Following its purchase by Coates-Lorilleux, a UK-based ink company, in 1984, and subsequent merge with Color-Mix Corporation in 1995, Colonial Printing Ink Corporation became Coates Screen USA and together with its sister companies, Coates UK and Coates GmbH, became a global supplier of screen printing inks. In early 2000, the Coates Screen Group’s global resources were greatly enhanced following the acquisition of Coates Lorilleux by Sun Chemical Corporation – the world’s largest producer of printing inks and pigments.

In the early 1990s, Coates Screen USA implemented a strategy of focusing the vast majority of its product development resources on emerging energy curable technology. This allowed Coates Screen to surpass the competition in expanding the borders of UV ink performance and led to the launching of the first widely used UV-curable, CD decorating ink as well as introducing cutting edge energy curable products for automotive, roll label, bottle printing and many other screen printing applications.

Quality initiatives led Coates Screen USA to become certified to the ISO 9001 Quality Standard in 1998.

Today, Coates Screen USA is headquartered in St. Charles, Illinois in a recently refurbished, state-of-the-art manufacturing and R&D facility and joins Coates Screen UK and Coates GmbH to form a triumvirate of international manufacturing and development centers that will maintain the group’s standing on the forefront of screen printing technology for years to come.