Flint Group has completed a major investment in additional capacity in its water-based coatings site in Willstaett, Germany. The increase in output enables them to expand their range of speciality coatings with several new formulations which have now been launched to the global market.
Commenting on the expansion of production and the launch of the new products, Romain Boulot, VP Sales and Global Strategy Sheetfed, says, “Before the new capacity was finalised, we were working at full productivity to service our packaging converter and commercial print customers. Our reputation for high quality, reliable and stable batch-to-batch consistency has been key to our success. We now want to offer a complete range of speciality coatings in order to fulfil the most challenging application needs of our customers.”
The new Novaset speciality coatings range includes soft touch, high gloss direct food contact, blister, in-mould, barrier, anti-slip, anti-curl and temperature resistant versions, as well as coatings that do not require hazardous labels, which when added to the standard Novaset range creates a complete portfolio.
“What makes this more exciting,” continues Mr Boulot, “is that we can work closely with our customers to formulate coatings to exactly meet their specific needs and produce test batches in a real production environment, without interrupting existing supply lines to our customers.”
The production expansion in Willstätt comes on the back of extensive research into the market for coatings, which highlighted the need for more complex product technologies and special effects.
Mr Boulot concludes, “The added value we bring to our customers includes this complete product range coupled with local, dedicated applications specialists. We consider the coatings portfolio to be an essential part of our proposal to packaging and commercial printers alike. We have also been working closely with our colleagues in Xeikon to formulate coatings with characteristics suited to digital print applications. Novaset 4301 High Gloss is one of the resulting products. It’s a low odour, low migration coating suitable for commercial print and packaging print applications with a direct food contact version available too. We showcased it successfully at The Xeikon Café in Belgium and this development work will continue for our digital print customers.”
