New law for solvent printers??

[Chris Wilson]

Be interesting to know if it’s all solvent or just certain brands. There will be a time period to adjust.

Prob be an increase in ink price and I bet some sort of license fee for us to go pay that no one will check up on. If it’s cheap we will just pay it. If it’s mad stacks of cash I’ll chance my luck. Longs there’s no sudden ink shortage.

[Peter Cassidy]

where does this all end?
i dont just mean the inks, just everything is going up and this will definitely have a fee to pay every year!

[Jamie Wood]

There was a brief discussion about this a while back. It would appear that it won’t affect the end users (us).

https://uksignboards.com/forums/discussion/solvent-eco-solvent-inkjet-ink-concerns-issues-health/

[Craig Brown]

That article is now a little out of date and was from an interview I did in February (2022)…we have now moved on and the GPMA were able to lobby and sit in front of the Home Office on the 10th March…their case was heard and listened too and the feed back was it would be acted on.

We are still waiting for formal written confirmation but it does look as though our sector and the print sector will be exempt from the planned changes in the regulations.

Certainly a good result and does show what happens when manufacturers, trade associations and the sector come together with one voice.

[Mark Johnston]

thanks for the reply Craig, thats great to hear! 👍

[Leslie Anderson]

glad for everyone that it is not happening as first thought. but have to say i am so happy now that i went for a latex printer.

[Jeff]

It is one thing bringing in a new law, but it would be nice if they did their homework first before just slapping us with fines and whatever. what if this did include us, it could shut down loads of small companies due to everything else that is currently happening. 🤨

[Sean Taylor]

I really wouldn’t worry, this legislation is going to be reversed before it ever happens.
If not then ink manufacturers, Like the one I work for Digital Ink GB, already have formulations of their inks that are GBL free.
We can already supply all Mimaki, Roland and Mutoh solvent printers with ‘GBL free’ ink if we need to.
We have had these formulations ready for almost a year. we can supply them anytime If we need to. 👍
http://www.digitalinkgb.com

[RobertLambie]

@craig-brown Thanks for updating us all on the progress that’s been made on this Craig.

Certainly a good result and does show what happens when manufacturers, trade associations and the sector come together with one voice.

I couldn’t agree more! 👍

[RobertLambie]

@sean-taylor1

Interesting Sean, as I was clueless about this issue until Craig highlighted it in February, and I am surprised that there are already GBL Free inks already available!
Does the company you work for manufacture these inks in-house, in the UK,for all the brands you list?

Obviously, the law no longer looks like it is taking the direction first thought, but out of my own curiosity and I think what other sign makers may want to know, is… (and we know you will be biased) 🤔🤣

1, Are there any performance issues of a GBL Free Ink compared side by side to the likes of a Solvent or eco-solvent ink?
i.e. resistance to chemical, abrasion and UV damage?

2, If a sign maker decided to switch to GBL Free inks, would the typical complete machine/tube flush of existing inks be required before bleeding in the new ink?

3, Does the ink “outgassing time” before application or lamination get any worse or better with GBL Free Ink?

4, How does your GBL Free Ink compare in price on a like for like basis with branded inks?

5, Its great that your inks have been available for the past twelve months, but I imagine you maybe limited with regards to the availabilty of profiles?

6, The most common reason sign companies will switch away from their machine manufacturers own brand of ink, is price! Howerver, this often ends badly when they discover the ink is “dirty” (technical term🙂) and leads to clogged heads, dampers blah blah. Is there any documented rerassurance available that there will be no adverse effects from using this new GBL Free Ink?

Sorry for all the questions, Sean. but as you can imagine with a new product like this and the fashion that it has reared its head within the industry. It is interesting to know a bit more about it.

Thanks in advance for any answers you can give, mate. 👍

[Sean Taylor]

HI Robert,

Our products are manufactured in Cheadle in Cheshire and sold all around the world. ( Digital Ink GB Ltd ) We offer products for solvent printers ( Such as Mimaki, Roland and Mutoh ) as well as coding and marking inks. We are also developing UV inks as we speak. The reason we came up with a GBL free solvent inks was actually nothing to do with the impending legislation. Some of the raw materials we use for making inks ran into to short supply during the multiple lockdowns of 2020 and as a contingency we came up with different formulations of these inks just incase we needed to use them. One of the formulations was GBL free. It turned out we never needed to use it but they are available have already been tested on these printers during 2020 and early 2021. Here are the answer to your questions

1) During in house testing using a Dr Honle light cabinet we saw no difference in UV life of the ink

2) If the end user is already using our inks they would be able to use the GBL free version alongside their current inks – no need for flushing or adjustments of any kind. It also mixes with OEM inks absolutely fine.

3) Outgassing time identical with our GBL free formulation

4) Our inks are around half the price of the OEM

5) We have not had to adjust profiles either – the formulation gives an identical result

6) The products are filtered in a way that means they are no more likely to block your print heads than OEM inks

We are awaiting to see the outcome with the home office but should we need to do it for UK customers we can supply a GBL free products whenever we like.

[RobertLambie]

Hi Sean.

Obviously, this new ink formula is too new to the market for real-world test results, but it is very Interesting to read your replies are all positive.

If your company is confident and everything is as you say, but with the possibility of further future shortages or increased costs in the raw materials. Coupled with your ability to still offer the ink solution at a fraction of the price, why not still pursue this project and be able to offer the industry the option of GBL Free?
Thankfully, it is not looking like the law will now change for us all, as first feared. But the availability of the ink, the price and the knowledge of the plug-n-play option is reassuring should the law be enforced further down the line.

thanks for taking the time to respond to my previous questions.

[Sean Taylor]

Yeah no problem – the cost will be the same for the GBL free product should it ever be launched. It now looks like that won’t be the case. 👍

[RobertLambie]

4) Our inks are around half the price of the OEM

OK, so not half the price as mentioned before?

[Sean Taylor]

Yes all of our inks are half the price of the OEM ink – what I am saying is that the GBL free product we offer costs the same as the one that contains GBL….it is no more expensive – both are half the price of the OEM 👍

Hope that make sense ?

• This reply was modified 1 year, 12 months ago by  Sean Taylor.

[Sean Taylor]

Just for info this is no longer a problem – the idea has been revered by the government so no need to worry 👍

http://www.printweek.com/product-news/article/inkjet-drug-regs-changes-scrapped

[RobertLambie]

@sean-taylor1

Thats great news Sean, thanks for updating us on this. much appreciated.

[Mark Johnston]

Thanks for the update on this. so we can now breathe a sigh of relief! 😃

[Sean Taylor]

Yep – business as usual 👍