Mark Andy to distribute Sun Chemical inks in the US

The agreement covers Sun Chemical's UV, UV LED, water-based and specialty technologies for the label and tag markets. Products available through Mark Andy include SolarFlex Max D and SolarWave inks, AquaVerse water-based products, SolarLam UV laminating adhesives and SunLam solventless adhesives.

The collaboration will enable converters to purchase inks, coatings and adhesives from Mark Andy Print Products, alongside printing plates, anilox rolls, blades, mounting tape and other pressroom consumables.

Ralph Jenkins, vice president of sales and business development at Mark Andy Print Products, said: "Converters are managing tighter color tolerances, shorter run lengths, a broader application mix and pressure to maintain consistency across jobs and facilities.

"By combining Mark Andy's narrow web expertise and customer reach with Sun Chemical's technology and formulation capabilities, we can help customers address these challenges through a more comprehensive, coordinated approach."

Sun Chemical will contribute expertise in areas including low-migration UV LED inks, UV laminating adhesives, solventless adhesive technology, color management and compliance.

The two companies will also support label converters in moving into flexible packaging applications such as bags, sachets, stick packs, pouches and shrink sleeves. Their technical teams will jointly assess substrate, ink and coating requirements, curing performance, migration considerations and regulatory requirements.

Dennis Sweet, vice president of narrow web label and tag at Sun Chemical, said: "Working together, we can help customers achieve greater color consistency, improve productivity, streamline operational efficiency and address increasingly complex label and flexible packaging requirements."

Mark Andy customers will also gain access to Sun Chemical's SunColorBox color management ecosystem, which supports color communication, matching, formulation, dispensing and production control.

SunColorBox will be used alongside Mark Andy's Print Products Color Smart program. Through pressroom audits, fingerprinting and calibration, the program evaluates the impact of variables including plates, mounting tape, anilox rolls, blades, inks and press settings on color consistency.

Jenkins added: "Color does not start with any single pressroom component. Bringing ink formulation, matching, dispensing, prepress, fingerprinting and documented operating standards into a coordinated process provides a stronger foundation to help converters achieve repeatable results."

The two companies plan to install ink dispensing technology at Mark Andy facilities and at selected customer sites. These systems will enable spot colors to be produced near the point of use, aiming to reduce ink inventory and waste.

Mark Andy and Sun Chemical are also collaborating on curing technology for low-migration ink performance and high-speed flexographic printing. The project will combine Mark Andy's printing and web handling knowledge with Sun Chemical's ink formulation capabilities.

The partnership will be introduced to the market at the Loupe Americas 2026 show through technical demonstrations, demos and educational sessions covering ink performance, color consistency, pressroom productivity and the convergence of label and flexible packaging production.