Page 24 - Print21 Nov-Dec 2020

Labels
Epson serves up quality Epson has two commercial grade digital label presses in its portfolio.
varnish and white. Crawford says, “The innovative varnish technology means that you can print either gloss or matt or a combination of both
and high-opacity white inline, it is exclusive to Epson adding high-value and flexibility for brand owners.”
The SurePress L-6534VW complies with the European framework Regulation on Food Contact Materials (FCM). It prints at speeds of up to 50 metres per minute for higher productivity, with improved reliability and usability. It combines PrecisionCore print heads around a central impression drum to provide image quality and precise colour to colour registration.
The company says with its proprietary Nozzle Verification Technology and automatic head maintenance, manual intervention by an operator is minimised.
Crawford says, “The hardware, the printheads, the inks are all manufactured by Epson, and here in Australia the label presses are supplied and serviced direct by Epson. Customers are dealing directly with the manufacturer.”
In New Zealand, SurePress is sold and serviced by Epson partner Aarque Group, and backed by Epson New Zealand and Epson Australia.
The SurePress L-4533AW is a wide-gamut six colour plus white aqueous resin ink press. It can operate unattended for up to
eight hours – up from four for the previous model – and it uses a new edge smoothing function to deliver a higher quality print and faster print speeds according to Crawford. He said, “It can also print on unsupported films used for sachets and product samples.” It will print webs from 80m to 330mm, handling a large range of off-the-shelf media, without pre-coating. 21
Targeting commercial printers looking for a new revenue stream, both are presented to the market with the Epson quality as their key benefit.
As the commercial print market tightens, print business owners are looking for new revenue streams – preferably streams that leverage their existing skill sets and commercial acumen.
Step forward the Epson digital label presses. They are built to enable printers to capitalise on the growing short-run label market by printing labels that come with the quality that Epson has been developing
for the past two decades in the commercial world.
Terry Crawford, Epson BDM
for label presses says, “Many commercial printers will have Epson printers for proofing, some many have them for wide format or DTG printing, they know the quality
that Epson prints. The digital label presses produce the same high-
level quality in labels, in either UV curable or aqueous resin inks.”
There are two digital label presses in the Epson portfolio: the entry level L-4533AW which is an aqueous resin printer and the new L-6534VW which is the UV system.
“The L-4533AW is a great machine to get into the market with. It is entry level, for the ultra-short and
short run market, easy to operate for any printer, but comes with the Epson quality,” Crawford says.
“We find that once printers have found their feet in the
label market, and are looking for longer runs, the growing durable label market demanded by the cosmetics, health and beauty, food & beverage, pharmaceutical and industrial markets, then a step up to the L-6534VW really works.”
The bigger machine has VW in its nomenclature, which stands for
Main:
Zero to 40 per cent: With
the Epson Surepresses
at Rotaprint are (l-r) Amy Inglis, Alan Harverson and Danny Bogatie
Treble-up for Rotoprint with Epson
Gold Coast label printer Rotoprint has just installed its third Epson digital label press six years after putting in its first. Prior
to that, the company was only running analogue flexo presses, which it still has.
Owner Danny Bogatie says, “We have gone from zero per cent digital to 40 per cent of our revenue now coming from the digital side.”
While the flexo presses are used for the longer runs, the three Epson SurePress printers work on shorter runs, sampling, and versioning, and also cater for the
growing number of small businesses launching new products.
Bogatie points to a recent job that comprised 20,000 labels, but in 17 different versions, all easily accommodated on the digital SurePress.
The ability of the SurePress to print
a white inline has also been a boon for Rotoprint, it would previously have printed the white on its flexo press before transferring the media to the digital presses.
24 Print21 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020