Siegwerk has entered into a distribution partnership with Varcotec, a specialist producer of overprint varnishes made for the printing industry.
The agreement centres around Varcotec’s Lock 3 antimicrobial coating technology, which Siegwerk will now distribute throughout the EMEA region.
The varnish, described by Siegwerk as the first of its kind, was developed in cooperation with a spin-off company affiliated with the University of Regensburg. The antimicrobial effectiveness of this product has also been ‘confirmed by several independent testing institutions.’
‘With the integration of Varcotec’s innovative product technology, we are adding a unique solution for various applications and packaging industries to our portfolio, thereby once again reinforcing the holistic nature of our offers for the packaging market,’ said Hanns Martin Kaiser, vice president paper and board EMEA and liquid food packaging at Siegwerk.
Paul Pain, Siegwerk’s global head of water-based technology added, ‘With Lock 3, Varcotec has launched the first antimicrobial dispersion varnish based on the principle of photodynamics in order to reliably reduce the germ loads. We are pleased to be able to include this unique product innovation in our portfolio, allowing us to offer this to our customers as partner of Varcotec.’
‘Until now, it has not been possible to apply a reliable coating onto absorbent substances, such as paper and cardboard, which would continuously and permanently destroy germs,’ finished Varcotec’s Joachim Frings. ‘With Lock 3 we have succeeded in developing a varnish system which can demonstrably reduce the germ load on a wide range of printed products, already at ambient lighting conditions.’
Lock 3 can be applied to paper and cardboard by means of all commonly used printing machinery and coating equipment. The first pilot applications on plastic films are already underway, an expansion of the application range is under development and subjected to the required testing.
