US company TriState Container Corporation has become the first print provider to deploy Xeikon’s new Idera inkjet digital corrugated printing platform.
TriState Container is an independently owned, third-generation manufacturer located in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. The company produces a wide variety of corrugated items, from shipping containers to custom high graphic corrugated products, through its TriState Container and ProCorr Display and Packaging divisions.
Launched last year, Idera was one of a number of product launches targeting the market for digital corrugated printing, and timed around the postponed – then cancelled – drupa 2020. Idera prints on coated and uncoated corrugated sheets up to 63 x 110in, with variable printing speeds between 196ft/min and 393ft/min, and offers inline priming, varnishing and drying, and peripherals such as automatic pre-feeding and stacking.
Allen Friedman, president at TriState Container Corporation, commented, ‘I saw my first single-pass digital press in a corrugated converting operation about five years ago. What struck me was the potential impact this technology could have on addressing limitations of current analogue technologies, and the requirements converters place on packaging buyers to maintain internal efficiency and cost.
‘As an independent, we are always looking for how we can create greater value for our customer, while building competitive advantage for ourselves. We believe the Idera digital press positions TriState to achieve both. We envision internal and external benefits for TriState. Internally, we can move jobs to the digital press that are better suited to digital technology. Externally, we see this as a perfect fit for customers with emerging or proliferating brands. These types of jobs may be too small for flexo runs and too large for multi-pass. In the past, these brands were afraid of the associated time and costs when they wanted to improve print quality or make a design step change. Many have indicated a desire to change their order behaviour. We also see an opportunity to develop design capabilities for our customers.’
Mr Friedman concluded, ‘We’re looking forward to promoting Idera’s high print quality to our customers and being able to print short and long runs with all the benefits of a digital print-on-demand solution, including reduced waste. Even more importantly, we have kicked off a long-term partnership with Xeikon as I believe they are one of the few providers with the competences, resources and approach to succeed in the digital corrugated box market.’
Sebastien Stabel, market segment manager, carton packaging at Xeikon, added noted, ‘Xeikon is, of course, excited about digital potential in the corrugated market, but it’s critical to successfully implement this reference installation. Together with TriState we have developed a business model as well as a technical solution to kick-off digital production.
‘Idera is backed up by Xeikon’s own food-compliant Idera AT inks, industrial inkjet and workflow know-how. We have worked closely with Flint Group, our partners, and most importantly our customers, to customise hardware and inksets to address the changing needs of the corrugated market in North America and Europe.’
Read an update on the digital corrugated packaging market in the July/August 2021 issue of Digital Labels & Packaging; register here to receive the magazine, for free
