Needham Inks uses in-house research and development expertise to further develop digital ink technology
Increasing demand for high volume, wide format printing has led Whitchurch-based Needham Inks to develop and manufacture a range of high performance digital inks, including aqueous inks that are designed for all major printhead brands. The company estimates that these can help reduce printing costs by up to 50 per cent for printing companies when compared to OEM fluids.
Needham Inks, part of The Needham Group, which also comprises Needham Coding Limited and Needham Coding Distribution Limited, has specialised in ink manufacture with a strong focus on research and development since the 1970s. It currently produces over 3000 ink formulations, all of which have been developed by its own in-house team of chemists.
The new digital inks, which can be applied to a range of substrates, are suitable for a variety of wide format printing applications, including building and vehicle wraps, trade show graphics, posters, vinyl banners, wallpaper, displays and signage.
Aled Ellis, managing director, Needham Inks, said, “While very few large format printer manufacturers make their own inks they may well enlist another company to produce it for them. With OEM-branded inks being more expensive, printers are looking for cost savings by sourcing digital inks from a specialist ink producer such as Needham Inks.
“Our strength is our breadth of knowledge across all kinds of ink and printer technology, and the ability to work on projects of all sizes from small one off research and development ink projects through to long term contracts developing novel inks to fulfil a customer’s particular technical requirements.
Needham Inks has a history of working with customers on collaborative research and development projects to develop inks to meet particularly challenging technical requirements. Needham Inks evaluates every ink in terms of timescale, commercial value and complexity. It then uses this information to agree a project scope, cost and timescale with the customer.
Needham Inks exports to approximately 90 countries and is represented by over 100 distributors with 60 of these specialising in CIJ inks. The company, which has a strong presence in Europe, Asia and Africa, provides an extensive range of inks to meet the requirements of virtually any marking and coding application.