Processing colorant materials in today’s competitive business environment presents many challenges as equipment, labor, and energy costs have increased with a demand for finer and finer particle sizes.
STS Inks offer a wide range of custom and toll manufacturing for bead-milled applications for inks, coatings, and specialty chemicals. Our fully integrated processing operations include a wide range of grinding, dispersing, and milling and is well-suited to high resolution inks, inkjet dispersions and specialized inks for food grade applications.
Contract or Toll Manufacturing?
Toll manufacturing is an agreement, where a company with specialized equipment processes raw materials or unfinished goods for another company. It’s also important to note that although contract manufacturing has some similarities to toll manufacturing, they are different things. In contract manufacturing, the manufacturing company also provides the materials, whereas in toll manufacturing it’s the customers responsibility to provide them.
Toll manufacturing can be cost-effective for customers as it allows them to keep costs focused on purely manufacturing, without having to factor in equipment costs, facility costs and employee salaries. Toll manufacturing agreements can also save time. Getting your product to the market can be a lengthy process, especially if you’re trying to acquire equipment and add extra trained employees. Toll manufacturing can shorten this process which maybe especially helpful if products are in high demand or out of stock.
STS Chemical Division’s manufacturing principles are based on continuous improvement and efficiency. We take pride in strong relationships with our OEM customers, ensuring a thorough understanding of their requirements, while delivering personal customer support from concept through the product lifecycle.
STS offers its clients unique industry-specific solutions that can lead to the creation of custom formulations and product scale-up manufacturing. Clients have the ability to proof small batches, which allows them to economically test concepts to determine a go, or no-go strategy. STS’s manufacturing assets can support simple to highly complex processes within a wide range of batch size, with three fully equipped labs and 50,000 sq. ft of production capacity.
Our teams work closely with customer ink formulations from raw material selection to specific process modifications that may be required for their products. We have the capability to manufacture simple or complex inks, and always are prepared to implement new methods to satisfy a particular strategy.
The Process
We conduct carbon treatment for organic impurity removal and have facilities for reverse osmosis and multiple options for sub-micron filtration. We have bacterial control measures in place for inks, dyes, and conduct extensive unit operations for dye processing and purification. We also maintain extremely strict biological controls on all products to ensure absolute purity.
Our highly experienced team of chemists work intimately with our OEM customers during the technical transfer of all toll products. The technical transfer team manages all critical activities with internal and external groups to ensure a smooth and rapid transfer.
From the preliminary discussion of the formulation, we usually can provide an initial scale-up version within two weeks. From an analytical perspective, critical tests are performed at every stage to ensure absolute downstream control which is aligned with all customer criteria as necessary. In addition, our QA team ensure all regulatory requirements are fully met.
Assurance to Quality
As a supplier of inkjet products to over 160 countries, quality is an early consideration built into our design parameters. Raw materials are specially selected to develop the highest quality products with superior operability and reliability for excellent image quality, extended printhead life, and the highest product lot to lot consistency. Final analysis with internally developed and documented methods along with the careful verification of data, methodology, calibration, and equipment maintenance are performed regularly by the QC team for each batch analyzed.
Review of manufacturing and QC data versus customer specifications allows for consistent evaluation of calculated control limits. Comparisons of final analysis data to
specifications are used to confirm key parameters are within specified limits. All batch record data, final analytics, process logs, formulation verification and specification analysis batch are held on-site for minimum of three years. Data for raw materials, purified dyes and ink data are held indefinitely.
Benefits of Outsourcing to STS
· STS can provide comprehensive tailor-made services to our clients, ensuring process development, optimization and the commercial scale-up of processes are carried out in an efficient, cost-effective manner.
· STS is a reliable partner, especially for companies who either don’t have spare capacity or do not have suitable development/toll manufacturing facilities for a particular project.
· STS provides an experienced, multi-functional team to support the project at every stage, with a track record of quick response from initiation to closing.
Capabilities
Utilizing our multi-purpose facilities, we can offer a range of capabilities, and carryout site modifications tailored to particular process requirements. STS has a wide range of experience and a history of developing new chemical products and challenging processes. This is reflected in the range of hazardous materials we handle.
The Business Case for Outsourcing Complex Projects
· No required floor space, building expansions or skilled labor necessary
· The variety of equipment needed for different applications is immediately available
· Milling, mixing, particle reduction and delivery of products can be provided on short notice
· STS can accommodate small batch sizes cost-efficiently
· Greater uniformity and consistency of production
· Exacting filtration standards
· In-house analytical capabilities
· Well-equipped QC labs
· Logistics in place for product distribution and private labeling
In addition to being a US based market leader and manufacturer, STS has more than 20 years of experience in digital inkjet technology. Consider STS as a viable, cost-effective, and reliable alternative to the challenges of in-house ink production. In addition to custom and toll manufacturing, we can provide packaging, labeling, and a range of other services.
STS will put our experience to work to meet your unique milling requirements and provide a turnkey solution for the manufacture of your proprietary products all at competitive prices.
