Page 38 - Print21 March-April 2022

Technology
Digital label print options
There is a host of new digital label print technologies on the market, most of which would have been at Labelexpo. Labels & Labelling editor Andy Thomas-Eaves looks at some of the digital highlights.
When narrow
web digital presses were commercialised in the late 1990s, digital was seen not as a challenge to flexography, but as a complementary technology, designed to take away the pain of short run jobs at a time when changing jobs on an eight-colour flexo press could take the best part of a morning.
Fast forward to 2022 and
the digital landscape has been completely transformed. Digital presses have become faster, wider, and with print resolutions and colour gamut to match flexography.
The greater productivity of today’s digital print engines has also changed the equation of off-line versus inline finishing. Narrow web converters have traditionally been used for printing, decorating and converting labels in one pass on modular inline presses. With digital, finishing was, in the early days, predominantly an off-line process since conventional converting and finishing systems were so much faster than digital print speeds.
But faster and wider digital print engines soon made inline finishing a more viable proposition, and we have seen the development of both hybrid digital-flexo presses and digital press manufacturers adding in-line finishing and flexo print units to their presses.
Inline finishing is by no means universal, however, even for
faster digital presses. For many applications off-line remains the preferred option, particularly where rolls contain multiple short-run
jobs with varying die cuts and decorating requirements.
The main takeaway is that the modern digital press platform is highly flexible and well suited for
a wide range of applications from multiple short runs to increasingly challenging flexography on medium and longer runs. All these trends can be observed in the exciting new digital technology launches at Labelexpo Europe 2022 in April.
CANON LABELSTREAM 4000
Supplied here by Rodden Graphics, the CanonLabelStream 4000 series is a four- to six-colour UV inkjet press (CMYK, white and orange) that offers print speeds of up to 75 m/min and two print widths of 330 mm or 410 mm, resulting in what Canon claims is “industry-leading” overall output of 1,845sqm an
hour. According to Canon it offers minimal set-up times, flexibility
to mass customise contents and artwork, while enabling the shortest possible time to market.
The Canon LabelStream 4000 series UV inkjet press has been awarded the Pantone Capable certificate, confirming its reliability and ability to produce a wide range of Pantone colours consistently. Canon says the press is also the
first digital press to have been
Choices: Digital label presses
from precision developers such as Canon (below) and Domino (above) are giving print businesses the opportunity to work in multiple markets
Fogra55 certified by the
Fogra Research Institute for
Media Technologies by meeting the specifications of its ProcessStandard Digital (PSD) Print Check based on the new seven-colour benchmark gamut.
Rodden supplies both the dedicated inkjet press, and the hybrid version, which sees the Canon inkjet engine on an Edale flexo press.
DOMINO N610I
The Domino N610i 600dpi label press is for printing self-adhesive labels, and can be configured as either reel-to-reel for the ultimate in flexibility; with priming for greater substrate support; with in-line finishing, or ideal for multiple SKU jobs as a full hybrid press integrated into any leading flexo press line.
Industry standard Esko Digital Front End and JDF/JMF support for a streamlined workflow integration.
Domino says its UV90 and
UV95 ink sets provide “excellent” resistance to heat, cold, sunlight, chemical and saline attack as well as abrasion to maintain quality through the life of the final product. The high opacity white is often
used as a replacement for silk- screen printing. For food packaging compliance requirements, the UV95 is a non-CMR ink set is suitable
for many non-direct contact food packaging applications.
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