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Fujifilm Opens First of Two Ink-Production Facilities in U.S.

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Artist’s rendering of Fujifilm ink-production facility.

Last week, Fujifilm Imaging Colorants, a global provider of inkjet-printing technology, opened the first of two new facilities in New Castle, Delaware, both of which will produce water-based inks for digital printing. Ian Wilkinson, president and chief operating officer of Fujifilm Imaging Colorants, said the two new facilities might not be enough capacity, hinting at a third facility.

The New Castle site is Fujifilm’s first dispersion manufacturing facility, a $19 million investment, in the U.S. Along with it will be more than 21 new professional, managerial, engineering, and skilled labor jobs. The newly added space, at approximately 8,100 square feet, includes state-of-the-art manufacturing and process-control equipment, adding to the current 40,000 square feet of occupied manufacturing space at the site, which employs 90 people.

Fujifilm noted that its reactive dispersant (RxD) pigment dispersion products are important to the development of aqueous inkjet inks for a variety of fast-growing inkjet markets, including packaging, textile, and commercial printing. They use a proprietary cross-linking technology to lock each pigment particle in a secure polymer cage, which is said to result in a highly stable dispersion that enables the design of ink formulations that can meet demanding performance requirements. Fujifilm supplies aqueous inks to digital-printer OEMs and and RxD pigment dispersions to ink formulators.

In addition to this new facility, the construction of a second facility, which will add 11,000 square feet. of new operational space to the overall site, began in the spring and is expected to be operational by summer 2023. Upon completion, the two plants will double Fujifilm’s production capacity of pigment dispersions in the U.S. to meet demand for inkjet-printing globally.

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