Packed with innovations

Packaging Innovations, the UK's leading packaging event, returns to the NEC, Birmingham, on 25 and 26 February 2015. The show will have dedicated Ecopack and Contract Pack areas and is co-located with Empack and Label&Print. It will provide a showcase for more than 350 exhibitors specialising in all aspects of packaging from materials and design, to machinery, new technologies and equipment.

This year's show will also see the launch of three new features - The Drinks Symposium, The Pharmaceutical Symposium and The Retail Symposium. The BIG Print Debate and Lions' Lair will be returning, along with a full learnShops programme including presentations from Mondelz, Marks and Spencer, Nestlé and John Lewis. More than 50 free seminars will give access to the latest thinking and developments, and provide real-life examples of innovation in action. The seminar programme features a line-up of high profile industry experts and innovative brands presenting real case studies depicting the way in which the new technology can be used.

Event director Alison Church says: "Since opening its doors in 2006, the show has tripled in size. It has become the key calendar event for the packaging industry. All different types of companies that supply into the packaging industry are here, and if you really want to know what's going on in the industry, you need to be here."

Empack and Label&Print

Empack 2015 will host a wide variety of suppliers of packaging machinery, equipment, logistical and transit packaging, industrial packaging, and robotics and automation, which can help a company reduce costs, improve efficiency and give inspiration for new design ideas. The latest developments in digital printing, flexo, labelling equipment, 3D print, labels and labelling, offset, gravure, and active & intelligent packaging will feature at the Label&Print 2015 show (formerly known as Print, Labelling and Converting Innovations

Exhibitors

On stand K11, Afinia & Handisc Labels will be promoting the DLP-2000 digital label press, which combines the "incredible" speed, quality and economical low cost-per-print of Memjet technology with the precision and performance of RotoMetrics magnetic cylinders and dies. Labels can be printed, laminated and cut in-line and in one process. Adding Wasatch SoftRIP allows users to dial-in precise, consistent colour, and even utilise ICC Profiles to more closely match the output of traditional flexo and offset presses.Also to feature is the Afinia Label DLF-1000, a digital label finisher built around a proven, industry standard plotter-style cutting mechanism for maximum accuracy and dependability. This label finishing solution performs all the functions of larger, more expensive systems, in a compact, table-top design. Designed to digitally finish printed rolls from Afinia's L801 and R635 colour label printers, the DLF-1000 cuts labels to any shape and is controlled through plug-ins to popular vector based programs like Illustrator and CorelDraw.

Atlantic Zeiser, on stand K3, will be presenting Digiline Label - "the economic solution to print and encode labels for pharmaceutical products like vials in order to reliably feed them directly into packaging lines without production stops". The system is claimed to offer everything that is expected from a modern label printing system - especially features which are usually not attainable with common thermotransfer printers.

Visitors to stand B46 will find that Discovery Flexibles has developed ePrint, a new gravure print solution providing customers with "gravure print at a cost effective price". It focuses on applying best practice methodology to each customer design, and is said to deliver an efficient, economic and environmentally friendly solution to their packaging needs. Through expert consultation at the design stage, Discovery Flexibles can demonstrate how ePrint can benefit the customer through reduction in printing costs, streamlining lead times and providing fixed origination costs.

On stand stand K10, Epson will be launching a new colour label printer for in-house on demand labelling. On display in the UK for the first time, the new printer builds on the success of the TM-C3500 for short run, on-demand colour label printing with an enhanced print quality and speed to allow even larger runs without compromising on printing speed. Also on display will be a number of products from Epson's Colorworks family. These include the ColorWorks C3500 label printer, further information at the end of this article.

New standards in printing and register quality are promised by Gallus for its DCS 340 digital inline label printing system. The result of the company's collaboration with Heidelberg and its partner for inkjet technology, Fujifilm, the new system features a printing module with an innovative inkjet print head design that enables several heads to be joined together for a greater print width, without visible transitions. A native resolution of 1200dpi delivers "print quality that is unmatched in UV inkjet printing today", according to Gallus. This technology is combined with the speed of flexo printing and the efficiency of digital printing in the new DCS 340 digital press with the highest standards in register accuracy, the company states. Stand J29.

The Horizon RD-4055 rotary diecutter to be featured by Intelligent Finishing Systems (stand L13) is designed to meet the growing demand for short run diecut product, with the ability to diecut, crease, perforate, slit, hole punch and round corner in one process for digital and offset printed sheets. A repeat-register function enables the running of multiple up imposed applications with a smaller die to reduce die cost (Up to five repeats in a single pass). Rotary diecutting of flexible substrates up to 0.5mm thick is provided for digital and offset printed sheets up to 400 x 550mm. Feeding, diecutting and separating are achieved in one pass at a speed of 6,000 cycles/hour the company states.

Supplier of management information systems to the packaging industry Shuttleworth will demonstrate "the ultimate MIS tool for customer focused carton manufacturers". Shuttleworth's MIS Package Production Planning system gives real-time feedback directly from the shop floor, giving crucial information and control for the modern packaging environment. Also on display will be Shuttleworth's Product Management functionality which is designed to help the workflow process.Multiple products or items can be added to a single 'Enquiry' and the system produces a single quote. This is ideal for managing different types of work, ensuring that several orders can be easily managed and tracked as a single enquiry if required. Also on display is the new Milestones Job Tracking functionality for quick and easy viewing of the status of any job, as it progresses. The company's latest Production Scheduling module includes a new option for automating the whole production planning process. Stand L9.

On stand F20, Sirane will be displaying its Siralon,range of nylon food packaging materials that allow food to be packed, shipped, sold and cooked in the same packaging. The absorbent bag/film range is a novel nylon packaging solution for meat, fish and poultry, or vegetables, which can even be run down a flow-wrapper. The "easy-to-seal" nylon material is strong, offers good clarity and a good barrier, and can be vacuum packed.

X-Rite Europe (stand H23) will showcase its range of hardware and software solutions to maximise end-to-end colour control. Among the solutions to feature are eXact and eXact Scan, the next generation in handheld colour measurement "that enables printers and packaging converters to truly understand, control, manage and communicate colour avoiding unwanted reprint and rework". Also being highlighted is PantoneLive and the newly updated Pantone Certified Printer Program for commercial printers and packaging converters that addresses new industry standards.

With a top speed of 30m/min, Xeikon's new Cheetah is said to outperform all digital label presses in its class. This new system allows the use of substrate widths up to 330mm and is the companys most productive 5-colour digital label press yet. It also has all the other benefits that characterise Xeikon label presses, including full rotary printing, a print resolution of true 1,200 x 3,600dpi, toners that meet FDA regulations for food contact, and one-pass opaque white toner. Stand H15. ?

Epson
On stand K10 at this year's Packaging and Innovations, Epson will be launching a new colour label printer for in-house on demand labelling. On display in the UK for the first time, the new printer builds on the success of the TM-C3500 for short-run, on-demand colour label printing with an enhanced print quality and speed to allow even larger runs without compromising on printing speed.

Also on display will be a number of products from Epson's Colorworks family. These include the ColorWorks C3500 label printer. This uses pigment ink, rather than dye-based ink and can create colourful, long-lasting labels that dry quickly and are smudge, water and fade resistant.

Designed for a range of manufacturing, chemical, healthcare, retail, and event industries, this printer allows businesses to create their own labels in-house, avoiding waiting times and high costs of label manufacturers. Users will find that the TM-C3500 gives them much more control over the look of their labels.

The stand will also feature Epson's ColorWorks C831, an industrial-strength Micro Piezo inkjet label printer ideal for GHS large format drum and chemical labels. It combines all the benefits of a rugged colour inkjet printer with the accuracy of an 8-pin tractor feeder.

www.easyFairs.com/PIUK
www.afinialabel.co.uk
www.atlanticzeiser.com
www.discoveryflexibles.com
www.epson.co.uk
www.gallus-group.com
www.ifsl.uk.com
www.shuttleworth-uk.co.uk
www.sirane.com
www.xeikon.com
www.xrite.com