DUSSELDORF, GERMANY – Under the theme “Brighter Ideas for Packaging” in Hall 7a, Stand C06, Sun Chemical and its parent company, the DIC Corporation, are demonstrating their capabilities as a global, full service provider of innovative packaging solutions, from concept to consumer, to uniquely address the key aspects of packaging optimization, reflected as five separate zones on the stand:Consumer Protection, World of Color, Lightweighting, Food Waste and Consumer Experience. 

To demonstrate its knowledge, expertise and understanding of the challenges, issues and future requirements for brand owners and their consumers within each of the five areas, Sun Chemical has produced a series of Brighter Ideas for Packaging Guides, which can either be collected from the stand at interpack or downloaded from http://www.sunchemical.com/brighterideas.

Brighter Ideas for Consumer Protection

Steering brand owners through the increasing international legislative requirements for compliant materials, consumables and labeling, Sun Chemical is showcasing its wide range of solutions to address the increase in counterfeit trade and to ensure the security of brands and the health and safety of their customers. 

Sun Chemical offers a range of overt, covert and semi-covert brand protection solutions including UV responsive and infrared inks, infrared taggants integrated within spot colors or varnishes, hidden images embedded into existing packaging designs and smartphone authentication. Highlighted at interpack 2017 is SunTag, an integrated sensor-taggant system for cartridges and refills, which provides interactive point-of-use authentication and identification and helps protect product quality and safety at a fraction of the cost of competing technologies.

Also on display is a smartphone authentication solution incorporating the AuthentiGuard smartphone validation application from anti-counterfeit technology specialists DSS (Document Security Systems, Inc.), giving Sun Chemical customers even greater choice, flexibility and potential for protecting their products. 

In the Consumer Protection zone, Sun Chemical is also highlighting a new near infrared-based food contaminant detection system. Combining a near infrared (NIR) fluorescent dye that emits NIR and a device that detects NIR, the system, which can be built into a processing line, is able to detect plastic fragments and other contaminants in food, a task that has previously been difficult to achieve.

Brighter Ideas for World of Color

Helping brand owners achieve global consistency of high impact, high quality color, Sun Chemical is launching a new version ofSunColorBox, a toolkit comprising a comprehensive set of applications and services aimed at supporting packaging printers and converters to produce brand colors consistently, anywhere in the world, within a fully optimized digital process (For more details, see press release entitled SunColorBox Closes the Loop on Global Digital Color Management and dated May 4, 2017). 

DIC highlights in this zone include the latest issue of its Asia Color Trend Book, the only book of its type in the world that focuses on inspiring designers with art and design trends unique to Asian cultures, and a Model Color Palette for Color Universal Design, a user-oriented design system, enabling information to be conveyed to individuals with color blindness. 

Brighter Ideas for Lightweighting

Sun Chemical offers a choice of creative packaging solutions to help brand owners meet their obligations to cut raw material consumption, reduce costs across the packaging supply chain and limit their environmental footprint, while still providing high performing, brand-enhancing packaging.

Currently, a lot of flexible packaging consists of multi-layers of material including metallized substrates that give the packaging its structure, protecting the contents from external contaminants and providing an effective oxygen barrier to preserve the contents. Patented developments in Sun Chemical/DIC’s solvent-based Paslim VM lamination adhesive offer brand owners the scope to eliminate the mid-web metalized layer of these structures and replace it with a metalized sealant web instead, enabling one layer less in the structure. 

On display also in the Lightweighting zone are SunBar (Aerobloc) coatings with oxygen barrier properties for a monoweb structure that contribute to replicate the protective functionality of two-ply structures, with reduced material, and that can be fully compliant for food packaging applications.

Brighter Ideas for Food Waste

With its broad range of functional coatings, Sun Chemical helps brand owners to develop food packaging solutions to prolong freshness and increase shelf-life, limiting food spoilage and helping consumers make more informed decisions that will reduce food waste.

Highlights in this zone include SunBar (Aerobloc) oxygen barrier coatings, now also available directly on pre-coated film, which maintain the protective qualities of packaging and increase shelf life, and DIC Easy Peel, an easy-to-open sealant film with high heat resistance and stable heat seal strength. 

Also being showcased is the SunLase™ laser marking solution, a coating that enables brand owners to add high quality QR and barcodes to secondary packaging and serial number or dates to primary packaging information, whether for practical supply chain purposes or as a late stage package differentiator. 

Brighter Ideas for Consumer Experience

In the Consumer Experience zone, Sun Chemical is showing how it helps brand owners develop packaging throughout the product life cycle, from concept to consumer, that offers maximum functional and aesthetic appeal as well as providing engaging, interactive and creative opportunities to enhance the consumer’s emotional experience.

Highlighted in this zone is the range of SunInspire specialty inks and coatings, in particular its tactile coatings, ranging from coarse and gritty to soft and smooth, which appeal to the sense of touch. Also on display is the SunVetro family of products for ceramics and glass, the SunCarte® family of screen and offset inks, adhesives and varnishes to help printers meet the needs of the plastic card market. Additionally, printed magnetic tape options for card manufacturers based on DIC technology, will also be on hand. 

Within a separate Product Portfolio zone, Sun Chemical is also showcasing its extensive range of inks and coatings suitable for use on multiple substrates across a wide range of packaging applications. With the most comprehensive portfolio in the industry, irrespective of print process and application, Sun Chemical offers a vast choice of both solvent-based and solvent-free products. In addition, the SunJet team is available throughout the show to meet with existing and prospective partners to explore collaborative projects that will continue to push the boundaries of digital inkjet printing for packaging.

“Sun Chemical is a leading global provider of packaging solutions addressing the needs of the brand owner and converter,” said Felipe Mellado, Chief Marketing Officer, Sun Chemical. “Supported by DIC, our combined capabilities enable real innovation across multiple packaging formats and materials for all types of products and applications. At interpack 2017, Brighter Ideas for Packaging is representing our expertise and our diverse and innovative portfolio of packaging products and solutions, from concept to consumer, which we are presenting to the packaging community.”