Siegwerk has just expanded its Technical Center in Annemasse, France, with a new production facility for inkjet inks. The investment follows the construction of a dedicated inkjet laboratory last year that was built to already extend the company’s R&D capabilities in this area. Siegwerk is committed to further drive the development of inkjet inks that meet all printing process functionality and efficiency requirements and address the specific challenges of the labels and packaging segments. On 13th October, the company held an official inauguration ceremony in Annemasse to which selected local and regional authorities as well as all local employees were invited.
L to R: Jens Adrio, (Head of Corporate Development), Veronique Danois (President of Siegwerk France), Herbert Forker (CEO) and Matthieu Carni (Business Development Manager).
Today, the site in Annemasse is home for 275 employees and counts as Siegwerk’s European leading plant for water-based printing inks and varnishes. The ‘Center of Excellence’ produces more than 25,000 tons of printing ink per year. Over the last three years, the company invested €3 million to specifically build up its development, production and testing capacities in the inkjet technology. “After opening our designated inkjet laboratory last year, we now opened our first designated inkjet production facility in Annemasse,” says Herbert Forker, CEO at Siegwerk. “Going forward we will invest an additional €2 million in new equipment for the inkjet ink technology over the next five years. Annemasse will be our driving force for future inkjet ink solutions.”
“Overall, we see a growing demand for application-driven ink systems and especially for inkjet ink customization”, says Matthieu Carnie, Business Development Manager at Siegwerk. “From our perspective, the most promising technologies are UV inkjet, suitable for narrow web printing on thick material such as labels & direct-to-pack, and water-based inkjet, suitable for single pass large width printing on corrugated and flexible packaging. Both technologies can also be suitable for printing on folding carton.”
