UK label specialist Labelpower has purchased its first digital press – a Xeikon 330 - to meet demands for short run, high quality labels.
"A typical run for us on our conventional flexo presses could be anything from 50,000 up to several million labels," says Nick Newlyn director of the Kingsbury based company. "Specialist food companies and suppliers of niche market products just don't need that sort of quantity. They can come to us with requirements of anything from 1,000 to 50,000 labels, and we can now produce them economically and to an extremely high standard with the Xeikon press."
Fellow director Chris Newlyn adds: "We are delighted with the results. The quality we can achieve on the Xeikon is noticeably better than we can produce with the flexo systems. Colour halftone images, in particular, are significantly easier to reproduce with digital."
Labelpower produces high volumes of labels for most of the UK's major supermarket chains and specialist food companies, and sees digital as having the potential to open up new markets. It is also investigating the potential for variable data use with the label sector. Variable bar codes, individually numbered products and security codes are all possible areas of interest.
Since installation the company has also uncovered one other major benefit of the machine – the ease of producing press proofs. "Proofing with flexo has always had its problems," says Chris Newlyn. "Even now inkjet proofs are not wholly accurate with regard to what the press will actually be able to print, and to create a press proof with flexo means significant expense. With the Xeikon we can produce a proof on the machine very quickly and very easily."
The web-fed Xeikon 330 can print on labelstock, paper and synthetic media in widths up to 330mm and weights up to 250g/m2. The variable data capability of the X-800 digital front-end means that files can incorporate regular changes in image. The press comes complete with post press equipment for varnishing, laminating, cutting, slitting and re-reeling.
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