Digital inks, Glass
According to The Centers for Disease Control, falls are the leading cause of injury among adults aged 65 and older in the United States, resulting in approximately 14 million incidents annually. And The World Health Organization concluded that 37.3 million falls were severe enough to require medical attention, making falls the second leading cause of unintentional deaths worldwide. Falls often lead to hospitalization, a shorter life span and loss of independence. They also impose significant financial burdens, costing the U.S. health care system $50 billion annually. The overwhelming impact of falls has led to global campaigns to prevent injuries in aging adults and raise awareness to reduce incidents.
Further, addressing fall prevention has become increasingly important due to the significant demographic shift in global aging populations. The United Nations forecasts that the number of people aged 65 or older worldwide will increase by 1.6 billion by 2050. Urban planners, builders and architects must also recognize the importance of “aging in place,” older adults’ preference to live independently in their homes or communities rather than relocating. Making accessibility part of building planning and design can support independent lives for older adults while tapping into a thriving consumer market.
We help create safe havens with digital inks
In response to the demand for more accessible solutions, we developed a slip-resistant digital ink, a part of our SpectrumHD series, to enhance safety on interior and exterior glass surfaces. This ink increases friction on glass, making it less slippery, while its engineered formulation provides an even, durable coating that reduces slip hazards.
Our slip-resistant ink can be applied to many glass surfaces, including:
- Bathroom floors and shower doors: Reduces risk by creating a nonabrasive, nonslip surface
- Stairs and glass walkways: Provides a safe solution without sacrificing style
- Glass roofs and canopies: Ensures roofs and canopies are nonslip surfaces (even while wet) and remain durable with environmental weathering
- Pools and pool decks: Are ideal for areas susceptible to wet conditions and highly resistant to chemicals and saltwater damage
SpectrumHD slip-resistant ink redefines performance
Our slip-resistant digital ceramic ink has essential features that include:
- High chemical durability for exterior applications
- Ultraviolet stability
- REACH compliance
- Being a lead- and cadmium-free solution
- Suitability for standard tempering processes
- Extended nine-month shelf life
- Variable gloss and optical density depending on ink wet layer thickness
- Formulation for air and infrared drying
- Compatibility with leading industry inkjet print heads
Safer futures with slip-resistant inks
The integration of slip-resistant digital ink reflects a commitment to inclusive design principles that increase the useability of spaces where individuals can confidently navigate their surroundings. Our inks provide a versatile way to create safer environments without compromising design and ensure homes, public spaces and workplaces enhance the quality of life for those who habit them.
Contact us to discover more about our slip-resistant ink and our expanded portfolio of SpectrumHD digital inks. Speak to our experts to learn how you can integrate industry-leading inks into your glass applications and elevate your digital ceramic printing process.
Paints and coatings
Food packaging ensures food safety and easy handling and transport by preventing chemical contamination and enhancing shelf life, ensuring consumer convenience. Yet as consumers become increasingly more health conscious, they are increasingly worried about harmful substances transferring from its packaging materials into the food we consume. These concerns have spurred the development of stricter regulations and the search for safer, non-toxic packaging materials that protect both the food and the consumer.
Recently, regulatory frameworks like The German Printing Ink Ordinance have become crucial drivers for innovation within the ink and packaging industry. These regulations are aimed at ensuring materials used in printing, particularly those with direct contact, meet stringent safety and sustainability standards. Europe remains at the forefront of this movement, mandating higher purity and safety levels for pigments used in food packaging and other sensitive applications. This push toward sustainability and safety has prompted significant advancements in the industry, leading to the development of innovative solutions that not only comply with these regulations but also enhance product performance.
Ensuring food safety with organic pigments
Organic pigments play a critical role in the development of high-quality inks, particularly for applications involving direct and indirect food contact. These pigments, derived from natural sources, offer exceptional color vibrancy and stability while adhering to rigorous safety standards. The use of organic pigments ensures that inks are free from harmful contaminants, such as primary aromatic amines (PAAs), contaminants that occur in azo pigments- a subset of organic pigments comprised of insoluble organic compounds containing azo groups in their molecular structure. These harmful contaminants can potentially pose a health risk if they migrate into food from colored packaging and napkin materials. By leveraging organic pigments, companies can produce inks that deliver superior visual appeal and meet stringent regulatory requirements, reflecting a commitment to consumer safety and environmental sustainability.
Lysopure’s high chemical purity helps keep food packaging safe
In response to tightening regulations, Vibrantz launched Lysopure Yellow 1317C, an organic pigment with the highest purity profile available on the market, to minimize the risk of potential exposure to harmful substances. Lysopure Yellow 1317C is specifically designed for food and sensitive applications, ensuring it meets and exceeds the rigorous standards set by European authorities. The purity of Lysopure Yellow 1317C assures customers of its safety and reliability for use in both direct and indirect food contact.
The range of pure pigments used in Lysopure is based on a strict selection of raw materials, advanced processing techniques and an internal quality control process performed on every batch. We check each batch for PAAs, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and non-intentionally added substances (NIAS) in the final pigment content. Lysopure is ideal for use in tissue ink and bakery paper and can be used in any application where the purity profile is of concern, such as indirect food contact packaging, finger paints, non-woven materials and other plastic applications.
Superior performance with sustainability in mind
Lysopure Yellow 1317C performs exceptionally well in multicolor printing processes, particularly CMYK. This pigment offers more vibrant and accurate colors, setting a new benchmark for quality in the printing industry. The high purity of Lysopure Yellow 1317C minimizes impurities that can affect color consistency and vibrancy, resulting in inks that produce stunning, true-to-life prints. This makes it an ideal choice for food packaging where visual appeal is crucial.
In addition to its superior color performance, Lysopure Yellow 1317C is designed with sustainability in mind. The pigment is derived from organic sources, aligning with the growing demand for eco-friendly products in the market. Its production process minimizes environmental impact, reflecting our commitment to sustainable practices. By choosing Lysopure Yellow 1317C, companies can not only improve the aesthetic quality of their packaging but also contribute to a more sustainable future.
As the industry evolves under the influence of stricter regulations and growing consumer awareness, Vibrantz remains committed to innovating ink and pigment technologies like Lysopure Yellow 1317C.
Your reliable pigment producer
Vibrantz is a leading global supplier of specialty high-performing organic pigments that impart transparency and high tinting strength to establish the most vivid shades. Our range of organic pigments help customers simplify the important process of paint dispersal in paint manufacturing. Explore our expansive range of pigments in our product guide and on our website here.
Corporate
Whether we realize it, risk permeates almost every aspect of our daily lives. From the moment we turn on a kitchen oven or burner, use sharp objects or work at heights doing home projects, or get in a car or on public transport to go about our day: Our physical safety is at risk. And emotional safety is equally as important if we are to exercise the courage required to speak up to family or friends when something feels off in a conversation or situation. Similarly, safety is foundational in corporate environments, especially in manufacturing facilities. Truly, one of the most enduring and difficult challenges a business — and any leader — faces is how to make safety part of its cultural fabric and everyday operations to ensure employees get home safely every day. While there are countless systems, processes and tools to ensure safe manufacturing, the power of compassionate leaders who genuinely care about their people and invest in building a strong safety culture cannot be ignored.
Caring is the core of safety
The most dreaded call a leader in the manufacturing space can receive is that one of his or her employees has been injured — or, worse yet, killed — on the job. Every injury, in some way, is a failure on the part of leadership. And helping people get home safely requires a leadership component that is seldom talked about: Genuinely caring about others. Just as employees look forward to getting back home to their loved ones, they must also be led by a leader and work on a team that cares about their well-being. This understanding then drives each individual to act in ways that protect their own and others’ health and safety on the job.
Caring and safety impact desirable business outcomes
As the CEO at Vibrantz, I remind our employees often that if we are not world class in safety then we can never be our best as a company nor achieve our vision of becoming a world-class company. An organization led by managers who truly care and a workplace that takes safety seriously can positively impact key business outcomes. Gallup’s 2023 State of the Global Workplace Report shows employees who feel like someone cares for them are more likely to show care and respect for others, creating a safer work environment for the team. This is then a strong predictor of employee retention, safety, productivity and financial performance. Gallup’s 2020 meta-analysis of its Q12 inventory shows that corporate cultures in the top quartile of their database have 64% fewer incidents versus those with lower scores.
Media coverage of refinery operation explosions over the last some decades demonstrates the connection between caring and safety. Often cited as a key contributor to these sad and disastrous occurrences are poor safety cultures that ignore warning signs, allow or enable deficient safety management programs and/or accept the use of obsolete equipment. This “check the boxes” sort of mentality is the opposite of the care managers and leaders must demonstrate daily. And sadly, they ended in employee deaths and cost companies billions.
Strong safety systems are key
There is no “easy button” to push or single path to follow for a company to become world-class in safety. But leaders can impact safety performance with systems that make it hard for any