Agfa Graphics has become the technology-leading supplier of Low Migration inks (LM) UV-curable inkjet inks­ to system integrators and OEMs building printing solutions. These are often integrated in a complete production line for printing on foils (sheet-to-sheet, roll-to-roll or roll-to-sheet) or direct onto the packaging according to the different types of food containers, thereby also saving the cost of the label material. 

The target application of so-called indirect food packaging mostly requires the use of LM inks. Moreover, also other applications, especially pharmaceutical packaging, require the use of LM inks. 

Today, Low Migration inks are readily available for traditional analogue printing techniques, including LM UV-curable inks for flexo printing. Now, market demand for digital printing on food packaging is rising strongly, driven by short/variable run length, just-in-time, low waste, marketing opportunities and other types of versioning and VDP. Food packaging increasingly requires the use of UV-curable inks. The LM UV-curable inkjet inks from Agfa Graphics are specifically targeted at these applications in single pass printing systems with all common industrial piezo printheads, for curing with LED and/or with mercury arc lamps. 

Thanks to extensive chemical and ink formulation knowledge, Agfa's new digital UV-curable ink formulation technology results in superior crosslinking of the ink monomers by curing (Agfa CCT = Complete Crosslinking Technology) compared with standard inks. The correct use of the CCT technology results in inkjet inks capable of being used as LM inks as part of a complete solution which incorporates the printing system and the total production process flow according to local legislations. 

The Agfa LM ink sets are not only designed for optimal performance in a wide variety of printing systems, comprising different print heads and curing systems. They are also proven to deliver ‘food safe’ prints having passed stringent levels of migration testing both through the substrate and/or set-off.