrificing machine, processing or end-use performance. INXhrc also uses fewer chemicals compared to traditional inks and does not contain allergens, nanomaterials, fluorochemicals, fanal pigments, heavy metals, latex or PTFE.

INXFlex Contour flexographic inks offer high performance for shrink sleeve applications and cure both UV and LED. These fast drying inks offer printability at high speeds, maximizing shrink contouring and eliminating post-shrink adhesion loss and ink flaking. The Dual Cure (DC) version can switch from UV or LED unit by unit, providing an option to cure two ways with one ink system for increased efficiencies and lower applied costs.

Genesis FS washable label inks maintain properties in accordance with the APR guidelines required for shrink sleeve applications. Exhibiting excellent bleed resistance in caustic bath solutions, the ink is separated from the substrate and removed from the label material so a complete recyclable package is possible. It can also be used for floatable roll fed OPP labels so a customer can print multiple label types with one ink system.

Innova Plus is a universal flexographic lamination ink that works with a variety of solvent and water-based, and solvent-less adhesive systems. It improves printability while offering excellent bond, color strength, heat, and adhesive smear resistance.