Domino and Paragon develop UV varnishes for global use

‘After listening to the challenges faced by some of our customers, we wanted to help them by providing a varnish optimized for overprinting UV95 printed output,’ said Julie Cross, technical director for Domino’s Digital Printing Solutions division. ‘We, therefore, set about finding a solution, ultimately deciding to work in partnership with Paragon Inks. And after 18 months of great collaboration between the two teams, we have developed a range of varnishes fully validated for compliance and suitable for global use.’

The first set of varnishes (matt and gloss including TTO over-printable), for use with Domino’s UV95 food packaging compliant UV digital ink set, are optimized such that the output does not need to be corona treated before the varnish is applied. This should reduce the complexity of the hybrid printing line and provides a technology for media incompatible with corona treatment, such as some metallic foils. 

During testing, Domino identified that the gloss varnish could be used as a lamination adhesive enabling further simplification, as one varnish can be used for two applications. 

These varnishes have been formulated for many non-direct food packaging applications and, under the right conditions, are migration compliant. They are suitable for global use, being fully compliant with Nestlé, EuPIA, Swiss Ordinance Annex 10, and the North American TSCA (Toxic Substances Control Act).  

To complement these, there is a second suite of varnishes suitable for use with Domino’s general-purpose UV90 ink set.   

‘At Paragon Inks, we are committed to continuous improvement and customer service. We recognized that label converters were experiencing challenges applying varnishes to digitally printed labels,’ said Amanda Jones, business development and marketing director at Paragon Inks. ‘This partnership with Domino highlights how we have worked together as a team to develop a mutually beneficial solution for both organizations’ customers. We look forward to continuing to work with Domino in the future.’