Page 35 - Packaging News Magazine July-August 2018

July-August 2018
www.packagingnews.com.au
DIGITAL PRINTING
35
HYBRID OFFERS BEST OF FLEXO AND DIGITAL COMBINED
of Screen distributor Jet Technologies, has seen plenty of interest in the new machines already. “There is confidence in the press and its performance, something that clients en- joy and potential clients are looking for,” he said.
The TruePress Jet
L350UV+ and L350UV+LM both em- ploy six-colour printing, with CMYK plus white and orange ink. Each can print at speeds of up to 60 metres per minute, and are ideally suited for short to medium-run label work. The L350UV+ is designed for general label production, while the L350UV+LM additionally supports food and beverage applications.
Conventional press titan Gallus isn’t resting on its laurels either. Fresh from the success of its Labelfire hy- brid inkjet press, the Heidelberg sub- sidiary launched an entry-level com- panion at its latest Innovation Day: the entry-level Smartfire, powered by Memjet print heads.
“With the Gallus Smartfire, we are focusing on new target groups who are looking for a smart entry into digital label printing,” said Michael Ring, head of Digital Solutions at Gallus. “The Memjet technology allows us to offer an inkjet printing press that pro- duces labels with a quality of 1600x1600 dpi while still keeping the investment costs at a low level.”
ABOVE: The entry-level Gallus Smartfire.
LEFT: Jet Technologies’ Jack Malki: “There is confidence in the press and its performance.”
BELOW: The Epson SurePress L-4533 series offers 30+ upgrades over previous models.
Inkjet specialists Epson have also brought out the successors to the en- try-level SurePress L-4033: the fourth- generation L-4533A, a six-colour aqueous resin ink machine, and the L-4533AW, which adds white. The L-4533 series offers more than thirty upgrades over its predecessor, includ- ing productivity.
“Previously most jobs would be printed in six and eight pass, and are now able to be printed in four and six pass,” said Terry Crawford, BDM for professional print solutions at Epson. “That translates to a 39 per cent in- crease for coated and uncoated pa- pers, and a 28 per cent increase for coated and cast paper.”
With so many new technologies on the market, Mark Daws believes now is a good time to invest in equip- ment. “There’s a danger that if con- verters don’t get digital capacity they’ll be left behind. Think about where you want to be, what other markets and applications you want to get into. That’ll determine what tech- nology you’ll invest in.” ■
Converters looking to move into digital don’t need to give up the benefits of conventional print. Hybrid options, which combine flexo and digital printing stations, can offer converters the best parts of both digital and flexo without having to invest in multiple machines.
Aldus-Tronics is the
Australian distributor for
Mark Andy’s high-end
Digital Series and entry-level
Digital One hybrid label
presses. According to Chris
Bodger, national sales
manager for graphics, both
pure digital and pure flexo have distinct disadvantages that a hybrid press solves. “Pure digital would require a second process to add decoration by other print processes such as varnishing, laminating, embossing foiling and die cutting,” he said. “Hybrid accomplishes all these additional value-add processes and die cuts in a single pass.”
Pure flexo, meanwhile, may run more quickly than hybrid or digital – but the uptime is lower, due to longer set-up time and frequent changeovers. That means a hybrid press can produce double the yield of a flexo press in the same amount of time. “Double the yield can double your revenue or halve your process time. The total cost of production on a hybrid press is lower than pure flexo and lower than pure digital with offline finishing,” said Bodger.
Aldus-Tronics has sold two Mark Andy hybrid machines into Australia already, with more expected by the end of the year. “The emerging hybrid technology is gaining a lot of momentum and interest is very strong,” said Bodger. “Whether it be flexo, gravure, offset, inkjet or toner printing, no one printing process is suited to all substrates and applications. With Mark Andy’s hybrid technology, Aldus-Tronics can now offer the best of both digital and conventional technol- ogy in a platform which seamlessly integrates these processes.”
Chris Bodger