In talking with industry leaders in the ink additive field, it is interesting to hear about the most significant changes they have seen in their respective fields. For example, John Kwasneski, director of sales – paint and coatings additives for Munzing, pointed to the shift towards cleaner, greener, and more sustainable inks.

John Jilek Jr., president of inksolutions, reported that currently within the additive market, he sees the large challenge of brand owners demanding PTFE to be removed from all products.

“The safety of PTFE has been brought into question by many agencies, most of which stem in California or Washington state,” Jilek added. “With it being scrutinized as it is, to date we have seen no governing agencies banning its use. We have seen agencies suing manufactures for what they see as long-term damage within their ecosystem, believed to be caused by PTFE and POFAs contained within PTFE.”

With this information at hand, Jilek said that inksolutions has observed many brand owners demanding their converters provide products that are PTFE-free.

“PTFE has many properties. To date we have not seen a single product duplicate all properties. Typically, we can find a product which imitates one property, but will carry at least one other problematic difference,” Jilek pointed out.

“Over the past decade, we have seen the increased demand to reduce mineral oil content within products and feel this trend will continue into the next 10 years,” Jilek said. “We have made great improvements over the years within our sheetfed formulation. We are currently working to understand where legislation limits will push this issue. Specific documents, such as the recent French Decree demanding 1PPB MOAH by 2025, we feel will be very hard to achieve. We also feel it will be even harder to verify results and QC on a long term (daily basis). We are working on heatset formulations to meet the current regulation standard set in 2023, and also feel the 2025 standard will have the same challenges as sheetfed.”

“In the past decade, the ink industry has seen significant increases in industry regulations,” Dr. Courtney Thurau, head of global market segment printing inks for Evonik’s Coating Additives business, observed. “Product registrations have become more difficult and are impacting product development.”

“Adapting to regulatory changes has become the tenets of product development,” said Alex Radu, technical service group at Shamrock Technologies. “Performance enhancing additives are now developed with regulatory compliance, sustainability, and sustainable sourcing in mind while still delivering on product performance our customers demand.”

Siltech Corporation VP Robert Ruckle pointed to the ways that supply chains have evolved over the years.

“The COVID pandemic first caused supply chain shifting,” Ruckle noted. “Then the Chinese response of shutting down huge areas, combined with long developed global reliance on a small number of suppliers for cost efficiency, caused a 2022 supply chain crisis. The war in Ukraine affected fuel supply and confidence even while the world was trying to figure out how to move away from fossil fuel. The global economy seems to finally be in a downturn after surviving all of that and we seem to be able to absorb no more. Surely that is enough change for three years, let alone a decade.” 

Keith W. Condon, national sales director, Keim Additec Surface USA, LLC,  said that the pace at which regulations are put into place, most notably PFAS regulations in recent years, is a significant change.

“In our world of wax, PTFE was the go-to when high slip was required,” Condon noted. “In two years’ time, we will be looking at total bans of this material, changing the entire landscape of the industry.”

John McAllister, global sales director for Micro Powders, Inc., said that the most significant change has been a recent migration away from PFAS chemistries.

“This will have a big impact on the use of PTFE, which has been a staple in printing inks,” McAllister said. “To meet this challenge, we developed a range of PTFE alternatives based on our nanocomposite wax technology. PolyGlide 1226XF is a composite of nanoceramic and high-density polyethylene wax. MP-28AL is a composite of high melting synthetic wax and nano aluminum oxide. Both offer PTFE level performance and are PFAS free.”

Along those lines, what do leading ink additive companies see as some of the changes coming in their field over the next decade?

“Increasingly, sustainability is becoming a must-have in the industry,” Dr. Thurau said. “From Evonik’s perspective, additives suppliers who help the ink industry to improve its overall sustainability impact will continue to be relevant.”

Radu noted that since most of the printed products target non-durable consumer end market segments, additives manufacturers need to be aware of the trends in younger generations, the customers of tomorrow.

“The best investment is always in the future,” Radu noted. “Marketing studies need to focus on geo-demographics and socioeconomics to identify the right targets. Digital technologies and 3D printing will be prevalent as the best sources of customization and personalized offerings.”

“Sustainability, especially the attempt to replace fossil fuels and generate enough electricity, will impact everything,” said Ruckle. “There will be opportunities as well as problems. We shall persevere.”

“A decade is a long way out, but there will definitely be more additives based on natural and renewable resource materials,” McAllister predicted. “Consumer packaging materials are also changing, and this will require raw material suppliers to develop creative solutions to meet new performance and regulatory standards.”

“We anticipate above trend growth primarily in UV curable inks followed by water-based and the continued shrinkage in solvent-based formulations,” Kwasneski said.

Condon believes there will a major shift towards more bio-based solutions in the coming years.

“The desire to be ‘green’ is gaining more and more traction as certain realities come to light, such as PFAS, and companies are doing their part to find solutions and stay relevant,” Condon noted. “Thankfully, we at Keim-Additec Surface were founded on these concepts, so we are looking forward to a fairly smooth transition as the ink world changes.”