Oissel, France and Tokyo, Japan - Toyo Ink Europe Specialty Chemicals S.A.S. (President: Franck Girard) and Toyocolor Co., Ltd. (President: Hironori Sakai) today announced the introduction of the Toyo Ink Group’s lithium-ion battery-related materials and solutions for the European market at Batteries 2014, the International Energy & Power Supply Conference and Exhibition. This trade event, in its 16th year, remains one of the world's largest conferences and meeting places for the battery industry. Batteries 2014 will be held at the Nice Acropolis Convention Center in Nice, France, from September 24 to 26.

At its Stand #420, the Toyo Ink Group will launch the LIOACCUM™ series of water-based cathode inks for lithium-ion batteries. Toyo's new cathode ink enables battery manufactures to form a high-performance electrode film by simply coating the ready-to-print cathode ink on to aluminum foil. LIOACCUM demonstrates up to 10% higher solid content relative to conventional inks and 30% less drying time during the coating process. Moreover, an original binder resin developed by Toyocolor provides greater stability than PVDF, enabling LIOACCUM water-based inks to deliver high cell performance similar to that of NMP-based inks.

“We are seeing a growth trend for water-based technology in Europe,” explains Franck Girard, president of Toyo Ink Europe Specialty Chemicals. “Cathodes made with our new LIOACCUM ink system offer several advantages. It not only simplifies the manufacturing process, but also achieves higher levels of cell performance at a lower cost and reduced carbon footprint.”

The Toyo Ink Group is one of the largest printing ink companies in the world. For over a century, the Group has leveraged its core technologies to become a leading manufacturer and supplier of a variety of chemical products, such as inks, pigments, LCD materials, plastic colorants, polymers, coatings and adhesives for the global marketplace. Now, the Toyo Ink Group plans to expand into new fields like energy, electronics and health care domains, as part of its growth strategy.

“The energy-related business is one of the primary fields under the Toyo Ink Group’s Sustainability Science domain,” states Hironori Sakai, president of Toyocolor. “Toyocolor already provides advanced solutions for solar cells and lithium-ion batteries, and develops materials for next-generation energy sources including fuel cells. We are specialists in the custom design and development of dispersants, a key technology in the processing of lithium-ion battery materials. Our deep knowhow of powder dispersion is the result of over a century of manufacturing innovation in printing inks, coatings and paints.”