Labelling may be characterized by long runs but short run digital presses are clearly starting to take hold, judging by the number on show at this year’s Labelexpo. Nessan Cleary looks at what defined this year’s show in the first of a two-part report.
This year's European Label Expo has been hailed as the most successful to date, with some 35,739 visitors from 146 countries, 12 percent up from the last show. This growth is down to the show’s continuing ability to highlight the overall trends in the market place and to answer the most pressing questions, particularly the likely impact of digital technology on this most conservative market sector.
Here, the most interesting aspect is the degree to which the conventional flexo press manufacturers have adopted digital technology. Most of these have worked with digital suppliers to add digital printheads but we also saw several hybrid presses announced.
Thus Gallus demonstrated its hybrid digital press, the DCS340, the first new product to be announced since Heidelberg formally took over the company. It uses Fujifilm Samba printheads with a Heidelberg-supplied UV ink. Thanks to the Samba heads, the DCS340 boasts a relatively high resolution of 1200 x 1200 dpi, with a tiny two picolitre drop size. It can run at 45mpm, which is a fairly standard speed for inkjet label presses. It’s an eight colour machine, having CMYK plus orange, green and violet for an extended colour gamut, as well as white. Being a hybrid machine with flexo units, it has inline finishing to allow for varnishing and die cutting.
Jason Oliver, Heidelberg’s senior vice president for digital solutions, also confirmed that Heidelberg is developing a B1 digital press to be shown at Drupa.
Mark Andy also showed off its new hybrid press, claiming to have developed it entirely in-house, though without revealing which company had provided the printheads. However, it’s specifications are reasonably impressive, running at roughly 75mpm and delivering 600 x 600 dpi.
Domino demonstrated its N610i inkjet configured as a standalone module ready to be integrated with conventional equipment. Philip Easton, Domino’s UK managing director, says: “It’s completely modular so you can add flexo stations with embossing, laminating or whatever.” It’s a seven-colour device capable of up to 75mpm with 600 dpi resolution. It was shown with an AB Graphics Digicon 3, which was itself configured with varnishing and die cutting.
MPS showed a hybrid that also used the Domino N610i module. The EF Symjet is still being developed but will gain the new servo-driven flexo units shown on the MPS EF Neo press. However, these units will take media up to 430mm wide, whereas the digital unit can only handle media up to 330mm wide. Product manager Hans Poortinga says that MPS is still working to integrate the software from the two halves of the press.
Naturally, a number of vendors have developed inkjet modules that can be used to add digital capability to an existing flexo press. One of the most interesting of these was a new printbar from Xaar, which has stitched a number of its 1002 printheads together to form a single unit, available in widths from 70mm to 560mm. The 1002 heads are widely used in digital label presses, with several variations so that developers can choose to prioritise image quality or productivity. The unit includes ink channels, electronics to drive the heads and even a workflow so that it can be easily added to a conventional press. It was shown on FFEI’s Graphium, a seven colour hybrid press, with the additional printbar module used to add white ink to create an eight colour printer.
Industrial Inkjet, which uses Konica Minolta printheads, launched another in its series of printhead modules. The MP500 is a complete single colour printing system that can be added to existing presses or even to finishing kit. It can print full variable images in black, white, varnish or spot colours, as well as security inks such as IR black or UV-fluorescent. It boasts 600 dpi resolution and can run at up to 50mpm. It’s 520mm wide so suitable for small packaging systems as well as labels.
Digital presses
There were plenty of digital presses on show but this sector of the market is maturing quickly, with existing players consolidating their presses and a lot less room for new pretenders to have a go.
Screen showed off its L350UV label press. This uses a greyscale Kyocera inkjet printhead with UV ink in CMYK+white. It can produce up to 50mpm with a 600 dpi resolution. Screen has added new features that allow for extended colour gamut from the existing inkset, by making it easier to achieve spot colours. There’s a new text resolution function that improves text sharpness by reducing ink spread, which also works on uncoated paper substrates.
Screen has also added a JDF link to the CERM MIS from Screen’s Equios front end that can eliminate repetitive manual tasks and help to automate planning. Information is fed back live to a digital dash board displaying production data such as printing speeds and the amount of material printed.
Durst is clearly an established inkjet vendor with its Tau 150 and 330 label presses. At the show, Durst announced a lower cost printer, the Tau 330E, stressing that despite being cheaper it was still aimed at industrial users. It’s based around the existing Tau 330, but modified to reduce the cost of purchase and of servicing. There’s a choice of 200mm and 330mm widths, and with an optional white as well as the standard CMYK inks. There’s a highly pigmented inkset that Durst has developed with SunJet, which should cut ink consumption by up to 30 percent. It’s also possible to add a digital laser for inline cutting.
Durst has also developed a browser-based workflow system, Tau Prepare, so that files can be uploaded from anywhere and the machine monitored remotely.
In addition, Durst has developed a jumbo winder and unwinder capable of holding 4000 metres for up to two hours non-stop printing. Helmut Munter, sales manager for Durst’s label products, notes that customers of the standard Tau 330, which is designed for runs of 5-6000 linear metres, sometimes use it for jobs up to 10,000 linear metres simply because of the convenience of digital and to avoid the time and cost penalty of using a flexo press.
Konica Minolta demonstrated its label press, the Bizhub Press C71cf, though this won’t be launched until 2016. This is an electrophotographic machine printing in CMYK using Konica Minolta’s Simitri HDE toner. It can run at up to 13.5mpm with resolution of 1200 x 1200 dpi. It takes media up to 330mm wide and can handle paper, both coated and uncoated, as well as synthetics and polypropylene.
Nilpeter has rebadged the L350UV as its new DP3 label press. Nilpeter has made some minor tweaks, giving it a large monitor and repositioning the corona and web cleaning units. Nilpeter has also developed integrated finishing to produce a complete line. For now this includes varnishing, die cutting smart waste handling and multi-roll rewinding. But Nilpeter has said that it will add other features such as hot foiling and embossing. Screen won’t be taking on the Nilpeter finishing, opting to continue to sell its own Jet Converter finishing option, which is itself built by AB Graphics.
Xeikon used the show for the commercial launch of its CX3 digital label press. This is a toner printer based on Xeikon’s Cheetah technology and can print at up to 30mpm, across a 330mm web. It’s capable of 1200 x 3600 dpi resolution, delivering extremely good image quality, easily good enough to match up to flexo quality at a reasonable speed.
HP has improved its Indigo WS6800 roll to roll press. The new features include improved colour matching, using the built-in spectrophotometer together with a new Labels and Packaging Print Server, which uses Esko technology to match spot colours. HP has also improved the fade resistance of its ElectroInk wet toner and added a Michelman DP680 primer to work with a wider range of media.
HP also showed off upgrade packages for both its 20000 and 30000 B2 Indigos. The 20000 gains a new slitter, reinsertion capabilities and a white ink for shrink sleeves. The 30000 can now work with metalized substrates and also has improved reinsertion.
The British company Dantex, mainly known for distributing press room consumables, showed off a brand new inkjet label press, the PicoColour 2. This has been developed by another British company, JF Machines, which Dantex took over earlier this year. The press itself is 210mm wide and runs at up to 35mpm. It uses Xaar 1002 printheads and offers CMYK plus white inks. There’s an optional corona unit and it can be used for paper as well as filmic based media.
Part Two of Nessan Cleary's report in Friday's issue of Print21 online, when he examines Finishing and Curing options on exhibition at Labelexo.