For a manufacturing facility that started its operations only in the second half of 2004, the aspirations of Saudi Arabia’s Inks Modern Technology Factory to capture 10 per cent of some of its regional markets may seem somewhat excessive, but its confidence is understandable considering its background.      

Inks Modern’s parent organisation Modern Plastic Technology (MPT) Group had the acumen to select the reputed German company Zeller+Gmelin GmbH as its collaborator for the manufacture of UV inks. The MPT Group had business relations with the German firm since 2000 when it established a department of printing services, and Zeller+Gmelin was among seven European companies that were co-operating with the Saudi group in the import of printing products. The territories the department covered stretched across the Arabian peninsula along with Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan and the products it offered from its principals were UV ink and conventional ink for offset, letterpress, flexo and silk screen requirements as well as printing accessories and services.
In the first phase of production, Inks Modern Technology Factory is engaged in mixing the UV inks and serving the printing fields of packaging, labels, commercials and special products.
The product portfolio includes UV dry offset ink, UV flexo ink for paper and foil, UV offset ink, UV letterpress ink, UV waterless ink, UV lacquers and UV special inks.
While Zeller+Gmelin is the main associate (UV printing inks and lacquers), the other seven companies that Inks Modern Technology Factory counts as its associates are Marabu (screen printing and pad printing inks); Kiwo (screen printing chemicals), Saati (screen printing mesh and accessories); Siegwerk (flexo and roto printing inks), Zecher (anilox rollers) and Gretag Macbeth (colour management systems).
“As Zeller+Gmelin is the number one supplier in the GCC region and nearby states for dry offset ink, our markets will embrace the entire GCC region plus Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Yemen and Egypt,” says Inks Modern’s industrial engineer Nafez El-Mohamad.
Most plastic companies in the Gulf are Inks Modern’s customers, he says. Sales are particularly good for cup printing, while some of the offset and flexo printers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE have also been buying its products.
For 2005, the first full year of operations, Inks Modern expects to produce 36 tonnes of UV inks, the figure increasing by 30 per cent in the next year, according to El Mohamad.
“Our target is to capture 10 per cent of the market in our own territory, by which we mean the GCC region and other nearby states mentioned earlier,” says El Mohamad. “We would consider this an interesting development.”
 “Our goal is also to expand our area of specialisation in UV ink with greater co-operation with Zeller+Gmelin,” says the official, adding there could be another unit in collaboration with the German firm.
In line with its ambitions, Inks Modern is careful not to compromise on quality and imports all its raw materials from Zeller+Gmelin. With the same considerations in mind, the company has established a laboratory of the highest standards for testing ink quality and for developing new products.
As the trend is growing towards exploiting downstream products from petrochemicals, plastic printing is gaining in importance, says El Mohamad.

Associates of Inks Modern Technology Factory
Zeller+Gmelin
For Inks Modern, the collaboration with Zeller+Gmelin is easily the best thing that could happen to it.
The German company has accumulated more than 135 years of research, technology and experience, and today its name is synonymous with high quality and reliability in the demanding field of printing inks.
“Since our entry into the fledgling UV technology of the early 1970s, we have been dealing with UV-curing of printing inks and varnishes,” says a Zeller+Gmelin spokesman. “This has placed us at the forefront as a producer and supplier of UV inks and varnishes worldwide. Together with our subsidiary companies we are today offering a mature, specialist product range of radiation curing and conventional printing inks in addition to lacquers and varnishes.”
The market segments it serves are:
• Packaging (plastic containers, flexible packaging and folding cartons)
• Labels (self-adhesive labels, in-mould labels and shrink sleeves)
Commercials (direct mails, business forms, advertising leaflets, business print materials, posters and brochures)  
• Specialities (specially developed ink series for security and promotional effects).
Zeller+Gmelin’s product range includes Uvarolid (UV curing inks for plastic containers), Rolid (IR curing inks for plastic containers), Uvalux U2/U4 (UV curing inks for offset on film/paper), Uvalux U3 (UV curing offset and letterpress inks for metal decoration), Uvaflex Y6-Y7 (low-odour, free-radical UV flexo inks for plastic), Uvaflex Y8-Y9 (low-odour, free-radical UV flexo inks for paper), Labelcure UP (UV inks for letterpress, suitable for paper), Labelcure UF (UV inks for letterpress, suitable for plastic), Toracure (UV curing inks series for waterless offset printing), Uvalux Lacquers (a wide range of varnishes depending on applications), UV Effect Lacquers (texturing lacquers- fluorescent, hammer finish, sparkle etc) and Specialities (designed for security products- fluorescent, scratch, sniff etc).

Marabu
The company was founded in 1859 by Albert Martz as a retail shop for painting and drawing materials in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1909.  The products it manufactured obtained the Marabu trademark, and after more than 50 years of successful development, production was moved to Tamm, near Ludwigsburg in 1918. In the 1950s, Marabu completed its package of artists’ and graphics paints by adding the first screen printing inks. It has since developed a wide range for both screen and pad printing.
In all screen, pad and digital printing, Marabu today ranks as one of the leading ink manufacturers worldwide. The quality of its colours for creative and arts applications is well appreciated. Marabu is one of the leading manufacturers in Europe, employing more than 300 people in Germany and a further 100 in subsidiary companies abroad. Distribution partners exclusively represent the brand in 50 countries worldwide.
“Not only is it an ISO 9001 company but being a company of the chemical industry, our management system integrates the fields of quality, environmental and health protection as well as industrial safety,” it says.
Marabu’s products are:
• Screen printing ink (UV and conventional) – graphic, industrial, signboard, membrane switches, identity cards, bottle crates, containers, optical disc, labels, textiles, glass and ceramic, among other things
• Pad printing ink (tempo) – glass, sport articles, gifts, individual products
• Digital printing ink – for most digital printers, solvent base inks

Kiwo
Kissel +Wolf (Kiwo) is a leading manufacturer of chemical products for screen making and screen printable adhesives. The company offers a complete line of screen making products including Azocol, Kiwocol and Polycol photo-emulsions, Cleanline for environmentally safe screen cleaning, Kiwoprint and other speciality screen printable adhesives and Kiwomat high-precision coating machines.
Starting in Mannheim in 1893 as a wholesaler of animal glues, Kissel +Wolf established a fine regional reputation. Until the early 1930s, Kiwo remained a regional distributor for glues. The founding families (the Kissel and Wolf families) were forced to sell their flourishing company. The new owner died in the Second World War. The facilities in Mannheim were totally destroyed by bombs shortly thereafter. The immediate post-war years saw another change of owners until in 1956 the Eisenbeiss family acquired the business.
The company was then relocated to Wiesloch, near Heidelberg, where the emphasis was shifted away from distributing to manufacturing in newly equipped production facilities. This allowed for expansion and development beyond regional importance to international activities. The lanching of new adhesives for textile printing and of photo emulsions for textile and screen-printing opened new markets that now constitute the main areas of activities.
The screen making products are capillary film, direct emulsions, automatic coating machines, screen cleaning products, frame adhesives, stencil-making sundry products, stencil evaluation and pre-press quality control tools.

Saati
Saati Print is the company responsible for the printing division of the Saati Group, the Italian multinational textile chemical group, which is a leader in the field of technical precision fabrics. It is active in the production and distribution of components and technologies for the screen-printing process.
Founded in 1935 as Saati SpA, the company has over the course of time attained a leading position in the production and distribution of fabrics and chemical products for screen-printing.
Over the years SaatiPrint has not only pursued the goal of continuous technological development but also that of expansion into the worldwide makets. Today it has manufacturing facilities for both fabrics and chemicals in Appiano Gentile (Como, Italy) and, as far as its chemical products only are concerned, also in Chicago (USA) and, Tienjin (China). The company is also present though a network of branches in eight countries: the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, France, China, Brazil, the US and Italy.

Siegwerk
The Siegwerk Group is the leading manufacturer in Central Europe in the markets relevant for the company with a turnover of Euros 388 million (net sales) and production performance of 170,000 tonnes.
It manufacturers printing inks for the print media, catalogues, advertising supplement and packaging materials.  In Germany, Poland, the US, Thailand and Brazil, the Siegwerk Group maintains its own production sites. There are distribution representations in about 509 countries throughout the world.
At the company’s headquarters in Siegburg, more than 200 employees in research, development and application technology provide customer support in the sector. The company helps as a proactive process partner for all problems concerned with printing and is known worldwide for its outstanding product quality and customised customer service.
With the packaging business unit, Siegwerk Druckfarben AG offers its customers experts in packaging and special inks for flexographic printing and gravures.
Siegwerk’s products are packaging and special inks for flexographic printing and gravures; radiation hardening printing ink systems; printing varnishes and printing auxiliary materials.

Zecher
In 1948, the foundation stone of today’s company Zecher was laid by the company’s founder Kurt Zecher. Inquiries from the printing industry induced the inventive young entrepreneur to manufacture the first regularly engraved halftone roller as early as 1950.
In 1981, the Zecher halftone roller with its much-praised 140 l/cm F 18.3 was a star among the halftone rollers introduced at the Drupa show. It was able to transfer a colour range that was never reached before.
In 1997, the first YAG-laser engraving system was put into operation. It enables the manufacture of halftone rollers with any engraving fineness of up to 1,000 l/cm. Because of good market acceptance, it was possible to install altogether 3 YAG-laser engraving systems within a short period of time.
During Drupa 2000, Zecher introduced a new generation of halftone rollers within the scope of the coating technology with silver coat, the first time any company had done so. The range has expanded following several surface improvement technologies.  ITS ® ion implantations and corrosion prevention with ProTec are further product novelties.
Zecher counts 120 employees and produces a full range of Anilox rollers and sleeves.

GretagMacbeth
The company designs, manufactures and markets colour management solutions including instrumentation, software and services, which enable companies to consistently communicate and control colour across devices, industries, processes and locations.
“The GretagMacbeth brand is recognised as the world’s leading source for innovative colour technology that combines exceptional ease of use with excellent price performance,” a company spokesman says.
“From colour specification to colour formulation to final production, GretagMacbeth solutions ensure consistent colour reproduction through every step of the process. Our solutions help you reduce colorant consumption and cost of production, get quicker approval on colour matches, ensure consistent quality and increase profitability on every job.”
From colour specification to ink formulation to final print production, GretagMacbeth solutions ensure consistent colour reproduction every time. At each step, colours are defined and stored in CxF format that they can be connected seamlessly throughout the process.
“For nearly a century, the GretagMacbeth brand has been the benchmark for accurate, reliable colour measurement delivering uncompromising accuracy with speed and flexibility to meet demanding deadlines in less time with less waste,” says the spokesman.
GretaMacbeth’s product range comprises densitometers (D196, D19C, DensiEye), spectrophotometers (SpectroEye, Spectrolino, Eye One Pro) and software (ink formulation, colour quality and ProfileMaker V5).

The origins of Inks Modern Technology Factory
The Modern Plastic Technology (MPT) Company, in association with Reifenhauser GmbH & Co, Germany, began its activies in 1993 in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states with the aim of marketing its services in the field of extrusion lines. Its activity developed with the cooperation of pioneer German and European companies specialised in plastic processing and converting machinery for the manufacture of plastic products.
In 1996, MPT added a new concept to market industrial projects by establishing a specialist department for studies and projects. The study findings were offered to local investors interested in setting up projects with foreign partners who had the technical knowhow. These economic studies led to four joint ventures.
The next step was the establishment of a department of printing services at the beginning of 2000. The department worked with European companies which were leaders in the printing field and eventually the cooperation led to the setting up of Inks Modern Technology Factory in association with Zeller+Gmelin.
 Following are the associates of Modern Plastic Technology machines:
Reifenhauser GmbH (active in extrusion lines); Adolf ILLIG (thermoforming and packaging); Van Dam (cup, lid and pail printing); Fischer & Krecke (flexo printing presses); Lemo (bag making); Berstorff (foam, rubber and compounding extrusion); Arburg (injection moulding machines); Kurtz (EPS/EPP foam technology); Fleissner (non-woven textile); Weber (pipes and profiles extrusion lines) and Motan (material handling).