Abbey Labels Installs First Digital Label Press

Xeikon has announced details of the first investment in digital production technology by leading label producer Abbey Labels Ltd, Bury-St-Edmunds.

The team at Abbey had been researching the market for some time prior to making the decision to purchase the Xeikon 3300 machine. Tom Allum, Chairman of Abbey Labels, said: “We had been examining the potential for digital and the equipment available for some two or three years. Question marks about speed of digital devices, print quality, and the space required to set up a digital operation were constantly on our minds.”

The company has an existing labels business, with multi-colour u.v. flexo presses providing the firepower, but digital was certainly a point of focus for the Bury-St-Edmunds based business. Having narrowed down the equipment choice, visits were made to both LabelExpo and Drupa 2012 to help finalise a decision. “The latest range of equipment from Xeikon did seem to solve our speed queries, and the dramatic improvements in print quality in recent years ticked all of the boxes in that area of concern. What really made up our minds in favour of the Xeikon product though was the lack of click charge, which simply made costing and quoting for jobs a lot easier, and the fact that the Xeikon people seemed to speak our language”.

The addition of the company’s first digital press has opened new doors and has enabled the company to create new business opportunities. “I would say that 90% of the work is new work – some from existing customers, but most of it from new customers. The new work is being mainly generated from our new updated web site. The ability to produce short runs or multiple sorts of colour labels without the associated cost of plates has allowed the company to compete for many orders that were just out of reach with flexo pricing,” said Tom.

The Xeikon 3300 is supported by an AB Graphics Digicon 2 for post printing production. “It is a great addition to the Xeikon. The new finishing line has allowed us to provide a wide range of embellishment options such as lamination, foiling, varnishes, and spot colours to the labels.  Due to the special die cutting system on the Digicon we can use our existing stock of over 5,000 cutters which we have stored for our flexo work. This has made us very flexible for both new and existing customers “

What has impressed the team at Abbey Labels now that the Xeikon is in and running? “They are a great supplier to work with. The product training has been first rate. They are a very customer friendly business, and offer excellent technical service. The Xeikon team have given us every confidence in the product and in the whole service package that they provide.”

Abbey Labels is BRC (British Retail Consortium) registered for food production work. “This has been a tremendous help to us in generating business from the food sector. Local food producers have been especially keen to use our services: they don’t need millions of labels in most cases – more often they might need a few hundred labels of several different sorts. This makes them ideal customers for digital label printing.”

Had digital surprised Tom and the team at all? “The Xeikon has delivered in all of the areas that we expected, but the print quality has certainly surpassed our expectations. On the technical side, the machine has proved more reliable than we were expecting as well. We have also been very pleasantly surprised by the excellent back-up provided by Xeikon. They understand this market and its needs extremely well.”

Abbey Labels has been in existence for over 20 years. The company has grown into East Anglia’s leading label supplier in terms of supply range, quality, expertise, resources and in-plant capabilities. The company’s aim is to provide help, advice, and to produce, cost-effective and compliant solutions for all labelling projects. With a focus on accuracy, print quality and operating meticulous control procedures throughout all aspects of label production, Abbey is fully compliant to IS0 14001 environmental and BRC/IoP production standards.

Xeikon 3300

The flagship narrow-web label press of the Xeikon 3000 Series, the Xeikon 3300 is the company’s most popular press model of the range. In addition to prime label applications, the press is also suitable for numbering, barcoding and personalisation. It runs at a top speed of 19.2 m/min (63 ft/min) and can handle production volumes of up to 380 square meters/hour (589 MSI/hour).

The Xeikon 3300 won the prestigious New Innovation Award at the Label Industry Global Awards during Labelexpo Americas 2008 and was the first digital label press to be awarded an InterTech™ Technology Award in 2009.

The Xeikon 3300 uses the Pericles screening library. The screen ruling can be adjusted for every image element, resulting in images pleasing to the eye.

An inline densitometer enables the user to calibrate a press to ensure uniform and accurate colour and colour consistency between jobs and between presses. The four process colours plus one of a range of standard or custom-made spot colours provide an extended colour gamut. One-pass opaque white helps to create immaculate images on transparent and metallic label stock.

Flexpress Reinvests in B3 Litho Printing Kit

Flexpress Ltd, Leicester, has detailed the installation of a Ryobi 524GX B3-format litho press at its Birstall premises. The machine provides support for the company’s existing Ryobi 785 B2-format litho machine, and digital printing equipment from both Océ and Ricoh. The litho equipment was supplied by Apex Digital Graphics Ltd, the UK’s authorised distributor for Ryobi printing products.

Commenting on the purchase, Steve Wenlock, Managing Director of Flexpress, said: “We had been B3 Ryobi press users for many years prior to trading up to the B2 785 press, however, we have found in recent months that the litho workload has increased significantly. Bringing in the 524GX means that we can move the smaller format stationery and leaflet work away from the larger press, freeing up the B2 machine for the periodicals and publication work that really does need the larger sheet size.” The company uses a dual-roll DPX4 polyester platemaking system for both B2 and B3 plate production – a system also supplied by Apex.

With regard to the split between digital and litho work, Steve adds: “Some 30% of our work is for companies in the trade. If they want litho quality they will ask for it – cost is usually the driving force. Whilst digital has come along way in terms of colour capability, there is still a difference in the overall quality of print produced on a litho press. The substrate issue – which papers are suited to digital and which are not – can also be an important factor.”

Commenting on the latest press addition, Neil Handforth, Sales and Marketing Director of Apex Digital Graphics, said: “It is interesting to see the percentage of work that is migrating back to litho production. Whilst Steve and the business are well equipped for printing via both technologies, it is an example to all in the industry that the demand for litho is not likely to disappear just yet.”

Flexpress has shown steady growth since 1989 to become one of the most versatile and respected printers in the midlands. Business continues to increase at the £1.3 million turnover business, meaning that the Ryobi 785 is now running on a double-day shift system.

The company employs 19 skilled professionals with a collective industry experience of well over 400 years. Investment in the company now exceeds one million pounds, ensuring reliability and efficiency second to none. Offering a wider range of high quality in-house services than any other company of comparable size, Flexpress sees itself as a convenient one-stop service for all design and print needs, whether the job requires paper, board, metal or plastic.

For more details on the company see www.flexpress.co.uk or call 0116 267 6269.

About Apex Digital Graphics 

Apex Digital Graphics Limited is a specialist in the supply and service of pre-press and press equipment. Apex is the official UK distributor for the Ryobi range of printing presses and ECRM polyester platesetters. Apex also distributes the Screen range of thermal and violet platesetters, and the Konica Minolta range of digital printing equipment. The company offers national service coverage, and a one-stop shop for print consumables featuring next day delivery. Apex Digital Graphics can be contacted on 01442 235 236 or via the www.apexdigital.co.uk web site.

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Quantum Leap in Digital Finishing

Digital inline finishing is evolving at lightening speed. In Augsburg, manroland web systems presented the world premiere of its FoldLine finishing system for industrial digital printing. Of equal interest to guests: the book block solution FormerLine and the necessary efficient workflow solutions to go with the equipment.

Ultra-short “regional” runs for newspapers, targeted advertising, and print-on-demand in book printing: digital printing systems create added value for successful publishing. Alwin Stadler, Vice President of Digital Printing at manroland web systems, explains the company’s innovations: “We are establishing finishing as a central system component in digital printing systems and ensuring integration into the customer’s workflow.”

FoldLine for digital newspaper production

The FoldLine finishing system for industrial digital printing celebrated its premiere at this event. The system is able to produce newspapers in any format (tabloid, broadsheet, Berliner) in both in-line and off-line operation. Also included in the FoldLine portfolio are brochures, magazines, and individual book signatures.

FoldLine is designed to produce up to 96-pages (48-pages broadsheet) with a web speed of up to 300 meters per minute and a web width of up to 1,060 mm. The system can output up to 2,700 broadsheet newspaper copies with 32-pages; 9,100 bound brochures; or 14,000 16-page signatures per hour.

FoldLine can quickly be prepared for new jobs. The makeready times for format and paper changes are minimal, and changes to volumes can be made without interrupting production.

The presentation of FoldLine demonstrated what efficient and creative digital newspaper production looks like today. The first product was a 32-page tabloid newspaper in 420 mm x 600 mm format. Eight sections of four pages were collected and folded. The delivered result impressed the visitors: ultra-small print runs under 100 copies can be produced one after another, without any interruptions, even if the total number of pages, or the book structure of the individual editions vary. This tabloid newspaper featured an added variant, a fold for delivery. This means the newspaper was given a quarter fold as a third fold and delivered at a right angle to the folder via the A4 delivery.

FormerLine for digital book production

Producing with print-on-demand to optimize costs, and being fast on the market: these are the challenges of digital book production. The FormerLine system provides for both inline production and offline finishing of pre-printed reels. Together with the VBC collator from manroland web systems, the system generates stacked signatures of up to 6,000 auxiliary-glued books, up to 100 mm thick, per hour.

On show in Augsburg, the FormerLine system displayed its flexibility in offline finishing by producing both book and magazine work. The products varied in format, folding needed, and collection structure, and were placed on a pre-manufactured reel for mixed production. 38-signatures, 8-pages each, were collected for the “Innovations” technical book with 304-pages (bleed size 240 mm x 190 mm; double parallel folding sample). 100 books were produced one after another. Then production was switched to a 42-page specialist magazine in a matter of minutes without manual intervention on the folder or cutter. Consisting of 7-signatures, 6-pages each, the print run included 300 magazines (bleed size 230 mm x 334 mm; accordion folding sample), which were delivered as auxiliary-glued books blocks.

Well networked: printnetwork Bridge and DigiLink

printnetwork Bridge uses a JDF/JMF link to create a complete and efficient digital production workflow. The software connects production preparation, the printing process, and post-press. The system then allows for automated finishing, automatic production change, low printing substrate use, increased productivity, networking with the production environment, and data transfer and reporting to an MIS system.

DigiLink connects the product planning of digital printing and offset printing. Currently, productions are mostly planned and run separately, depending on the process. This can easily result in inefficiencies, higher storage costs, and over-production. DigiLink is a software module from manroland web systems that is available as an upgrade or to complement an existing PECOM PressManager. DigiLink allows planning of offset and digital productions from a central workplace, including parallel monitoring of production during printing and in the mailroom.

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