Six months after its acquisition by Fujifilm, Sericol celebrates thirty years of developing UV graphic screen inks by launching a groundbreaking range that rethinks ink chemistry. The new product – as well as a substantial investment enlarging its UV screen ink factory, and the strength of its Fujifilm parent – bolsters the company’s aim to maintain its leading edge in the graphic screen sector, and stay at the forefront of UV ink technology.

Sericol first began supplying UV screen ink in October 1975, since when UV technology has become a mainstay of print production.
UV dryers were developed in the early 1970s for printed circuit boards. When brought into the screen industry, however, the UV curing units were not wholly suitable. Lacking a cooling system, curing lamps could overheat, which, given the type of substrates commonly used in graphic printing, ensured that operators were kept on their toes.

Sericol worked with equipment and substrate manufacturers to formulate the first UV screen inks, establishing a pattern for future innovations. Over time Sericol has set up partnering programmes with many leading suppliers.
Tony Beetham, Sericol’s R&D Manager, cites one example: “We’re presently working closely with a number of companies developing computer-to-screen technology.”

Technical pioneering has been a constant strategy for Sericol since it was founded more than 50 years ago. Aiding the trend away from solvent-based inks to UV, the company introduced water-based UV ink in the mid-1980s. At that time, the four-colour process was becoming cheaper and growing in the market. Conventional UV, however, produced a demonstrably thicker film. Spotting the need for a reliable, high quality ink, the company chose to develop a water-based system to produce a thin-film, four-colour process.

Been there, done that, wrote the book

Thirty years on, Sericol is still developing and investing in UV screen inks. In 1996 the company built a separate UV ink factory within its 15 hectare European manufacturing complex. In the first quarter of 2005, the company invested €725,000 expanding UV screen ink production. This plant is one of six factories around the world – the others are in the USA, India, Brazil, China and Australia – all manufacturing UV ink, each with its own R & D team.

UV inks now comprise 16 out of the 32 key graphic ink ranges the company sells in Europe. Across Europe, it accounts for over half of ink sold, whereas ten years ago the figure was less than 10%. Multiflash UZ, one of the Uvispeed UV range, is the biggest selling UV ink in Europe. By 2010, Sericol predicts that 80% of screen ink sold will be UV curing.

Sericol is widely acknowledged to have influenced industry development as a whole. The company has continuously invested to become one of the foremost training organisations in the industry.

Since its first UV training course in 1980, Sericol has trained an entire generation of press owners and operators in the techniques of UV graphic screen printing. In the last five years the company has run 90 dedicated two-, three- and four-day UV courses at its international training centre in the UK – more than half of them exclusively customer training events. As ‘train-the-trainer’ courses, the skills transferred have propagated widely, boosting the number of beneficiaries by a considerable factor. The company estimates it has trained staff in 275 screen printing firms across Europe in the last five years alone. Sericol has also, Beetham wryly notes, trained a large number competitors’ staff. But Sericol views this as one more way in which it has helped to ‘raise the bar’ for the screen printing industry as a whole.

More concrete evidence of public education is Sericol’s Guide To UV Screen Printing, which has become an industry standard publication. Currently it is the only detailed, freely available publication about UV printing techniques for graphic screen.
The guide has been serialised in numerous magazines and journals, and is now available in ten languages.

Displaymaster XX – Fundamental chemistry

Sericol still pushes forward the boundaries of screen and UV technology. An initial absence of the right raw materials was a problem for Sericol’s latest UV screen ink, Displaymaster XX, which is designed for plastic substrates such as PVC and polystyrene.

To achieve the ideal solution – good adhesion, flexibility, resistance and consistent viscosity – Sericol’s research team turned to fundamental chemistry and worked closely with its raw material supplier to design and develop a new acrylate functional oligomer to replace the passive resin in the ink. After extensive testing in the laboratory and at selected commercial printers around Europe, Displaymaster XX will be launched early in Autumn 2005.

According to Beetham, it is another first and an achievement the research team is proud of: “It resolves the conundrum that inextricably linked adhesion and embrittlement.
Not only that, the ink is easier to use – its viscosity is much more stable over a range of temperatures, so it produces consistent results.”

Five times Queen’s Award winner, Sericol insists that developments in both graphic screen and digital inks run in parallel. “It’s fair to say that our digital inks and the printers that use them have been in the limelight over the last couple of years,” admits Beetham. “But we’re convinced that the combination of screen and digital technologies offer print firms far better profit opportunities than either one alone.
All screen printers who invest in digital see an increase in their screen business too. The fact is, they attract more work all round because they’re offering a far more flexible choice to buyers.”

Sericol’s expertise in distribution, technology and marketing persuaded Fujifilm to buy the company earlier this year. Fujifilm, itself a world leader in imaging and information solutions, intends to draw on Sericol’s skills to help it develop further in industrial and package printing markets. With that kind of backing, the chances are high that Sericol will still be leading the graphic screen market and UV technology in another thirty years.

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