Inks

Matthews stock a range of inks for both small large character inkjet coders and large character inkjet coders for both our Linx and Matthews range of printers. In the case of applications such as food grade and special pigments, they are also model specific. Ask Matthews for advice on which specific ink will suit your application best. To buy your ink stock, call us on 1300 CODING. Also, ask us about Consumable Support Programs to save you time and money.

Linx formulates its own inks. It evaluates them for up to a year, then manufactures them according to strict quality assurance standards. Micro-filtration removes any impurities. All bottles are pre-cleaned before filling, then heat sealed to maintain content integrity. Inks are only released if they cannot be made to fail in a Linx printer, so customers are assured of optimum performance.

General Purpose Inks

• Linx Black Inks
• Linx Coloured Inks

Both Linx’s general-purpose Black and Coloured ink ranges give outstanding performance on most common materials, making them ideal for most general external packaging applications. Each has slightly different performance characteristics, giving you a wide range of options. We can help you with what will suit your specific need.

Enhanced Adhesion Inks: this range gives excellent print quality on almost all substrates and has superior adhesion to plastics and plastic films, which can be difficult to print, for example, nylon, polyethylene, polypropylene (including untreated OPP and BOPP), and polyvinylchloride.

Specialist Inks

Food Grade Inks: these contain only edible raw materials conforming to regulations of either the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), or the European Union (EU) and Australia New Zealand Food Authority. When used with Linx ink jet printers, they offer a very safe and flexible means of coding and marking edible products. They are also suitable to code product packaging that comes into contact with food.

Pigmented Inks: these come in a variety of colours and provide the best possible contrast on light or dark materials. Printed codes will not fade for years, making them ideal for coding and marking products that will be stored outside. Linx pigmented inks are also particularly suited to product identification of rubber and plastic, especially PVC, and so are often used on pipes and cables. They have good resistance to heat and alcohol splashes, so they can be used to code alcohol-rich products.

Process Tolerant Inks: these are specifically designed to code and mark products that are exposed to processes commonly found in the food and beverage industry. For example, a printed code may have to withstand cooking, sterilisation or pasteurisation.

Removable Coding Inks: have been designed for situations that need temporary product identification. Common applications include the beverage industry, where containers are returned and re-used, plus laboratory and medical glassware. The dried code can be easily removed through gentle washing.

Security (UV Readable) Inks: these have been developed for discreet coding and marking applications such as anti-counterfeiting or internal traceability. They are almost invisible in normal light but fluoresce under UV light. They are available in different colours and different solvent bases to offer more choice.

Thermochromic Inks: these undergo a permanent colour change when subjected to certain wet-heat conditions, such as the sterilisation processes used in the food industry. These inks meet USDA regulations about incidental contact with food, but they also have the ability to penetrate oily or waxy coatings and varnish, and so are suitable for a range of coding and marking applications.

Whatever the substrate, there is a Matthews DOD ink to match.

Matthews was the first U.S. based manufacturer of industrial printing inks to obtain ISO 9001 registration. ISO 9001 is the most comprehensive of the ISO standards covering the design, manufacturing and service of a company's product. What does this mean to a potential customer? It means that every step in the manufacturing process has built-in quality control standards. All inks are tested during production to maintain these standards. Samples of each batch are date tested during production and retained for periodic analysis as part of our quality assurance program. The end result is a quality product delivered to you each and every time.

Packaging: From one-liter bottles to 55 gallon drums, with we offer a variety of convenient packaging options to meet your volume requirements. We've sourced a unique barrier plastic container, which ensures a long shelf life by preventing the evaporation of ink through the container. Not only does it save you money, but it creates a safe product for warehousing. Our innovative packaging methods work well in conjunction with various inking systems for high-volume users.

Technical Expertise: When you select from our wide range of industrial inks, you get more than just a quart of ink, you also receive our expertise. In addition to ink recommendations, our highly skilled, fully trained technical staff can provide information and advice on environmental, transportation, storage and safety issues. If you need certification of inks to comply with various regulatory agencies, we can provide it. When you have a technical question, call the experts - we are just a phone call away.

Applications: Get great looking product marks by letting Matthews determine the proper ink for your application. Tell us your marking requirements - adhesion, substrate, drying time, ink color and printing method. We'll listen and then recommend the best ink for your specific application. Every day we also perform sample marking on customer's products and provide ink samples to try out on location. You'll see exactly what you can achieve with our printing systems and inks. We specialize in creating custom inks for the most challenging applications.