Rub’nSmell inks extend the enticing scents of products to consumers to drive brand sales at the point-of-purchase – where 70 per cent of buying decisions are made.
The marketing-enhancing technology is delivered through a partnership with Scentisphere LLC, an new producer of scented products. The new, colourless inks are ideal for packaging and labelling applications as well as promotional uses such as direct mailers and printed advertisements.
The inks can be formulated with stock scents, like lemon, or custom fragrances for unique cosmetics, personal care, and other consumer brands. The scented inks are applied directly over printed graphics and activate only when rubbed.
Leonard Walle, Flint ink director of new business development,, says “Competition to distinguish brands continues to escalate, and scented packaging provides a significant competitive advantage. Instead of having a scent sprayed at them, consumers can interact with a brand in a very personal way. Creating these brand connections helps to establish customer relationships.”
Additionally, Flint Ink announced the global availability of a high-concentrated colour technology for water flexo and gravure inks called X•TREME Dispersions. Flint Ink says the new colorants increase the colour strength of ink systems by 20 per cent while significantly improving ink mileage. Inks formulated with X•TREME Dispersions are available in an array of Pantone colours, and are ideal for high quality printing with fine line anilox rolls.
The dispersions use a proprietary chemistry to create stronger inks without increasing viscosity. Inks formulated with X•TREME Dispersions provide printers with high-strength colour, high-end graphics capabilities, and on-press stability in one product. These features yield significant improvements in print quality, colour reproduction and press speeds.
Flint Ink says by ensuring an optimal relationship between ink strength and ink film thickness applied on the press, X•TREME Dispersions provide significant cost-savings. The new dispersions help converters achieve colour targets with thinner ink films, creating dramatic improvements in ink mileage. In one instance, a converter changed from a standard ink using a 280 line flexo anilox to an X•TREME Dispersions ink using a 380 line roller, and reduced ink usage by 30 percent.
The new dispersions create vibrant, resistant ink systems that dry quickly and run easily. They yield clean, precise images on combination plates fitted with fine line anilox rolls. “With more concentrated pigment in the dispersion, ink systems have more room for resin and other additives that improve ink performance both on the press and the substrate,” explains Pratt.
The new colorants create additional press efficiencies. The inks are more fluid and easier to handle, allowing for faster filling of ink cells. In addition, the high colour concentration of the pigments makes the residual ink easier to recycle.
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