XEIKON ECO-FRIENDLY TONER ASSESSED

Xeikon recently introduced a new model of its CX500, the CX500t, press for the flexible packaging market. The t stands for Titon, a new dry toner, developed in part in response to Xeikon’s customers’ sustainability expectations.

For Xeikon sustainability has long been “at the core strategically and operationally” for the business. For instance, the company’s factory in Lier uses 100 per cent green energy, and dry toner printing technology is inherently sustainable.

Dry toner prints are easily deinked for recycling, and Titon toner is food compliant for both direct and indirect packaging. The new CX500t is a member of the Cheetah 2.0 family, and Titon toner can take temperatures of up to 220-260ºC.

Xeikon, now part of the Flint Group, was the first company to introduce a fully functioning digital press nearly thirty years ago. Along with Indigo, now HP Indigo, Xeikon essentially created the digital colour printing industry. Since those wild early days when digital printing was primarily used in commercial applications, digital printing technologies have spread to every corner of the print industry, most latterly as an add-on to analogue presses.

Printing press technologies have moved at a giddying pace since 1993, and the sustainability playbook has been one of the strongest arguments for investing in digital printing technology. You print only what you need with a digital press, so there is no waste, no warehousing and inventory management, and none of the emissions associated with this or the attendant transportation.

Xeikon’s new Titon dry toner takes the arguments a step further. The Titon toner itself is based on recycled PET, and contains no liquid components, so it does not migrate. This makes it food safe, and Xeikon is positioning it for printing paper-based packaging, such as pouches and sachets. Unlike other inks used in devices targeting that sector, there is no need for primer or varnishing. This cuts the processes needed to achieve good results, and potentially cuts waste too.

According to Frank Jacobs, market intelligence and senior product manager at Xeikon, “The flexible packaging market is moving towards more sustainable paper-based solutions in response to strong consumer demand for plastic-free alternatives. With the new Titon technology, Xeikon is offering a sustainable solution for an unexplored and wider variety of applications to fully support brand owners, designers and printers wishing to increase their use of paper-based packaging for food products.” So there you have it.

Innovation, technology and commitment to the future are what is going to get us out of the climate crisis. There has been no shortage of the first two in the printing and publishing industries. Commitment may still be too scarce, so it is to technology and innovations like Titon that we still must look for sustainable tools for cutting carbon.

This article was produced by the Verdigris Project, an industry initiative intended to raise awareness of print’s positive environmental impact. This weekly commentary helps printing companies keep up to date with environmental standards, and how environmentally friendly business management can help improve their bottom lines. Verdigris is supported by the following companies: Agfa Graphics, EFI, Fespa, Fujifilm, HP, Kodak, Miraclon, RicohSplash PR, Unity Publishing and Xeikon.