#233 The Chemistry Behind the Future of Printing

Join us for an enlightening episode featuring Susanne Struck, the Global Head of Printing Inks at Evonik Coating Additives. We dive into the dynamic world of printing inks, exploring innovations that are reshaping the industry and the pivotal role of inkjet technology. Susanna shares her extensive experience, discussing how Evonik's diverse portfolio caters to various applications, including food-safe packaging.

The conversation highlights the critical trends towards sustainability that are transforming the market. As consumers and businesses alike prioritize eco-friendly solutions, Evonik is leading the development of additives that comply with strict safety regulations. Susanna also predicts how evolving consumer preferences might shift the landscape of packaging inks in the coming years.

Whether you’re a professional in the printing industry or simply curious about the technological advancements influencing what we see on shelves, this episode provides critical insights and valuable perspectives. Tune in and discover how Evonik is pioneering changes that align with the industry's future.

Don’t forget to subscribe and stay updated on the latest in printing technology and innovations in the industry!

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Transcript

Welcome to Future Print Podcast

Frazer Chesterman 0:01

Welcome to the Future Print Podcast, celebrating print technology and the people behind it.

Susanne Struck 0:10

Well, hi there and welcome to this week's Future Print Podcast, and I'm very pleased to have with me Susanne Struck, who is the Global Head of Printing Inks at Evernick Coating Additives. Good morning to you, susanna Good morning, Fraser.

Speaker 3 0:27

It's a pleasure to be with you today.

Susanne Struck 0:29

Yes, thank you very much for joining us. Susanna, it's nice to speak to you. It's the first time we've done a podcast with yourselves, and Evernick is a new customer, a new partner with Futureprint, so it's going to be interesting to find out more about you as a business. Susanna, just tell us a little bit about you, your background, your journey into the printing inks world.

Speaker 3 0:53

OK, I will try to do that. Actually, I've been working with the inks industry for quite a while now. I still do not consider myself being a true ink specialist. True ink specialists are our customers. But telling a little bit about the history, I started chemistry with a specialization on coatings and polymer technology and I started more than 30 years ago in a predecessor company to what today is Ibonic Coating Additives, yep, and I continued working in this space of raw materials for coatings and printing inks all the time in different roles.

Susanne Struck 1:32

Yep.

Introduction of Susanna Struck and Evonik

Speaker 3 1:33

I was responsible for printing inks for a while. Quite at an early stage I was responsible for various coating applications for certain product groups, key account management in between mainly technical roles. Over the last years I've also taken over marketing responsibility, and again back to the printing inks. So today I'm heading all of our activities from marketing and technical standpoint that go towards the printing ink industry.

Frazer Chesterman 2:03

Brilliant.

Susanne Struck 2:03

Thank you very much. Very concise and gives us a little bit of an overview. Go towards the printing industry Brilliant. Thank you very much. Very concise and gives us a little bit of an overview. Anyone who doesn't know Evanik and what you do, tell us a bit about the product portfolio in general and specifically, obviously, printing inks.

Speaker 3 2:22

Okay, I'm happy to do that Very briefly. Evanik is a very, very large specialty chemical producer, more than 30,000 employees worldwide. But within Evonik about various different departments, business lines, however you want to call that in one area we call that a business line within evonik is the coating additives.

Speaker 3 2:47

Coating additives handles raw materials that go into the coatings and printing inks industry. Yeah, and portfolio consists of, as the name already indicates, mainly additives, but also some co-binders, or combination resins as some people call it, and some specialty main binders like for high heat or anti-corrosion applications. The biggest share of the portfolio is additives. I didn't sorry.

Susanne Struck 3:18

No, I understand, that makes sense. That makes sense, okay.

Speaker 3 3:22

And you specifically asked about the printing inks. Printing inks is an important area of application for our raw materials. We do split our, let's say, market engagement, our marketing and technical team, into three main segments. Yeah, that's the so-called decorative coatings, which includes also the wood coatings and the pigment concentrates. The other one is the industrial and transportation. That would include all kinds of industrial coatings, which includes also the wood coatings and the pigment concentrates. The other one is the industrial and transportation. That would include all kinds of industrial coatings and automotive coatings. And the third big pillar is the printing inks. Printing inks in the wildest sense any kind of inks from a standard flexographic ink versus via ball pen ink down.

Susanne Struck 4:03

And that's an important and growing area for us, sure, inkjet x yes, yes, of course, and and generally, inkjet obviously is is a growing market, isn't it? It's a market that's been growing for a period of time and continues to evolve in into different applications. I guess, I guess, for what you guys do is you, you do a lot of the work, the science work that gets the it develops the ink to, to help the application. Is that right?

Speaker 3 4:35

we actually. The ink is being developed by our customers yeah, but we need ink makers which may be completely independent or belong to large ink companies. Yeah, and we support with our raw materials so they are able to get the desired performance got it because, yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

Susanne Struck 4:54

so you, in effect, are doing the work for the, for the ink manufacturers, in, in, in helping them develop the right um additives to go in, and I assume that includes things like dispersions. Is that right?

Speaker 3 5:08

Yeah, we do have. Speaking about the products or solutions that we have available, it's a wide range of properties. But you mentioned dispersions, sure, pigment wetting and dispersing additives that help our customers to create stable dispersions, stable and colorful inks. That's a big and important area for us. So, when we speak about image eddings only now, substrate wetting additives any kind of wetting, dynamic substrate wetting, good static wetting so a large portfolio of wetting agents available, but also surface additives that would create some, let's say, slip, anti-blocking or release properties on top of our additives.

Speaker 3 5:50

And we also have some silica dispersions that would go into primers that make substrates ready for excellent inkjet printing. That's in a nutshell Co-bindyers that improve fastness properties of the printed inks is really a large portfolio that we have available there.

Susanne Struck 6:09

Susanna, I'm interested because you mentioned that you've been in the industry for quite a long time. What do you? You know, the last sort of 10 years have you seen a real shift into use of inkjet as a technology?

Speaker 3 6:23

Yeah, Definitely so. You already mentioned over-proportional growth in general. But what we also see is that Inkjet has now successfully entered applications that so far seem to be dominated by other printing processes. Inkjet was very early in the small home office and office applications that's easy. Then we went to that signage and so on. Applications that's easy, then we went to that signage and so on. But what we see today and has successfully penetrated any kind of ceramics.

Speaker 3 6:55

But what we see today is growing usage in the area of packaging applications, any kind of decorative printing, often in combination in these areas, often in combination still with the traditional printing processes, as a separate unit, maybe on the machine, but also as the sole solution, and we see it more and more being used also in textile applications. Of course it gets wider and wider and enters area where historically it was considered maybe difficult to be entered by, where historically it was considered maybe difficult to be entered by digital applications.

Speaker 3 7:33

But they bring so much benefit. With the shorter print runs and the opportunity to have, let's say, also in a cost-efficient way, if you have, let's say, the high volume printed still by a flexographic review or whatever process, and you add the digital to that, you come up with solutions that so far could not be realized with the packaging industry, for example yeah, yeah, and, and the packaging industry is clearly one of those markets that's, uh, looking very seriously at digital and inkjet particularly, but, as you said it, it also depends a lot on the ink, doesn't it?

Susanne Struck 8:04

the the because with packaging you're, there's lots of different um challenges. Chemical challenges aren't there in terms of sort of toxins, in terms of touching food or or the packaging material that's being used. It's quite complex, but it's also quite exciting yes, actually I tend to see that positively.

Speaker 3 8:28

On one hand, I'm a consumer as well, right, and I have a strong interest that whatever I buy can be eaten without major risk yeah, exactly that's not what you were asking for, I guess.

Speaker 3 8:40

Um, I think in the industry. Actually, we benefit from the awareness in the industry and from the regulations, because we have been putting a very strong focus on these aspects for quite a while. We do have developed a product portfolio where many, many products have very good food contact compliances. It's one of the key areas when we develop for in general printing applications, not just digital. We pay a lot of attention on broadest possible food contact compliances.

Speaker 3 9:12

So the product can be used in a variety of applications and we see a very high acceptance on the customer side for that, because they tend not to want to buy additives separately for any decorative application and another packaging application. They appreciate when an additive can do it all from a functionality standpoint and is safe enough to be used in a broad variety of applications, including food packaging yeah, yeah, yeah makes sense can I?

Susanne Struck 9:40

just just, whilst we are talking about this application issue, um, you mentioned packaging. Clearly, ceramics you mentioned as well. Obviously, ceramics is quite a mature market for digital. You also mentioned textile Is there any other particular segments like surface decoration, automotive white goods that you are seeing used with inkjet? You know where the projects are inkjet related.

Speaker 3 10:08

Yeah, there are many, and not all of them would be traditional, and you already mentioned that would be traditionally printing ink, right? Yeah, in the decorative segment, sure, we also see more and more use of inkjet when it comes to wallpaper coverings for special effects, things like that.

Frazer Chesterman 10:26

Yeah.

Susanna's Background in Printing Inks

Speaker 3 10:27

But what you also mentioned that's an interesting area but, I have to admit, for which I'm not responsible is the thought of jetting automotive coatings and other industrial goods. That to me would not be an ink jet printer anymore, but jetting coatings, yeah, yeah, coatings, and, let's say, larger patterns, and you could do this in a very, very um tailored way. People could order their car, like in three different colors, whatever, without any problems. If it were done like that and I know there is a lot of activity going on and we also.

Speaker 3 11:03

We, as coating additives, also have a stake in these discussions and tests of jetting coatings rather than spraying them yeah, there's definitely some interest in that space, isn't there?

Susanne Struck 11:13

and and, yeah, and equally, just to finish off on that, um, we see quite a lot of inkjet technology used for direct to shape, and that could mean small shapes as well as large shapes, and again it comes back to the shapes as well as large shapes, and again it comes back to the technology of the ink and the and the makeup of the ink. But you know, to bind it, all the things, the challenges of application, isn't it really?

Speaker 3 11:42

yeah, this, non impact technology gives you a much larger freedom to transfer your, let's say, colour impression, to transfer your ink, and you're right If any body that is not perfectly shaped in order to be printed in direct contact with a printing plate or roller inkjet has enormous advantages.

Susanne Struck 12:04

Yeah.

Speaker 3 12:05

We really believe that this technology will continue to grow over proportionally in the next years.

Susanne Struck 12:11

Yeah, I think you're right. I guess you said yourself there are. You know you're a very specialist area and your clients, your customers, are typically the big ink manufacturers. There are a number of other companies in the market in what you do. So I guess I'm asking the question how do you differentiate yourself from the other competitors in your space?

Speaker 3 12:41

okay, I think by a few points. First of all, yeah, first of all, belonging to Evonik means having an enormously broad technology portfolio that we can work with. We don't only have, like cyroxane-based additive organic surfactants or polymers Within Evonik. We have such a large technology portfolio to work with in order to develop the right solutions for our customers and a lot of expertise.

Speaker 3 13:12

So it's not only that we work on the little island of coating additives, but we can make use of the know-how and also production landscape that Evonik offers globally. That's a big advantage. The second one is that within coating additives, we have intensively focused on the area of printing inks for a long time, and by that we were able to develop a really targeted product portfolio that suits the needs of many, many inks applications very well. So it's not just what we have for coating to be thrown over the fence and try to sell for inks. We are developing tailored products for ink applications.

Speaker 3 13:51

And this brings me to the third step, and you already mentioned the topic food safety, sustainability. These aspects we have been focusing on that for a long time and because of that, have a highly suitable portfolio. And we do have within Evonik regulatory experts that support us in giving food contact statements to our customers. They support us in our development activities from the beginning, so we involve them, making sure the products come out the way we want them to come out, and all this expertise really helps us to successfully create the solutions for our customers.

Susanne Struck 14:29

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I often you know, we've been in the industrial inkjet space for a little bit of time and we often hear people say, you know, a manufacturer of a product wants to make something and they want to use inkjet as the way of coating, or, yeah, coating something. And I often hear people say, yeah, but don't start with machines, go right back to the ink, go back to the ink first and, I guess even more than that, go back to the chemistry, go back to the work that's been done. Do you think with any big project, that's a sort of industrial manufacturing project? It's good to have the conversations early about the ink manufacturing and the development of the ink.

Speaker 3 15:22

Early is always good, because then you can still consider the specific needs of the application, which is very important, even though, comparing to other applications, I would say Inkjet still is the technology where the application technology meaning how it is jetted, which printhead is being used, things like that plays a really large role. If there is a chance of bringing all aspects into the discussion at an early point of time, from, let's say, ink development up to the machinery being used and the programming being used, it would be ideal. Sometimes this happens too late.

Speaker 3 16:05

Nearly everything is set up and then the ink has to do the magic yeah and it can get difficult yeah, I think you're right yeah, like you said everything else, to think everything through, and then you say okay, and now we want to print a beverage. Can? Yep with what we have and not us, but our customer is then supposed to deliver the perfect ink for that, yeah, and which would then require ultimate resistance properties, ultimate food safety and so on. This sometimes can be an issue, so the earlier the better. I would agree on that.

Susanne Struck 16:36

Yeah, and do you have quite strong relationships, obviously with your ink manufacturers, but you'd also are you involved very much in development of a project.

Speaker 3 16:48

Sorry, I did not get the question no no, sorry, sorry.

Susanne Struck 16:50

So you obviously work very closely with the ink manufacturers, susanna, but do you also like to work on the whole project from start to finish, to actually see something in action? You know the print technology in action that delivers the final product?

Speaker 3 17:10

Yes, we love to, and sometimes in very important projects we're really involved early and get to see also the final result and the final application and this always gets us really excited and actually increases our understanding for the needs of our customers. So whenever possible we love to do that. In many cases as an additive supplier we would not necessarily be the first first, let's say, partner in a project that would be there from very early, beginning to the very end. But in important projects this happens and we enjoy that and we learn a lot by that.

Susanne Struck 17:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I just need to ask you obviously sustainability as a topic is interesting and obviously you know you might argue politically that, with America as it is, that maybe sustainability is going to come off the agenda. What do you think about sustainability in printing inks? It's such an important thing and obviously europe is pushing hard for this, but what's your view on this? It?

Speaker 3 18:14

is enormously important. I'm confident it will stay important, even if new presidents may not put as much focus on this topic. I do not believe the industry will completely move backwards, also in the United States.

Speaker 3 18:30

Yeah, but at least I don't hope so. But what I see when, when I do travel globally to see customers sure, currently, somehow in BIA, it's going ahead, yeah, with all regulations with regards to recycling, to the amount of recycled plastics that needs to be used in films and in the near future. But also when I traveled, let's say, to Thailand, for example, they do not have this legislation in place yet. They are still interested in this topic and they prepare for it.

Speaker 3 19:03

So I really see a global awareness that our customers ends and I assume that's coming from their customers and their customers and the large global brand owners and this development will not stop it is currently, to me, the most important driver in the inks industry yeah, that's, that's yeah the strongest, but also the rest of the world who don't have these rules in place yet or where the legislation is not in preparation.

Speaker 3 19:28

They already work on that, they prepare for that and there is kind of global awareness and this will further increase. I'm convinced of that.

Susanne Struck 19:36

Yeah, interesting, just looking ahead to any particular trends that you sense you've talked a lot about kind of your view, which is nice to hear. Um, what's your sense about the market at the moment, particularly for printing inks and, you know, coating additives? Um, and how do you kind of envision evanick, uh, kind of adapting to these, these trends?

Speaker 3 20:10

Let me take the EMEA perspective for a moment. Looking at what's going on there, I see a large share of the market. We speak about packaging. Right. Looking at the packaging market and the discussions that are going on, there's going to be a big change in the market and we need to ask ourselves is the market going to grow, continue to grow, or will it be stagnant at some point or maybe even shrink?

Speaker 3 20:33

with the discussion of less packaging being used, more simple packaging being used, less colorful packaging being used, these things, and asking that critically. My answer would be I could imagine that over the next 10, 15 years, the volumes of colored inks being used in these applications may go down.

Speaker 3 20:56

At the same time, different packaging materials which are better, easier to recycle, may require barrier coatings, for example, yeah, the monomaterial packaging, or even the trend to paperization which you see. This requires other coatings and inks that will grow in volume, and what does that mean for us? That was a very good question. Yeah, we need to be aware of that and we need to work on the topic of barrier coatings.

Speaker 3 21:26

We have just developed a new co-binder that allows better recycling of printed substrates. So it's a co-binder that goes into a solvent-borne ink and when you have it in the recycling is faster, can be achieved by lower temperatures and is more complete, so making sure the resulting reciclate of the substrate, the quality, will be much higher, things like that. So we will shift our focus from just, let's say, supplying the right additives to make the colored inks as efficient as possible also to barriers, to recyclability, things like that. And within Evonik, outside of the coating additives world, I know colleagues are working on things which are added to the plastics to make them better recyclable or allow higher usage of recycled plastics. There's a lot going on within Evonik with regards to recyclability.

Overview of Evonik's Product Portfolio

Susanne Struck 22:22

Yes, yeah, that's interesting. Uh, recyclability yes, yeah, that's interesting. Um, and, as you said, it reflects, um you know, an interest in sustainability as well, doesn't it? So, as you said, it's, it's, it's kind of quite important, it's you know, we there's. There's a drive, a drive towards. You know what's going on. A change isn't there. There's a drive towards that.

Speaker 3 22:44

A big change currently going on in the existence. Yes, Clearly.

Susanne Struck 22:48

Listen. Thank you very much for giving us your time today. It's been interesting hearing from you and we're pleased that your colleague Christian will be speaking at our event down in Valencia, so it'll be interesting to hear what he's got to say, and it's been really useful just to get a bit of clarity over what Evonik do and how you position yourself. And, as you say yourself, you know there are some USPs, some strong USPs, about the business, so it's good to hear that. Susanna, is there anything? Finally, you want to add for our listeners as we come to the end of our podcast?

Speaker 3 23:29

Anything I would like to add, except for don't hesitate to contact us. We'll be happy to discuss with you and hopefully come up with the right solutions for the next generations of internet inks.

Susanne Struck 23:41

Yeah, brilliant. Thank you for that and, as I said, you can see Sylvie and Christian down in Valencia on the 2nd and 3rd of April, and it's been an absolute pleasure speaking to you. Susanna, thank you very much for giving us your time and I look forward to catching up with you, maybe in real life, sometime in the future.

Speaker 3 24:01

I hope so. Unfortunately I cannot come to Valencia, but my colleagues will be there and will sure do a good job Brilliant.

Susanne Struck 24:08

Thank you very much, thank you very much. Thanks, Susanna.

Frazer Chesterman 24:12

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