Kao Corporation has concluded an agreement to acquire Collins Inkjet Corporation, Cincinnati, OH, through a Kao Group company in the US. An early entrant into the inkjet ink market for industrial printing, Collins Inkjet develops, manufactures and sells of inkjet ink and related equipment. Kao has been formulating water-based pigment dispersions and ink, with an eye on the industrial inkjet printing.
 
In March, Kao utilized its “pigment nano dispersion technology” to develop the world’s first water-based pigment inkjet ink for printing on films used for flexible packaging. The new ink is VOC-free, which offers numerous advantages for printers and brand owners alike.
 
Lawrence Gamblin, president of Collins Inkjet, noted that Kao is a technology-driven company that has developed some novel encapsulated pigment technologies and wishes to expand their presence in the inkjet industry.
 
“Collins has been formulating and manufacturing inkjet inks for high speed industrial applications for over 26 years,” Gamblin said. “Combining the two should create new opportunities to expand the application space for inkjet printing.
 
“Collins will continue to operate as it has in the past, so there will be a lot of focus on expanding and improving Collins’ existing product lines,” he added. “In addition, the combined companies expertise will open up additional opportunities to expand into new market segments.”
 
Gamblin said that the combination of the two companies will provide many benefits for customers.
 
“Kao is a large, approximately $12 billion dollar a year company with expertise in polymers and surface interaction chemistries,” Gamblin noted. “Collins has a wealth of experience formulating thousands of distinct inkjet inks. Kao has an infrastructure that can act as a framework for the growth of the combined business. Collins has extensive market knowledge, and an understanding of what it takes to support large high volume printers.
 
“Customers should see expanded ink sets that allow them to print jobs they otherwise wouldn’t be able to print,” he added. “The company should have a very favorable cost structure. This will open up open up opportunities for customers to profitably print larger jobs.”
 
Gamblin believes that the inkjet ink industry will continue its rapid growth in the coming years.
 
“The inkjet market will continue to expand at a rapid rate,” Gamblin concluded. “The pace of technological improvement in printheads, curing solutions, inks and substrates is phenomenal. As a result, inkjet continues to become more and more of a viable alternative to other types of printing.”