Earlier this week Printweek revealed how industry bodies had warned about the onerous ramifications of the move to strengthen controls on gamma butyrolactone (GBL) and 1,4-butanediol (BDO).
Japanese manufacturer Epson makes printheads, printers and inks for a wide range of applications, and has spoken out about the issue.
In a statement, Epson told Printweek that it was convinced that the number of businesses and range of products likely to be impacted “is far greater than the government’s initial studies anticipate”.
“Epson is deeply concerned about the impact these measures could have not only to its own business, but on its customers and indeed the UK print signage industry as a whole.
“While we understand and support the government’s desire to prevent the misuse of a potentially harmful substance, we believe it would be extremely difficult for GBL to be extracted from our ink due to its chemical formulation,” the firm explained.
“We would welcome the opportunity to review with the government a methodology to introduce licensing that would allow legitimate businesses to continue unimpeded, whilst minimising the potential risk of misuse.”
Epson said it was working closely with industry associations including the IPIA, the BPIF, sign association ISA-UK, the British Coatings Federation and Picon to highlight the disruption these measures will bring to businesses.
Not all inkjet inks will be impacted. The main issue is with solvent-based inks.
Keith Nixon, director of Xaar’s ink business, said: “These solvents tend to be used in eco-solvent graphics which is a long established and mature inkjet segment. As Xaar is mainly focused on the industrial market, where UV and water-based fluids predominate, no critical impact from the regulation change is foreseen at this stage.”
Graham Kennedy, director for industrial printing at Ricoh Europe Graphic Communications, commented: “Whilst the use of solvent inks does not affect Ricoh directly as they are not used in any of our printing solutions, indirectly it does impact many of our OEM printhead partners: changing the ink formulation can cause issues with ink and head compatibility, so all inks will need to go through full material compatibility testing (8-12 weeks depending on formulation) before partners can have the confidence to release the inks to the market.
“Our team are alert to a potential spike in MCT demand and are in contact with ink companies to ensure our lab services are available to support their needs.”
A number of other inkjet specialists are reviewing the situation, while hoping the government will rein back the measures so that they will only apply to manufacturers using the chemicals in their raw form.
“How would they police it, anyway?” observed one digital printing pro.
“The other concern is, if a manufacturing site works with large quantities of these substances, does it also become a potential security issue?”
