Schaumburg, IL – INX International Ink Co. today debuted two new solutions for the packaging marketplace. Both the DuraINX HRC natural-based inks and the Ecostage GB-XA oxygen barrier coatings were unveiled at INFOFLEX 2023 in Columbus, Ohio.

Renee Schouten, Vice President of Marketing for INX, says these products support the company’s commitment to offering sustainable product solutions that can help brand owners and printers achieve their sustainability objectives.

“In most cases, a printing ink can replace traditional, petro-chemically derived ingredients with clean, renewable, and sustainable ingredients without sacrificing machine, processing and end-use product performance,” remarked Schouten, who has worked at INX since 2001. “The carbon footprint of packaging materials can be reduced by using eco-friendly inks that help the environment and contribute to a circular economy.”

A solvent ink for flexographic outdoor bag printing, DuraINX HRC is formulated with high performance pigments and components with up to 40% bio renewable content. Highly durable, they are free of nanomaterials, fluorochemicals, fanal pigments, heavy metals or PTF.

Designed for outdoor performance, DuraINX HRC offers excellent high speed printability and superior long-lasting properties with product, fade, and rub/scuff resistance that stands up to environmental exposure. Printers using it are seeing higher color strength compared to competitive bag systems, and have experienced increased productivity and lower applied costs due to blending system simplification and reduced inventory needs.

Ecostage GB-XA is an oxygen barrier coating that addresses food safety and preservation issues, and improves sustainability and recycling efforts. It allows for mono-material packaging to replace multi-layer packaging for specific food applications, thereby making it easier to recycle the package. Transparent, it is chlorine and metal-free and a solid alternative to expensive barrier films.

“Ecostage GB-XA was developed to radically improve the oxygen transmission rate of flexible packaging materials and offer a cost effective alternative to existing film options,” said Schouten. “Mono-material packaging improves recycling and package lightweighting, and Ecostage GB-XA does not impact recycling like multi-material packaging does. The coatings have produced excellent barrier performance on polyester and polyolefin films with dry film weights as low as 0.6g/m2.”

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