Actega increases production of overprint varnishes

The company has recently invested around EUR 2 million (USD 2.175 million) in a new integrated site in Brazil with a plan to locate 180 employees supporting the business. 

‘Production and warehousing will occupy most of the 12,000 square meters facility with new high efficiency equipment installed to produce overprint varnishes,’ said Andrei Sotkeviciene, managing director at Actega in Brazil. ‘Research and development activities will take place in an ultra-modern, 500 square meter research laboratory set up for this purpose.’ 

Moreover, Actega recorded a significant increase in production capacities, especially for UV coatings, due to the integration of Switzerland-based Schmid Rhyner with almost 80 employees specializing in technologies for print finishing and digital printing.

‘Actega consists of 11 companies with worldwide production facilities and sales offices,’ stated Andreas Gipp, senior vice president of the Global Business Line Paper and Board. ‘Due to our production sites in Europe, North and South America as well as in China, we can not only better serve internationally operating printing groups and be closer to our customers, but also proactively support them in their growth.’ 

The company focuses on digital printing and varnishing with its technology centers for established at the Lehrte site, Germany and the Cinnaminson facility in New Jersey, USA where R&D activities are bundled with inks, primers and overprint varnishes. Moreover, Actega offers a wide range of digital coatings based on the DiVar technology developed and patented by Schmid Rhyner.

Another example of the focus on new technologies is EcoLeaf, which enables metallization without foil and thus improves the sustainability of all related processes. It has been in development at Actega since 2017. 

‘Already now we achieve more than 25 percent of our turnover with new products and R&D investment represents 10 percent of our sales turnover,’ added Gipp. ‘It is in our interest to conduct intensive research and to continuously improve products. Thus, we are currently working on a next generation of barrier coatings, enabled by novel aqueous thermoplastic elastomer dispersions of the Yunico technology, which are free from emulsifiers and solvents.’