While already a reality for label printing, developers are now exploring the hybrid process holistically to understand what is required for a true utopia, with a lot of development happening in inkjet. By Sean Smyth.
If you had developed a dating app for equipment manufacturers in labels and packaging, you would have been very busy over the past few years bringing together established flexo manufacturers with players from the inkjet world. Durst and Omet, Gallus and Fujfilm, Mark Andy and Ricoh, Focus and Konica Minolta, Screen and Nilpeter (which has a bit of a history in the field), FFEI and Edale, and Domino with MPS as well as several others. There are also specialists that can add inkjet printing capability to an existing machine, such as PPSI, Industrial Inkjet (IIJ) and Colordyne.
On the spot
Hybrid analogue and digital processes are usually used together; even fully digital print has to be finished and digital finishing is still in its infancy. Hybrid solutions allow priming, base printing, digital printing, post-printing/coating and finishing to be handled inline, in a single pass.
Screen-printing units are used on many presses for laying down white. Inkjet can match the performance and opacity of screen white up to a certain speed, and that speed is rising. Depending on the design there may be a base or top white needed, which is very easy with flexo, but less so with inkjet. Many spot colours can be successfully matched, but good colour management is required to match tints of these spot colours. High-resolution small drops help match colour and mask screening artefacts, but may limit the saturation of some colours, while larger drops provides colour density at the expense of graininess. Hybrid solutions allow spot colours, matching previous print and satisfying customers, often at a lower ink cost.
Digital embellishments are entirely possible, but buying a specific unit for each type is not cost effective. These units need to be capable of multiple uses, to print spot varnish – decorative, tactile or functional – and the adhesive for cold foiling. This is possible with careful printhead selection, ink rheology and used in combination with a flood coating flexo unit.
Simple black imprinting has been used for many years. It may require varnish-free areas, while UV ink can overprint most surfaces to give a durable result at full flexo press speed while printing acceptable barcodes and small fonts. An emerging trend is for additional black units within a press to allow variable data printing in conjunction with reverse printing, for peel and reveal or booklets printed entirely with variable data. This provides converters with entirely new concepts of what can be achieved in terms of formats, real estate and promotional opportunities.
There is no single ‘do it all solution’, but a single printhead providing high quality CMYK print at the highest resolution and speed have started to break through, but they may not be suitable to print very heavy coverage at those speeds. However, the compromises are falling away. In practice the best results for a hybrid production systems will fall into two options:
A fully integrated press architecture built around a suite of different printhead technologies that use common electronics covering a wide range of criteria: small drop, large drop, speed, high laydown. This could be using Xaar’s new 2001 printhead. This option provides a one-stop shop solution; there is one source of support with a seamless customer experience. A mix of solutions from multiple vendors integrated on the same machine with control technologies to allow synchronisation and integrated workflow. This gives customers the choice of best in class solutions and the ability to digitise existing investments.
A simple solution
The smaller format of narrow web labels makes mixed hybrid machines a relatively simple solution. PPSI pioneered the adoption into labels offering a method of retrofitting its DICEweb inkjet print engine onto an existing narrow web flexo machine, extending the life of some machines at converters in the US. The company stresses the benefits of the best features of analogue and digital, while extending the life of existing equipment and tooling.
Colordyne also offers retrofitting capabilities, the 3500 Series with either aqueous or UV printing. It installed one unit (a four-colour inkjet module also referred to as the Mark Andy Digital +3600) onto an existing Mark Andy 2200 flexo press at the Atlanta facility of Diversified Labeling Solutions, to produce high-quality digital and hybrid labels, helping the customer manage high-mix, low-volume runs more effectively, using existing rotary dies and on-press finishing capabilities. Jim Kersten, the CEO, explained that the company moved into digital production as a cost-effective way to produce short-run labels, with test, personalised and versioned labels. He said, ‘We saw this as an opportunity for us to put digital in, and at the same time, increase our flexographic capacity.’
Also in the US, New Creation Labels and Packaging (NCLPS) invested in the Colordyne retrofit option to add water-based inkjet printing to its offerings to better serve short-run markets and produce personalised and variable data applications. One such short run application was custom reserve seat tickets for high school football games, a growing trend that involves printing very short runs of around 200 tickets for each school.
Several providers sell imprinting systems. Domino has the K600i digital UV inkjet printer and FFEI developed the Xaar Printbar later rebranded ‘Printbar Uncovered’, which now comes with Xaar’s High Laydown technology. There is a unit installed at ProPrint where it is used for varnish, and several other units are installed at major converters, which are evaluating in production environments for varnish and white embellishment jobs. Edale offers the EFX Print Bar using the same technology.
Fujifilm has the Samba 42000 Inkjet Printbar System. This is an array of 8 or 10 printheads for 330 and 430mm press widths using Fujifilm UV LED inks. The heads are precisely aligned and balanced to print at 1200 or 600dpi up to 90m/min inline with flexo stations in pre-analogue and post-analogue configurations, as well as off-line printing on converting equipment. There is a trigger and encoder to track and target the flexo print zone to ensure good registration.
For packaging
Hybrid is not just for labels where the pioneers are reporting a steady stream of new machines. In summer 2018, the arrival of the Uteco Sapphire EVO press marked a new dawn in flexible packaging printing, with the first high performance inkjet press launch for that sector.
This new hybrid press is comprised of an aqueous-based Kodak Stream inkjet imaging system, installed on a standard flexo transport system with users able to specify pre- and post-print flexo units to lay down white and spot colours, as well as coatings. The water-based inks mean there is a low ink film weight, which is good, but the trade-off is the requirement for drying. UV ink raises concerns over food safety, and the ink film thickness of a five-colour build can be 7-11 microns, which would be problematic on a 20 micron BOPP film.
The Sapphire EVO features an inline gravure priming station to provide a good laydown and adhesion on a wide range of flexible materials including clear, white, and metallised BOPP, PET, PE, and paper. There are four inkjet print units (CMYK) and Uteco claims these will deliver a gamut covering some 97% of the Pantone library. There is space for an optional fifth colour unit in future configurations. The drying system uses infrared and hot air knife systems; the web passes a chilled drum in contact with the media to facilitate the drying of wet-on-wet printing while maintaining substrate stability.
Inkjet print width is 622mm, on a 650mm web and it boasts a top speed of 300m/min at 600dpi, with higher resolution resulting in slower speeds depending on substrate and job characteristic. Uteco estimates that the press will be cost effective against flexo for runs of up to 32,000 metres, which should make it attractive for flexible packaging companies looking to gain the benefits of digital production in their operations.
The first installation is being made in June at Nuova Erreplast, an Italian flexible packaging converter and this is its first digital machine. CEO Crescenzo Raccioppoli believes the press will service growing demand for shorter and variable runs from food and pharma customers, and will be the platform for significant expansion. There is also a hybrid carton machine using the same Kodak water-based inkjet unit built into a flexo carton line with inline rotary cutting and creasing in operation at Zumbiel Packaging in Cincinnati to print high volume drinks cartons and sleeves.
So, the hybrid installations continue to build beyond the label space. In direct-to-shape there are combination presses designed to deliver the required text quality onto glass, rigid plastics and tubes that can be tricky for inkjet. Conventional ink cost for heavy solids and digital variability for imagery can make attractive economic sense.
Making the choice
Integrated hybrid solutions are provided by several leading flexo press manufacturers: Gallus offers the Labelfire, Mark Andy has the Digital Series, MPS sells the Symjet, Nilpeter the Panorama, Focus Label Machinery has the d-Flex and Edale offers the Graphium, while Omet has introduced the XJet.
Insignis-Etiketten in Austria invested in a Gallus Labelfire 340 to expand its product portfolio and guarantee improved flexibility, quality and performance. ‘With this machine, we are becoming extremely flexible whilst obtaining top quality. The expanded colour gamut with seven printing inks and digital white enables us to cover 96% of the Pantone space, and, with a physical resolution of 1200dpi, we achieve offset quality, sometimes even beyond,’ commented managing director, Erwin Pudek.
Mark Andy has improved on its Digital Series hybrid platform, resulting in an HD version, which features with an arched ink delivery system that accepts unsupported films and new printhead technology offering 1200dpi resolution. An expanded colour gamut offered in a high-chroma ink set complements the existing white ink formulation. The product development team said the ink provides three times the opacity of flexo white and more than double that of conventional EP white, measured in excess of 80%, and can be run at the platform’s standard 73m/min speed.
Dutch label printer Etiketten Drukkerij Noord Nederland (EDNN) recently bought the MPS Symjet machine, which combines the EF flexo platform with an integrated Domino N610i digital UV inkjet module, is a strategic addition to the company’s capacity and future. General manager Vincent Belksma said, ‘Hybrid printing is the future of label printing, and with the EF Symjet hybrid press, we can combine digital technology with flexo printing, as well as the finishing, all in one pass.’
Nilpeter installed the Panorama line in a hybrid configuration at Nuceria Group, in Italy, late last year. The DP-3 UV inkjet unit uses Screen technology and runs at speeds up to 50m/min printing in CMYK plus white with Kyocera printheads. General manager Guido Iannone said, ‘We have chosen Nilpeter’s Panorama because it perfectly combines the strength of the different technologies to build sustained value and transform something special into something truly unique.’
The partnership between Omet and Durst resulted in the XJet, with the first installation going into Italgrafica Sistemi in Italy recently. Francesco Niorettini, general manager, said, ‘What is really important is to ensure that we retain the same high level and definitions produced with flexo and offset.’ The new hybrid line is powered by the Durst Tau RSC, which features a maximum print speed of 78m/min at 1200 x 1200dpi resolution. With eight colour stations and newly designed high-pigmented inks, it covers 98% of the Pantone colour gamut.
Early this year, Last Bros spoke about its new d-Flex hybrid system from Focus. Incorporating KM1800i printheads in the inkjet module from IIJ, the press can reach speeds of up to 70m/min and is configured with two flexo stations, lamination and rotary die-cutting. Sales and marketing executive, Dean Latchford, said, ‘The self-contained unit will augment and improve on our existing flexo machinery. This is a great step in the right direction for us and the technology will make us that much more competitive.’
Box text by Neel Madsen
