The 2015 edition of Xeikon Café Packaging Innovations saw a 35% rise in visitor numbers with more than 700 industry visitors attending to learn about enhancing digital print production.
Hosted by Xeikon at its Lier production facility in collaboration with its Aura partners, the three-day event focused on how label and packaging printers and converters, as well as print buyers, brand owners and marketers can transform profitability. Visitors could learn about the latest trends and innovations in digital production and had the opportunity to get up to speed with the newest technologies and share insights.
‘We are delighted to see the Xeikon Café Packaging Innovations platform is growing, in terms of both industry and customer support. We received very positive feedback from the event attendees. The relaxed approach to this educational review of market drivers, trends and emerging technologies enabled them to have far reaching conversations and get a clearer business path for their journey ahead,’ said CEO Wim Maes.
‘We are also very pleased to see an increased diversity in the type of print professionals that attended the event,’ he continued. ‘Not only printers and converters appreciated the Xeikon Café as a platform to get more insights in optimising their digital print production. Also brand owners gained a better understanding of how digital print is the answer to their needs, and for marketers the Café was an eye-opener as they discovered how digital print technology creates new opportunities.’
Collaboration
There were over 30 Aura Partners on site exhibiting their integrated solutions and industry expertise through numerous different applications ranging from folding carton to self-adhesive, heat transfer and in-mould labels. ‘Because there is more to print production than printing, we have gone one step further and developed total solutions together with our Aura Partners. These solutions, or suites, are carefully selected and thoroughly tested combinations of equipment, technologies and capabilities,’ said Mr Maes.
Running throughout the event, the Folding Carton suite, configured as in a roll to sheet combination, showed four different jobs for confectionary, coffee, pastry and pharmaceuticals. The chocolate box included a food safe spot varnish, while the coffee box demonstrated a security feature and the pastry box had dynamic content powered by Chili Publish. The general self-adhesive labels presentation saw health & beauty, food and industrial applications demonstrated. Another demo focused solely on self-adhesive wine labels in a roll to roll configuration showing how hot foiling, tactile varnish, embossing, numbering and laser die-cutting can enhance the look of the label. Peel & read labels were printed live on the new Cheetah press in a roll to roll configuration with inline web varnishing module and rewinder. These were finished offline on an ABG Digicon Series 3. The content on the label was produced using a specialised content management software tool developed by KAN Design for including legally required ingredient information during the design phase. The tool also makes use of Chili Publisher software, a dynamic online editing software that enables last-minute changes to images or text. Other label applications included heat-transfer and in-mould.
Partners providing software solutions included Advance Track & Trace, Cerm, Chili Publish, Esko, Hybrid Software, Label Traxx, OneVision Software and Four Pees, while manufacturers showing all types of consumables, finishing and other equipment were AB Graphic International, ACTEGA Terra, Avery Dennison, Bograma, Esko, Grafisk Maskinfabrik A/S, Highcon, Kurz, MBO Group, Meech International, Metsä Board, Michelman, MOSS, Rietstack, RotoMetrics, Schobertechnologies, Sei Laser, Smag Graphique, Stora Enso, Taghleef Industries, Treofan Group, Tronics, UPM Raflatac and Zünd.
The event also had two educational programmes. A series of presentations were held as part of the Business Conference where market experts and Xeikon customers shared business insights and experiences on digital printing. Running alongside, the Technical Conference provided a number of technology-driven seminars given by Xeikon and its Aura Partners. In total more than 100 sessions were held, covering all aspects of digital production.
