Three Royal Chemical Wins the 2008 Innovation Award

 Environment-friendly UV-curing Inkjet Ink

Nano-level ink gives the image a more vivid and detailed effect

By Common Wealth Magazine

A bottle of inkjet ink, after being printed by an ultraviolet (UV) digital printer, must be hardened and dried immediately, shown excellent performance in a wide range of saturated colors, and there must be no volatile pollution caused by pungent and unpleasant solvents. With time, it must be resistant to outdoor sunlight radiation or indoor luminescent exposure without fading, against the heat without changing properties, and withstand the scratch without deteriorating. All of the above challenges required advanced technology to solve technical dilemmas.

Three Royal Chemical, the most professional producer of UV curable resin and chemicals in Taiwan, has developed an environmentally-friendly UV curable inkjet ink that meets the above requirements. The ink can even be printed on metal, glass, leather, ceramics, or fabrics, inclusive of ink-absorbing or non-ink-absorbing substrates, bringing a brand-new application vision for digital printing.

The global industry pursuit of high value-added and clean chemical products has also led to the upgrading of ink chemicals, challenging the ultimate realm of the inkjet printing effect. Lin Wei-zen, General Manager of Three Royal Chemical, indicates that developing environmentally-friendly UV ink raw materials was not easy. Private firms need the help of the government. Otherwise, relying solely on one firm's independent research and development will be time-consuming, costly, and extremely risky. It will also affect the operation and routine production of other mature products in the factory. 

To speed up and minimize the risk, Three Royal Chemical, multi-time winners of the Innovation Research Award of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, seeks to cooperate with the Institute of Materials and Chemistry of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). A basic formula of UV ink was transferred to Three Royal Chemical and then the formulation details were further modified and fine-tuned, in response to the digital printing industry needs.

Lin Wei-zen pointed out that this ink can be applied to any material. The nanometer-level ink particles can create detailed image quality, being sprayed on decorative materials, special gifts, furniture, and other substrates. To develop a broader technical application of ink, Three Royal Chemical proposed a total solution marketing strategy and established a digital image output integration research center to serve small and medium-sized printing manufacturers and individual studios.

No matter how successful a company is, it needs to innovate and evolve, conquer the global market, and occupy the circle of winners firmly. Taiwan’s chemical industry has companies such as Yongguang, Changxing, ITRI, Qitai, and Three Royal Chemical who are brave in innovating technologies and products. Their active demonstration is believed to inspire other wait-and-see industry players to join in innovation and cooperate with the Taiwan Chemical Industry Association (TCIA) to build Taiwan's influence and competitiveness in the international market.