Labelsprint Ltd, Rhyl, North Wales, has announced the purchase of the UK’s first Xeikon 3500 digital colour label press. The machine, officially launched to the UK market at IPEX 2010, provides for a wider media width than other Xeikon label presses, offering Labelsprint significant opportunities to run both wider and longer label runs and to print smaller format products more efficiently and more cost effectively. “I knew when we were being shown the Xeikon 3500 for the very first time at an industry demonstration in Belgium that it was the machine that we needed to rise above the rest of the digital market,” said Gary Lovell, Sales Director of Labelsprint.
“As the leader in the digital label printing sector we have to appreciate that our production solution is not simply about producing short runs at a lower cost than everybody else. That is not going to continue as a sustainable business for very long. Whilst other companies in the digital label market only covet “short run work”, we firmly believe that we can produce substantially longer print runs with the new Xeikon 3500.”
The timing of the purchase of the new Xeikon 3500 links well with the retirement of the company’s first Xeikon 330 press. “The new machine will sit well alongside our Xeikon 3300 machine, providing us with suitable back-up but also offering an extended range of capabilities,” confirmed Managing Director Gavin Scott. “The new press prints onto substrates of up to 550mm in width. This significantly raises the bar and extends the footprint into the traditional flexographic market”.
Lovell added: “Our customers have steered us towards offering this solution. We deal with many clients who regularly purchase longer runs that are just not commercially viable to be printed digitally. However they love the flexibility of the digital solution, including just in time ordering, zero origination costs and higher quality labels. We either walk away and lose this work to flexo printers, or we look to take a larger bite out of the longer run market. The new 3500 press enables us to do just that – this will be a busy machine from day one!”
The Labelsprint business is currently revamping its web site, and will publish full details on its new internet-based capabilities in the near future. For now the company is on target to hit £2.5 million turnover this year, and expects to quickly add a further half-a-million of turnover with the extended capabilities of the new machine.
On the subject of variable data and labels, both directors see a rosy future – eventually! “It is the one major area of difference where digital technology simply cannot be matched. Digital experts, such as Labelsprint, need to further educate customers on what they can realistically achieve by providing us with critical database information. With the right content we can produce a true digital solution, not just a “cheaper label”,” added Gary.
In purchasing the Xeikon 3500 Labelsprint didn’t look at any other equipment. “We know the market. We understand what other machines are out there, but frankly there isn’t anything else that can offer our customers the same product that can be produced on the Xeikon 3500. That is how we want to be positioned: Labelsprint providing clients with a better product than any of the competition can possibly provide.”
Xeikon Label Printing Technology
The unique combination of 1200 x 3600 dpi addressability and 4-bit variable dot density offers Xeikon 3000 product owners rich colour depth and subtle contrasts. Sharp and crisp details enable the addition of such subtle capabilities as micro text – a technique for the prevention of counterfeit printing.
The Xeikon 3000 Series uses the Pericles screening library. The screen ruling can be adjusted for every image element, resulting in images pleasing to the eye. An inline densitometer allows the user to calibrate the press to ensure uniform and accurate colours and colour consistency between jobs and between presses.
The use of four process colours plus one additional printing station provides for the production of a range of standard or custom-made spot colours providing an extended colour gamut. Xeikon’s one pass opaque white helps to create immaculate images on transparent and metallic label stock.
A pioneer in digital printing, Xeikon designs, develops and delivers high-end digital colour printing systems for the industrial, document and commercial printing market segments. These systems are composed of advanced web-fed printing engines using LED-array-based, dry toner electrophotography, open workflow software, exclusive toner and other consumables. Xeikon’s production and R&D operations are based in Belgium and its solutions are distributed and supported through a worldwide sales and service network. Xeikon is a division of Punch Graphix. For more information, visit www.xeikon.com
