Inks & Toners

INDUSTRIAL CODES

NAICS: 32-5910 Printing Ink Manufacturing

SIC: 2893 Printing Ink

NAICS-Based Product Codes: 32-5910E, 32-5910E111, and 32-5910E121

PRODUCT OVERVIEW

Ink is a solution used in writing and printing. Much of the $4 billion worth of ink manufactured each year in the United States goes unnoticed. Newspapers and books are printed with ink using the conventional lithographic offset method. At the local grocer, packaged foods have a U.S. Department of Agriculture-required nutritional facts label printed with ink using the conventional flexographic press method. Magazines are printed with ink using the conventional gravure press method.

Inks are categorized by the presses upon which they are used. The three conventional classes of ink mentioned above are lithographic offset inks, flexographic inks, and gravure inks. The fourth conventional product class is inks related to letterpress printing. These four conventional methods of printing all require ink and all require pressing. Printing presses are pieces of equipment that use a plate to press ink against a substrate, traditionally paper. The characteristic that is shared by the four traditional classes of ink is that a plate comes in contact with the substrate to transfer words and images.

The fifth class of printing ink is distinct. It does not require contact with the substrate to produce words or images. This newest of ink classes is nonimpact digital ink. Printing with digital ink does not require a plate to press the ink against the paper. Digital ink is typically used in smaller printing equipment introduced in the late 1980s. Smaller, more affordable digital ink printers created a consumer market for ink commonly referred to as the SOHO (small office and home office) market. Larger institutions also use digital inks in their growing networks of small printers so the SOHO market should not be confused as being restricted to small settings.

Nonimpact digital ink is experiencing double digit growth while the four conventional ink classes are either stagnant or shrinking. Moreover, digital ink is distributed to the SOHO consumer market in a non-conventional manner.

MARKET

The market for printing ink of all types in the United States in 2002 measured $4 billion in value of products shipped by manufacturers. The value of all shipments is provided by the U.S. Census Bureau in its 2002 Economic Census. In 2002 the four traditional ink product classes represented 94 percent of the ink industry based on dollar value of shipments. Digital inks comprised the remaining 6 percent, or $242 million of the total $4 billion per year ink market. Because digital inks are the fastest growing class of inks, they are the primary focus of this essay. A review of the four traditional ink product classes is first provided, along with an overview of the nonimpact digital ink industry.

Printing Inks for Lithographic and Offset Printing

These inks represent almost half, or 42 percent, of the value of all inks in the marketplace. Manufacturers' shipments of lithographic and offset inks stayed even over the five-year period from 1997 to 2002, at $1.68 billion each year. Books and newspapers are printed with offset lithography ink. Even given the increased use of electronic media and the affiliated forecasts that the book and newspaper industry will not survive the new technology era, offset lithography remains the single largest class of inks because offset presses are designed for efficiency in high quality, high volume printing.

Offset lithography uses a large printing plate on which words and images are ink-receptive while the remainder of the plate is water-receptive. Ink is transferred from the plate to a rubber blanket; the rubber blanket presses the words and images to paper. A great advantage is that the words and images transferred (offset) from plate to blanket to paper are not reversed. Offset printing is the most common form of high volume commercial printing.

Printing Inks for Flexographic Presses

Flexographic printing inks represent 20 percent of the value of inks in the marketplace. Manufacturers' shipments for these inks increased slightly over the five-year period from 1997 to 2002, from $718 million to $777 million, an increase of 7 percent.

Most commonly used in the packaging industry, flexographic presses use a roller system with a flexible rubber-like plate. Quick-drying ink is applied to a raised pattern of words and images on the plate, which is rolled over the substrate. The fast-drying characteristic of flexographic inks makes these inks ideal for printing on substrates such as plastics and foils. Flexography is primarily used to print packaging materials such as plastic bags, milk and beverage cartons, nutrition facts labels, and candy and food wrappers. Its fast drying time and somewhat lower quality is ideal for these disposable packaging products.

Printing Inks for Gravure Printing

This class of inks represents 13 percent of the value of inks in the marketplace. Manufacturers' shipments declined during the five-year period from 1997 to 2002, from $573 million in 1997 to $496 million in 2002, a drop of 13 percent. Because it takes a long time to set up gravure presses, gravure inks are used only for high-quality projects such as glossy magazines, of which National Geographic is an example. Gravure inks are also used for printing postage stamps and paper money for the U.S. Treasury.

In gravure printing, words and images consist of small holes etched onto a cylinder, typically by a diamond tipped or laser etching machine. The small holes, called cells, are filled with ink, then a rubber-covered roller presses paper, or any other substrate, onto the surface of the cylinder plate. Because the cells are filled with ink, gravure transfers more ink to the substrate than other printing processes and is noted for its remarkable density range.

Gravure inks are the first choice for fine art and photography reproduction. Because of its high set up costs, gravure printing is used primarily for press runs in excess of one million copies. Vanity Fair is an example; it is printed by RR Donnelley, a long-time purchaser of gravure printing inks. RR Donnelly purchases gravure inks to print six out of the top ten glossy magazines in the United States.

Printing Inks for Letterpress Printing

This class of inks represents 4 percent of the value of inks in the marketplace. Manufacturers' shipments of letterpress inks shrunk in the five-year period from 1997 to 2002, from $184 million to $135 million, a drop of almost 25 percent. Letterpress printing consists of raised words and images (known as type) on a plate. The plate is locked onto a flat surface, inked, and the substrate is pressed against the inked type to produce the impression.

Letterpress was once the only kind of printing in the world and was the primary means of mass communication for over 500 years. It was invented in 1450 by a German named Gutenberg as an alternative to calligraphy and is commonly thought to be one of the inventions that revolutionized communications. Although letterpress inks represent a small sector of the ink market, purists adore the slightly embossed look that results from the direct impression of raised inked type upon paper. Letterpress printing inks are used to produce a high-end look.

Printing Inks for Nonimpact Digital Applications

This class of inks is the fastest growing of the ink types and is a distinct category. Its use does not involve a large plate to press ink against the substrate, or paper. In 1997 manufacturers' shipments of nonimpact digital printing inks were $96 million per year, or 3 percent of all ink shipments—by far the smallest of the ink classes. By 2002 shipments of digital printing inks surpassed the demand for letterpress inks reaching a value of $242 million while shipments for letterpress inks stood at $135 million that year.

In the five-year period from 1997 to 2002, digital inks doubled their share of the printing ink market, increasing from 3 percent in 1997 to 6 percent in 2002. While the rest of the printing ink industry was relatively flat, digital inks grew by over 40 percent, from $96 million to $242 million.

Digital ink is distributed to the consumer market via a distinctly different distribution channel than the distribution channel used for the four types of conventional inks. Digital inks are used by the owners of small and affordable printers while conventional inks are generally used by the owners of gigantic printing presses. Small and affordable printers created the consumer printing aftermarket that involves repeated purchases of digital ink in the form of replaceable and disposable cartridges.

Nonimpact digital inks are subdivided into two product classes: Inkjet inks and electrophotographic printing inks. The latter is known generally by the term toner. Both types are quick drying and stored in disposable cartridges.

Inkjet printers use a printing process where liquid ink is propelled or jetted at a substrate to form images or words. Quality depends on the relationship between the ink, the print head, and the paper. Two different print head designs are used to jet ink to paper: thermal and piezoelectric. The thermal method forces droplets of ink out of the print head by heating a resistor to cause an air bubble to expand; when the bubble collapses, the ink droplet is jetted off the print head onto the paper. The piezoelectric method charges crystals that expand to jet droplets of ink onto the paper. The thermal method is a popular technology used by Hewlett Packard and Canon; the piezoelectric method is used by Epson.

Electrophotographic printing inks are used in laser printers. Laser printers use static electricity to print words and images on paper. First, a laser beam light creates electrostatically charged words and images on a roller drum. The drum is then rolled through a reservoir of electrophotographic printing ink (toner), which is picked up by the charged portions on the drum. Finally, the toner ink is transferred to the paper through a combination of heat and pressure. In addition to printers, photocopy machines use electrophotographic printing inks in this same process, which was developed by Xerox in 1971.

KEY PRODUCERS/MANUFACTURERS

In 2005 the printing ink industry experienced an unprecedented wave of consolidation, unprecedented raw material price increases, and unprecedented overseas competition. Overall, the U.S. printing ink market is flat and some product segments are shrinking.

During the first nine months of 2006, according to the National Association of Printing Ink Manufacturers (NAPIM), U.S. ink sales rose 5 percent compared to the previous year. NAPIM's 2005 State of the Industry Report showed that U.S. ink manufacturers had average returns on net assets of 3 percent. Paltry margins within the industry explain the intense industry-wide interest in the digital ink segment with its 40-plus percent growth rate. Manufacturers not traditionally involved in digital inks are looking for ways to break into this fastest growing of the ink categories, primarily through acquisitions.

The bright spot in the printing ink industry is this very particular growth in nonimpact digital inks: inkjet inks and toner inks. Print Week reported that in 2005, the proportion of digital color inks was just 4 percent by volume, but 12 percent by value of shipments. Not only are digital inks the fastest growing portion of the ink market, they also represent a segment of the market that offers manufacturers the opportunity for greater profit margins. This is yet another reason for conventional ink makers to see digital ink—whether black or color—as a potentially attractive opportunity.

Leading manufacturers of digital inks, relatively speaking, have a lot of experience with digital ink products and technically advanced product lines. They also have something the conventional ink manufacturers do not: an understanding of the consumer segment aftermarket created by the introduction of small affordable printers in the late 1980s. The top three manufacturers of digital ink are Nazdar, Triangle Digital INX, and Von Son.

Nazdar

In February 2006 North America's largest ink manufacturer, Nazdar, announced the acquisition of Lyson, Ltd., in the United Kingdom, and its subsidiary, Lyson, Inc., in Chicago, Illinois. Lyson is known for its upscale line of inkjet inks. Lyson became part of the Nazdar Inks and Coatings Division, based in Shawnee, Kansas. In addition to its 120,000 square foot plant in Shawnee, Nazdar has manufacturing facilities in Chicago, Illinois, Atlanta, Gerogia, and Toronto, Canada. The Lyson product line includes piezo and thermal digital inks for all major inkjet print technologies: photographic, graphic, grand format, office recycling, textile and industrial. Lyson also caters to the consumer aftermarket for replaceable and dispoable ink cartridges.

Triangle Digital INX

In early 2006 INX International Ink Co. formed a joint venture with inkjet ink specialist Triangle Digital, creating Triangle Digital INX. Triangle Digital LLC was founded in 2002 and gained a reputation with outdoor durable digital inks, which they had been manufacturing since 1993. Triangle targeted the digital market well before conventional inkmakers, developing digital inks for all printhead types that use a patented ink dispersion technology that packs up to twice as much pigment in every drop of ink, giving stronger cyans, richer magentas, a jetter black, and a truer yellow. INX International is the third largest producer of conventional ink in North America and part of Sakata Inx worldwide operations. Sakata traces its heritage as an ink provider to 1896 and focuses on commercial and package printing.

Van Son

Van Son, the Dutch-based ink maker, is one of the few European conventional ink companies involved in making and selling digital inks for both the industrial and the consumer aftermarket segments. The company focuses on inks for home printers, particularly those used for photographs from digital cameras. Van Son predicts this market will grow to an enormous size and have developed an own-brand photo-printing kit for digital camera owners. Van Son acknowledges the difficulties of trying to market ink to consumers without a recognized brand name; much of the marketing of its products to end-users is done by distributors and retail chains. Van Son also promotes their products through computer and specialist photographic magazines. They are a respected conventional ink maker that got into the consumer aftermarket relatively early, with ArtColour technology inks that can improve the visual dots per inch beyond the actual rating of the printer.

Other small companies in the news with innovative digital ink applications include Collins Ink in Lebanon, Ohio, which focuses on injet inks for industrial applications, and Squid Ink in Spring Lake Park, Minnesota, which specializes in the making ink jet inks for the packaging industry.

MATERIALS & SUPPLY CHAIN LOGISTICS

Raw materials make up the bulk of the cost of ink. The $4 billion per year U.S. ink industry spent half of that—$2.1 billion—on materials used in manufacturing in 2002. The printing ink industry purchases many of the same materials that paint makers purchase. However, because the printing ink manufacturing industry is only one-quarter the size of the paint industry, ink makers do not have many opportunities to purchase large quantities of raw materials and negotiate bulk price savings on the primary components of ink.

The three primary components needed to make ink are: the vehicle (or carrier), the pigment, and additives. The vehicle is approximately 75 percent of the product by weight. The pigment—primarily carbon black, since black is the most used ink color—is 20 percent by weight. The additive package is 5 percent by weight. The vehicle defines the ink as either water-based or solvent-based.

The vehicle is a carrier fluid that keeps ink in a liquid state and carries the pigment to the substrate, or paper. It also determines characteristics such as dry rate, gloss level, adhesion rate, and scuff resistance. Vehicle fluid is designed to evaporate as ink dries, leaving the ink either on or in the substrate. To assist with drying, vehicle co-solvents are used, usually glycol or glycerin. The pigment in black ink is always carbon black. In color inks, titanium dioxide is the white pigment used to adjust color ink characteristics. Additives control things such as drop formation, print head corrosion, pH level, fade resistance, and color brilliance.

Overall, the cost to purchase the materials needed to manufacture inks decreased 9 percent between 1997 and 2002. This decrease was due primarily to decreases in two of the smaller categories of materials consumed by the print industry: hydrocarbon oils and solvents expenses decreased from $137 million in 1997 to $113 million in 2002, a drop of 17 percent, and wood chemicals (such as wood rosin and turpentine) expenses decreased from $19 million in 1997 to $10 million in 2002, a drop of 47 percent. The largest categories of materials needed to manufacture inks are:

• Pigments (organic and inorganic) including carbon black pigments
• Paints, varnishes, lacquers, shellacs, japans, enamels (and all ink vehicles and varnishes)
• Plastics resins (granules, pellets, powder, liquid)

Pigments are a basic component of ink. In 2002 the entire $4 billion ink manufacturing industry spent $658 million on pigments. Spending on just color pigments in-creased 10 percent in the period between 1997 and 2002, from $515 million to $536 million.

In April 2006 Purchasing magazine reported global consumption of pigments in the $8 to $10 billion range, with the ink industry comprising the largest market for color pigments. Color pigments represent 25 percent of the cost of materials consumed each year by the ink industry. This can be understood in terms of consumer preference: organic pigments made from salts of nitrogen-containing compounds such as yellow lake and peacock blue offer a wide spectrum of vibrant colors. Some examples of inorganic pigments are chrome green, Prussian blue, and cadmium yellow.

Taken together, color pigments and carbon black pigments represent 31 percent of the cost of materials consumed each year by the ink industry. Carbon black is essential for making black ink. It is an oil by-product made by shooting a hot mist of oil particles into a very hot flame in the absence of oxygen, an expensive energy-intensive process with a limited number of makers. The resulting powder is commonly called carbon black, a generic name for grades such as acetylene black, flame black, and rubber black. Ink makers must purchase the high grade special blacks which comprise only 10 percent of carbon production worldwide. The rest of the world's carbon black production is used in the automotive industry to strengthen tires.

The few remaining carbon black makers raise prices at regular intervals. In June 2006 Ink World reported that Degussa, a German company, increased furnace black prices by 8 percent in November of 2005 and by 9 percent in May of 2006, for a total 17 percent price increase.

Paints, varnishes, and lacquers are the vehicles that keep ink fluid so it can be carried to the substrate. This category represents 9 percent of the cost of materials consumed each year by the ink industry. In 2002 the ink manufacturing industry spent $196 million on these chemical vehicles.

Plastics resins promote adhesion. They are often used to create quick drying inks which give good gloss. Also, they improve print quality by affecting adhesion and resistance properties. Among other ink ingredients, the cost of plastics resins has gone down because the cost of styrene has dropped; styrene is their principal component. This category represents 5 percent of the cost of materials consumed each year by the ink industry. In 2002 ink manufacturers spent $113 million on plastics resins.

DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL

Manufacturers of large printing presses that use conventional inks set a standard in the ink industry that determined how inks were sold and distributed. Printing press business owners operated presses that were often made by the same company that made inks. It was not unusual for purchase or lease agreements on press equipment to be linked to a contractual obligation to purchase ink. This practice continues to this day. In-plant printing equipment often belongs to the equipment maker who is also the ink maker who services the press to keep it running smoothly.

Printer manufacturers, whether large industrial or small digital SOHO, are vertically integrated; they make the equipment and they make the ink. For most of the history of ink industry sales and distribution, printing press manufacturers had a privileged position: "use my equipment, buy my ink." To guarantee access to the lucrative ink sales aftermarket, where most of the profit was made, printing equipment makers often sold or leased equipment at or below market rates. This became known as blending equipment and consumables.

Because digital printers were the lineal descendent of the printing presses, SOHO printer makers initially assumed ink purchasing decisions would be made in deference to them. When manufacturers began selling smaller and affordable digital ink printers in the late 1980s for SOHO use, they counted on the ink cartridge aftermarket for much of their profit margin.

Digital ink printers have gone down in price and are often sold at a breakeven point, or even a loss to the manufacturer. This is done because on some models, the printer is a loss leader, the ink and toner supplied to the machine over its lifetime being the profit point on such machines. However, this pattern may be changing.

For a time, printer manufacturers succeeded in blending equipment and consumables and had a relative monopoly on the sale of replaceable and disposable ink and toner cartridges. Hewlett Packard did this by making equipment in which only its ink and toner cartridges worked. Epson still makes photo quality printers that use only Epson inks because only Epson uses piezoelectric technology. Cartridges were not interchangeable between printer brands and models, and this was just the way manufacturers of printers and ink wanted it.

The digital ink market changed the distribution channel because it changed the nature of the lucrative ink sales aftermarket and created a new distribution channel. Owners of small affordable printers must repeatedly purchase ink and toner cartridges in order to continue to operate their equipment. Because ink cartridges are designed by printer makers to be disposable, new cartridges must be purchased to replenish the ink supply. Often a separate disposable cartridge is used for each of the major ink colors, which are referred to as CMYK for cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (printing terminology for black). These new cartridges are expensive, and the need to repeatedly replenish the ink supply increases the consumer cost of using the printing equipment.

The distribution channel for consumer aftermarket ink and toner cartridges exploded. The broadened distribution channel offers consumers four routes to purchase cartridges required to operate low cost printers. Competition within the broadened distribution channel resulted in competitively-priced ink cartridges of at least four origins: original equipment manufacturers (OEM) cartridges, OEM compatible cartridges, remanufactured cartridges, and refilled cartridges.

Original equipment manufacturers cartridges are produced by the printer manufacturers. OEM compatible cartridges are manufactured with new drums and working parts to the OEM's specification by another company and sold under a separate brand name.

Remanufactured cartridges involve an industrial process whereby spent inkjet or toner cartridges are disassembled and cleaned, refilled, engineered as new, and then marketed as own-brand cartridges. Remanufactured cartridges compete on price and quality, and are billed as the environmentally friendly choice because without remanufacturing, empty cartridges end up in landfills. Refilled cartridges can be either original equipment manufacturers cartridges or OEM compatible cartridges. These are filled with ink at a retail location. Common cartridge refillers are franchises such as Australia-based Cartridge World Inc., Canada's Island Ink-Jet Sytems Inc., and Caboodle Cartridge Inc., of California. In 2004 the Wall Street Journal reported the size of the U.S. market for ink cartridges was $4.15 billion in 2003, up from $3.7 billion in 2002.

As a result of the broadened distribution channel that offers consumers a range of competitively-priced ink and toner cartridges, makers of digital printers have seen their share of worldwide cartridge shipments and revenue decline. While original equipment manufacturers cartridge sales still dominate, their monopoly is weakening.

KEY USERS

Key users of conventional ink are the four kinds of printing presses and the industries that typically use those presses: offset lithographic inks are used by newspaper and book publishers, flexographic inks are used by all industries in product packaging, gravure inks are used by glossy magazines and by advertisers who can afford glossy catalogues. Letterpress inks are commonly use for chic stationary and invitations.

Key users of nonimpact digital inks are primarily consumers who own small office and home office printing equipment. Larger institutions also use digital inks in their growing networks of small printers.

ADJACENT MARKETS

A primary adjacent market related to the use of conventional ink is the substrate such as paper, plastic, foil, board, and corrugated cardboard, upon which conventional presses print. The primary adjacent market related to nonimpact digital ink is the manufacture of printers, led by Hewlett Packard, Canon, Epson, and Lexmark. Adjacent to the printer market is the manufacture of computers, which are used to operate printers that use digital ink.

An important adjacent market to digital inks is paper used by the owners of small office and home office printers, typically reams of 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch paper. Since computers and printers contributed to the creation of the SOHO market, another adjacent market is paper. Even though in the 1990s, visionaries promised a paperless society due to the availability of computers, printers, and digital inks, small printers churn out more than 1.2 trillion sheets in North America every year. Notable is the wide range of paper designed for printing photographs with digital ink. Photo paper is available in gloss levels ranging from glossy, semi-gloss, semi-matte, and matte.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

The raw materials needed to manufacture ink are expensive. Consequently, ink makers commit research and development dollars to finding substitutes for the products they need: pigments, carrier vehicles, and plastics resins. It is hard to find a lower-cost, yet high-quality raw material to substitute for these basic ingredients. Ink manufacturers used research to develop various waterborne vehicles. One problem of waterborne inks is that they tend to slow down drying time and thus the printing process as a whole.

Because the aftermarket has historically been the source of lucrative sales and profits, ink makers commit research and development to finding ways to more completely blend consumables with equipment. For instance, ink giant Sun Chemical launched a new business unit, SunJet, based in the United Kingdom, specifically to focus on inkjet use in packaging. Then, in September of 2006, in a classic example of a blending of consumables and equipment, Sun sold its share in Colour Valid Group to a manufacturer of press control systems based in Germany, and agreed to jointly sell on-press colored ink management solutions through its new SunJet unit.

Many research and development topics are off limits due to confidentiality agreements, the president of Collins Inks told Ink World in July 2006. Metallics, however, play an important role in digital ink sales and are the focus of research and development for new formulations that successfully utilize them.

Ink World reported in June 2006 that metallics pigment prices are up: copper pigment was up 2.5 times in April 2006 over January 2005; zinc pigment was up 3.0 times; and aluminum pigment was up 0.66 times in the same period. Increased prices often reflect increased demand. The president of Collins Inks explained that as little as three years ago it was impossible to run silver pigment inks through the printhead of a digital printer, but formulators have found ways to do it.

CURRENT TRENDS

The rapidly growing digital ink segment created two trends. The first is an expanded distribution channel that offers consumers a range of competitively-priced ink cartridges. The second trend is the increased quality of photographic inkjet products.

The existence of a distribution channel offering consumers a range of competitively-priced ink cartridges created a need for aftermarket trade associations to protect this new market segment. One example is the European Toner & Inkjet Remanufacturers Association (ETIRA), established in 2003. ETIRA represents the interests of approximately 1,400 inkjet and toner cartridge remanufacturers. ETIRA deals with the alleged quality disparities between remanufactured cartridges and name brand cartridges by reporting independent consumer surveys.

A 2003 study by the reputable German test organization Stiftung Warentest confirmed that non-original equipment manufacturers cartridges are not only cheaper, but are also of equal quality. A February 2005 performance study by the national Dutch independent consumer organization Consumentenbond concluded that "contrary to what printer manufacturers tend to say, printers using non-original cartridges do not give perceptibly more complaints than printers using original cartridges." Remanufactured cartridges are often 20 to 30 percent cheaper than original equipment manufacturers' cartridges.

The increased quality of photographic inkjet products is another current trend. Chicago, Illinois, based Lyson is known for its upscale line of inkjet inks, especially photo graphic inkjet products. Its technically advanced photographic inkjet product line includes products such as: Lysonic Archival Inks, Fotonic Photo Inks, Quad Black Inks, Small Gamut Inks, Cave Paint/Photochrome Inks and Daylight Darkroom.

Daylight Darkroom is a Lyson product line dedicated to digital black and white photograph printers. It is so technically advanced that it "gives silver a run for its money," according to the May/June 2005 issue of Photo Techniques. Daylight Darkroom involves four to seven colors of black ink that replace the color ink cartridges in an existing printer with Lyson cartridges containing blacks and grays at various densities. Colors such as black shaded cyan, magenta, and brown are included. The result is lab quality black and white prints. A basic starter kit with the software, a set of cleaning cartridges, a set of ink, and a 50 sheet box of Lyson photopaper sells for $510. Kodak has called photography inkjet the new frontier.

TARGET MARKETS & SEGMENTATION

The digital ink market is segmented into a consumer side and an industrial side. Some firms are going to continue to serve the consumer market because they have an understanding of the market. Conventional ink makers will continue to serve the industrial market because they prefer the business-to-business relationship.

Manufacturers such as Lyson, Nazdar, Triangle, and Van Son, who have experience with digital ink products and an understanding of the consumer segment will continue to target it. For instance, Lyson sells original equipment manufacturer replacement ink cartridges through its office recycling inks product line. Lyson also has an expanded range of recyclable refill products for the office formulated to provide exact color matching of original equipment manufacturers originals, an area where many third-party remanufacturers fail. Lyson also sells bulk digital inks for use in filling both compatible and remanufactured inkjet cartridges. Triangle developed a revolutionary bulk ink delivery system called the EasyFill Pro that allows the consumer to avoid repeatedly replenishing their supply of original equipment manufacturer's cartridges, and saves money with bulk purchasing of digital inks.

RELATED ASSOCIATIONS & ORGANIZATIONS

European Toner and Inkjet Remanufacturers' Association, http://www.etira.org

Flexographic Technical Association, http://www.flexography.org

Gravure Association of America, http://www.gaa.com

National Association of Printing Ink Manufacturers, http://www.napim.org

Packaging Label and Gravure Association Global, http://www.plga.com

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"What's That Stuff?" Chemical and Engineering News. 16 November 1998.

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