Extensive educational program completed with customer kohlpharma to inform visitors about the benefits of digital label production
Xeikon and its Aura Partners are hosting a Xeikon Café on Packaging Innovations to demonstrate label printers as well as print buyers how digital production could drive and improve their business. Taking place May 20 to 22 in Belgium, the event will highlight game-changing innovations in digital production and showcase the complete range of Xeikon's label and packaging application suites. One of the suites Xeikon will highlight is the Self-Adhesive Label Suite.
"From the myriad of product decoration techniques available, self-adhesive labels are the most commonly used as they offer the highest flexibility to meet market needs," explains Filip Weymans, Xeikon's Director of Segment Marketing Labels & Packaging, "Self-adhesive labels are available in a wide range of substrates, colors and adhesives and they are compatible with a variety of printing processes and finishing techniques. They will stick to most materials and can be applied at the very last moment, just before the products are put on the shelves. That's why self-adhesive labels are used in many different industries, such as food, beverages, health & beauty, household and pharmaceuticals, and for industrial applications in general. While these applications each have specific requirements in terms of food compatibility, substrate range, lightfastness, use of variable data and brand protection features, they all require uncompromising quality and cost-effective short to medium runs. In addition, market trends such as globalization, increasing product variety, shortening product life cycles and just-in-time inventory policies are forcing label printers and converters to accommodate even shorter runs and faster turnaround times."
Xeikon and its Aura Partners make it stick
Digital printing is capable of meeting these market requirements while maintaining profitability. By nature it offers unlimited variability. Not only is it uniquely suited to the production of multi-version labels, the absence of set-up costs makes it also ideal for cost-effective short to medium runs. And because nowadays digital printing can meet the highest quality standards, it is a great complement to flexo, letter press and offset printing, while opening up a wealth of new business opportunities. Having developed solutions for self-adhesive label printing since 1996, Xeikon plays a leading role in the label and packaging market. Its digital printing technology has several unique advantages in terms of format flexibility, cost, print quality, productivity, color accuracy and consistency, lightfastness, food safety and brand protection. As a result, the Xeikon 3000 Series presses, which were specifically developed for label and packaging applications, are perfectly suited for self-adhesive label printing.
In close collaboration with its Aura Partners, Xeikon developed the Self-Adhesive Label Suite, an integrated solution to print and convert self-adhesive labels. Like any of the four applications suites, the Self-Adhesive Label Suite is centered on a Xeikon 3000 Series press, complemented with four supporting components: (1) software, (2) print media, (3) consumables and (4) pre-and post-printing equipment.
Four live demonstrations
The Xeikon Café will showcase four live demonstrations of self-adhesive label applications:
• A Xeikon 3000 Series press, equipped with CMYK and security toner incorporating taggant components and integrated with an inline DCoat and a laser die-cutting unit, will be printing labels of various shapes and sizes on 3M self-adhesive label stock certified for the pharmaceutical industry. This set-up will also show the power of Vectorizor, an add-on for Xeikon's digital front-end, that drives the laser die-cutter. By enabling the die-cutting of different jobs in one pass, without interruption, it truly supports fully automated label production.
• Labels pre-printed on structured wine label material from Raflatac will be die-cut on AB Graphic's Digicon label converting line that will also include several embellishment features such as embossing, hot foil and raised varnish.
• Grafisk Machinery will demonstrate another wine and spirits label application with pre-printed stock that will be finished on a stand-alone hot foil stamping and embossing unit.
• The fourth live demonstration, booklet and leaflet label printing, will run on a Xeikon 8000 Series duplex press. While this Series was specially developed for the document printing market, it's also beneficial for specific label and packaging applications. Agrochemical booklets will be duplex-printed on 70 gsm coated paper. Pharmaceutical leaflets will be duplex-printed on 40 gsm uncoated paper. The prints will be reconditioned using Xeikon's inline web-finishing module, cut and delivered to a stacker. These booklets and leaflets can be converted into self-adhesive booklet and leaflet labels, samples of which will be available on display.
There will also be demonstrations of the various software tools included in the Self-Adhesive Label Suite: Vectorizor, VariLane and Xeikon ColorControl. Next to the live demonstrations and displays, Aura Partners will describe their contributions to the Self-Adhesive Label Suite in detail during several technical seminars, with plenty of opportunity to ask questions.
Meet the Customer: kohlpharma
Xeikon is pleased to announce the presence its successful customer kohlpharma, offering visitors to the event the opportunity to find out first-hand about experiences on digital label production.
kohlpharma GmbH is one of Europe's leading importers of pharmaceuticals. Based in Germany, the company buys original branded drugs from multinational pharmaceutical companies in Europe, imports them into Germany and repackages them for the local German market. Due to the nature of its business model, the demand for labels is rather volatile. In order to meet this demand as flexibly and as efficiently as possible, kohlpharma installed a digital production workflow consisting of a Xeikon 3300, with inline DCoat and laser die-cutting unit – the exact same set-up will be demonstrated at the event. The digital production line has been integrated within the company's ERP system that submits print orders to the press. This digital production workflow has enabled kohlpharma to better manage its costs by only printing what is necessary, in the most flexible and efficient way possible.
For Weymans, the presence of customers is the icing on the cake: "Nothing beats listing to and exchanging ideas with someone who knows from personal experience what it is like to move into digital production and turning it into a success. This event will provide visitors with any information they might possibly need to understand how digital production could also work for them."
