Melbourne packaging company Abbe Corrugated has installed a Barberan single-pass large format digital printer, the fastest of its kind in Australia.
The Barberan Jetmaster 1890 4-color digital press - with a price tag in excess of $5 million - arrived in March at Abbe's 32,000 m2 Coolaroo site in Melbourne's northern suburbs and was in commercial production within two and a half weeks.
"It's certainly a leap forward in printing technology and it's the fastest printer of its kind in Australia," said MD Anthony O'Sullivan. "We spent a couple of years looking around the world for the best machine we could find and the Barberan stood out because of its speed, the square metres that it can produce per hour, and because of its quality and its ability to print on different substrates.
"We regard it as a very good addition to the business. It's allowed us bring down the cost of high quality, smaller runs and has helped us open up into new markets. We're now producing full colour display stands for the retail market and we're gaining access into litho markets."
"Our clients are mostly independent and family businesses, often in food and agricultural-type markets, and they're very interested in the technology and learning about what they can do with it in terms of customisation. It's very competitive with offset in lower quantities. With digital there’s no plates or set up so that allows for flexibility and speed to market."
Abbe's partner company, Austcor, based at Wetherill Park in Sydney, will also be selling the Jetmaster's Impression brand products into the NSW market.
Abbe Corrugated (see corporate video below) is a leading cardboard manufacturer and supplier of packaging that includes corrugated cardboard boxes and cartons.
