Mark Andy to distribute Sun Chemical inks in US

The agreement covers Sun Chemical’s UV, UV LED, water-based and specialty technologies for the tag and label market. Products available through Mark Andy will include SolarFlex Max D and SolarWave inks, AquaVerse water-based products, SolarLam UV laminating adhesives and SunLam solvent-free adhesives.

The partnership will allow converters to source inks, coatings and adhesives alongside plates, anilox rolls, doctor blades, mounting tapes and other pressroom consumables from Mark Andy Print Products.

Ralph Jenkins, vice president of sales and business development at Mark Andy Print Products, said: ‘Converters are managing tighter color tolerances, shorter runs, a broader mix of applications and increasing pressure to maintain consistency across jobs and facilities.

‘By combining Mark Andy’s narrow web expertise and customer reach with Sun Chemical’s technical and formulation capabilities, we can help customers address those challenges through a more complete and coordinated approach.’

Sun Chemical will contribute its expertise in areas including low-migration UV LED inks, UV laminating adhesives, solvent-free adhesive technologies, color management and regulatory compliance.

The two companies will also support label converters moving into flexible packaging applications such as pouches, sachets, stick packs, bags and shrink sleeves. Their technical teams will work together to assess substrates, ink and coating requirements, curing performance, migration considerations and regulatory requirements.

Dennis Sweet, vice president of narrow web tag and label at Sun Chemical, said: ‘Together, we can help customers achieve greater color consistency, improve productivity, streamline operational efficiency and address increasingly complex label and flexible packaging requirements.’

Mark Andy customers will also gain access to Sun Chemical’s SunColorBox color management ecosystem, which supports color communication, matching, formulation, dispensing and production control.

SunColorBox will be used alongside the Mark Andy Print Products Color Smart program. Through pressroom audits, fingerprinting and calibration, the program assesses how variables including plates, mounting tapes, anilox rolls, doctor blades, inks and press settings affect color consistency.

‘Color does not begin or end with any single pressroom component,’ Jenkins added. ‘Bringing ink formulation, matching, dispensing, prepress, fingerprinting and documented operating standards into a coordinated process gives us a much stronger foundation for helping converters achieve repeatable results.’

The companies plan to install ink-dispensing technology at Mark Andy facilities and selected customer sites. The systems will enable spot colors to be produced closer to the point of use, with the aim of reducing ink inventory and waste.

Mark Andy and Sun Chemical are also collaborating on low-migration ink performance and curing for high-speed flexographic printing. The work will combine Mark Andy’s press and web-handling knowledge with Sun Chemical’s ink formulation capabilities.

The partnership will be introduced to the market at Loupe Americas 2026 through technical presentations, demonstrations and educational sessions covering ink performance, color consistency, pressroom productivity and the convergence of label and flexible packaging production.