New handling and finishing for Graphium

Packaging Solutions

FFEI has announced several new media handling and digital finishing enhancements, available for all Graphium hybrid digital inkjet label presses. In addition, the company announced the addition of a new orange ink that gives a wider colour gamut.

A thin film modification kit will mean that the press can handle film as thin as 0.5 mil (12 µm). For convertors of linerless labels, it now means they can take advantage of the many benefits hybrid label production can bring.

Andy Cook, managing director of FFEI, commented: ‘For food and beverage, personal care, household and wine and spirit brands, this opens up promotional print opportunities that simply weren’t cost effective or even possible before, such as medium to long run product variants and promotional packaging with full colour variable data print.’

With Graphium’s new closed loop tension control, advanced encoder and rollers for thin film production, the handling of 12 to 250 um films is now very practical. This new capability means that packaging weight and waste can be reduced while maintaining good print quality, ensuring fit for purpose products are produced. In addition, in line closed loop lamination enables the precise application of a functional barrier to provide superior rewind without curling. As a hybrid system Graphium is capable of printing both flexo and digital elements in a single pass. To ensure perfect fit and alignment between the digital and flexo printed images, users can take advantage of an enhanced ‘Dynamic Sync Technology’, which synchronises digital to flexo using standard sync marks but also dynamically tracks trends within the print run and compensates the digital image for web stretch fluctuations on the fly.

Graphium configurations, with a number of flexo units, will benefit from Edale’s Automated Inking, Impression and Registration (AIIR) control system developed in conjunction with AVT for their FL5 and FL3 flexo press. The system receives data from marks read by the AVT Helios camera and then automatically sets up each flexo station correcting pressure and registration within a single press length.

A range of ‘eye catching’ finishing techniques that can now be applied to enhance the look and feel of labels, digitally and in line, including back printing, digital varnish, rotary screen emulation, tactile effects and textures, digital cold foiling, plus a range of die cutting and converting options.

Andy explained, ‘Finishing and embellishment can provide the added value for converters that separates labels from printed graphics. Being able to offer new creative enhancements, imaged digitally cannot only help them win new business but also improve margins.’