Bobst has released the latest version of its Thalia UV Digital Inks, which has been tweaked to bring it up to date with upcoming regulations for food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and toy packaging. The regulations in question are the Swiss Ordinance 2026, which was published in 2024 and is already in force, and the German Ink Ordinance (GIO) 2027, which comes into play next year.
Bobst has been developing the Thalia UV ink, which is designed for its inkjet label presses, since mid-2022. This development process was started by the need to remove Trimethylbenzoyl diphenylphosphine oxide, more commonly known as TPO, which at that time was commonly used for the photo-initiator component of many UV inks. TPO was listed by the European Chemicals Agency as an SVHC (Substance of Very High Concern) from June 2023 with a transition period up to 2025, prompting many UV ink manufacturers to reformulate their inks at that time.
The Thalia UV ink was first announced at Drupa 2024 when it was already being beta tested. Bobst says that around 50% of its installed base in Europe, Middle East and Africa have been using it since 2025. But Bobst says that it is tricky to get the right balance between quality, compliance and performance so that it’s only now after four years that it considers this formulation to be the final version.
That means that the Thalia UV Digital Inks are now free of TPO and 20 other groups of substances of concern, including PFAS, Phthalates, Bisphenols, ITX, MOSH/MOAH, Parabens, and Primary aromatic amines. As such, these inks support EU 1935/2004, EuPIA Good Manufacturing Practice, REACH, and most brand-owner guidelines. It’s worth noting that whilst Bobst has formulated the ink it appears to have outsourced the actual manufacturing of it.
Patrick Graber, Marketing director for Bobst’s Labels division, commented, “The introduction of the Swiss Ordinance 2026 and the forthcoming German Ink Ordinance 2027 are reshaping expectations around ink formulation, migration behaviour, and documentation. Brand owners are placing growing emphasis on risk mitigation and traceability,”
He added” “Converters are no longer simply asked to comply, but to prove compliance with robust, evidence-based data across every application. This makes compliance a continuous operational discipline placing extreme pressure on converters.”
This inkset includes CMYKOV+White, with Bobst claiming that the gamut is 4% wider than previous inks, especially for the green and orange tones. It involves new pigments so customers will need to make new profiles before using it. This Thalia inkset will run on every Bobst inkjet label press, including those sold under the Mouvent brand, with no need for any changes to the hardware or curing systems.
Bobst says that there’s no need for a primer for most substrates, and that the inks will allow the presses to run at 100 meters per minute at 1200 x 1200 dpi; but then anything else would have been a huge backwards step.
Only conventional UV curing
However, this ink will only cure under conventional UV lamps and not LEDs. That seems like a missed opportunity, given that the direction of travel in digital labelling its towards LEDs because of their lower energy consumption and general ease of use. However, Bobst hinted that it may have more to say on this in the near future.
Bobst set up a dedicated Food Contact Material (FCM) governance framework back in 2024 as an added-value service to support converters. Bobst has since run five studies on migration modeling to help a selection of different customers in the industry.
It’s also worth noting that alongside the original Drupa 2024 announcement, Bobst also unveiled the Digital Master 55 as an all-in-one digital printing and converting platform for folding carton with its own inkset, Thalia Foldable UV. This has a separate development cycle to the Thalia UV label ink but I would expect an update on this from Bobst as well in the not too distant future.
In the meantime, readers can find further information from bobst.com
First published by the Print and Manufacturing Journal 5th May 2026
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