The new varnishes were specifically formulated to provide adhesion to HP Indigo ElectroInk and has been designed to provide high levels of mechanical durability on HP Indigo printed labels.

The new set of varnishes do not require the addition of any press-side additives. The range can be printed using standard UV coating equipment.

The solution has been tested across some of the most popular label substrates including PP White, PP Clear and Metalized Substrates.

Available as part of the SunEvo Protect LEP HD range of protective varnishes for HP Indigo, the range highlights another example of the high level of co-operation between HP Indigo and Sun Chemical.

Two new products are available as part of the set: EV-LU028 Gloss and EV-LU029 Matte. The range is available to be ordered immediately. Commercial production has started in Europe with other regions following shortly.

“We have conducted field trials with the HP Indigo community across many countries for a few months and the response has been phenomenal,” said Marcos Valdezate, Sun Chemical global business development Manager for SunEvo Coatings for Digital. “Customers have challenged the durability of these varnishes and have seen how long-lasting they are. This is another great example of how coating innovation can expand the range of applications for digital printers and actively expand their offering.”

The new products include coatings designed to create highly tactile, impactful shrink sleeve effects. By applying the Hybrid AQ-UV Soft Touch Coating, and UV Wet Touch Coating users can produce packaging designs that perfectly represent the brand image or the product itself, such as wet touch coatings on a beverage bottle or the soft touch finish on a tube of moisturizer, or the brand image.

“Brands are constantly looking for ways to differentiate their products to stand out on a competitive store shelf, and these new coatings are the latest innovations from Actega, designed with the consumer experience and brand identity in mind,” explains Wolfgang Hoffmann, head of market management, EMEA, Labels.

In addition to these advanced coatings, Actega’s new UV and solvent-based silver inks, including a solvent-based rainbow silver have been launched for brands and converters looking to create a dramatic metallic shine. Converters can also opt for these silvers instead of a traditional foil finishing process, enabling better recyclability of the finished container, and reducing waste associated with applying foil.

Hoffmann comments, “Actega’s coating and ink systems work on all common substrates, including PET, OPS and PVC, and are suitable for one-sided or two-sided finishing.”

“Scodix enhancements create great visual impact for the brands who use them, and food packaging is no exception,” said Guy Alon, VP of R&D at Scodix. “The value of adding digital enhancements to food packaging with the assurance that the printing procedure is safe for consumers according to food packaging standards is a big step forward for Scodix Ultra users.”

Scodix PolySense 550 food packaging compliance refers to indirect contact for low migration. Scodix applications that can use Scodix PolySense 550 include Scodix Sense, Scodix Foil, Scodix VDE, Scodix Cast&Cure and Scodix Glitter. It can be used in conjunction with substrates such as offset, HP Indigo ElectroInk and Lamination.

According to Appvion, independent lab tests have been conducted, demonstrating up to 99.99 per cent reduction in non-pathogenic bacteria on the paper’s surface, even after printing and post processing.

“Appvion has a strong focus on sustainable specialty coatings and new applications, which is why we are continuously bringing innovative products to the market, especially now with the introduction of SafeShield,” said Graeme Hodson, president of Appvion’s paper division. “With the introduction of this coating technology, we are able to provide our customers with solutions that solve a growing concern.”

Hodson added that the product can be used in healthcare, food service, education, entertainment, transportation, office settings and government sectors.

To ensure the efficacy of the product, the antimicrobial coating is formulated with components that have gone through the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s review and registration processes.

“Frequently touched laminated materials such as children’s books, menus and catalogues can allow bacteria to stay on the surface and spread to any hands that touch it,” said Dylan Westgate, vice president of Sydney Stone. “Given the climate we currently find ourselves in, we need to take as many precautions as we can. A product like this one, which offers bacteria resistance, has to be a good thing.”

The Bacterstop is an OPP laminating film that comes in gloss and matte finishes. “It guarantees that the proliferation of bacteria is inhibited by more than 99 per cent on the laminated surface, according to tests carried out by external laboratories in accordance with the ISO 22196 standard,” notes Sydney Stone. The company goes on to say that the laminating agent is also effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and that the materials and technology are safe to use and can be used in medical, food and water applications, in addition to applications such as business cards, book covers, postcards, brochures, medical documents, menus and catalogues.

Sydney Stone adds that Bacterstop can be used in place of a glossy or matte finish on packaging, books or printed commercial communications products, and provides the same clarity finish as Derprosa’s OPP films, but with an added layer of protection.

Sydney Stone expects to be able to deliver the films in early July for customers that pre-order. Pre-orders are offered at a discounted rate through June 17. For more information on Bacterstop in its different finishes, please visit the below links:

Bacterstop Gloss – https://www.printfinishing.com/opp-bacterstop-gloss.html

Bacterstop Matte – https://www.printfinishing.com/opp-bacterstop-matte.html

The key components of the new plant have been brought into service one step at a time, allowing the company to distribute production orders among its facilities and guarantee its employees better protection.

“In consequence, we are now operating two entirely autonomous plants. In other words, the availability of duplicated systems maintains our ability to fulfil orders, even if production needs to be suspended in one of the plants,” said Sven Schneller, managing director, self-adhesive materials division, Herma.

The remainder of the new plant is expected to open this summer. Once open, Herma says it will increase its annual self-adhesive material capacity by 50 per cent, to 1.2 billion square metres. The technical resources of the new facility will enable producing innovative adhesive materials, including materials for shipping labels. When produced without a liner as Herma does, shipping labels are environmentally-friendly and are produced largely or exclusively from recovered raw materials.

With automated guided vehicles, packing robots and an advanced energy policy, the new plant is among the most efficient of its kind.

“Thanks to a special combined cooling, heat and power plant, Herma can dramatically reduce its primary energy consumption in the new facility. While highly sophisticated from a technical perspective and giving rise to a slightly extended construction period, it enables us to generate up to one-quarter of the electricity that we consume,” added Dr Thomas Baumgärtner, managing director, self-adhesive materials division, Herma. “In addition, we use the heat produced by power generation for heating purposes in the wintertime, and during the summer we use it very efficiently to provide the energy needed for cooling.

Herma is also using, for the first time in the industry, automated guided vehicles to carry rolls of paper, film or coated label stock, which can be up to two metres wide and weigh almost five tonnes each. Herma’s driverless fleet consists of 10 vehicles which, when loaded, are about the size of a large commercial van.

Curing to an extremely low odour with excellent flexibility and high-quality aesthetics, PUREmatte is ideal for printers and converters of shrink films and pressure sensitive labels, as well as flexible packaging and folding carton applications. The benzo-free offering features superior abrasion resistance.

The product can be used in the beverage, pharmaceutical, health & beauty, and other end-use segments with stringent demands for low-odour packaging, in addition to high-end shelf appeal. PUREmatte is also an eco-friendly product manufactured with lower migration materials. It is Nestle-compliant and also complies with California Proposition 65.

The product provides a high-contrast look and silky feel, and can even offer a 3D effect for product branding. In addition to shrink sleeves and pressure sensitive labels, PUREmatte can also be used by printers and converters of PET, OPP/BOPP films, paper, tag stock, pouches, carton board and cosmetic web films. Scuff-resistant PUREmatte also helps minimize cracking.

“These are key inputs into the production of printed packaging inks and other materials, like varnishes, which, in turn, are vital in the production of consumer product packaging,” BCF said in a March 30 statement. “The use of these inks and packaging materials helps ensure food and pharmaceutical products, among others, reach the consumer in the best and most useable condition: they allow the packaging to inform consumers about a product’s contents, how they should be used and, critically, maximize product condition and shelf life.”

The UK printing industry supply chain is calling upon the UK Government to ensure the necessary supplies of ethanol, n-propanol and other relevant raw materials are maintained for the ink and printing industries so they can fulfill their role in producing food and other essential packaging throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, BCF said.

“As things stand, members are reporting that things will come to a head within a matter of weeks, not least because of increased demand for food and other products, and hence increased packaging demand,” the organization said.

Availability issues are arising because ethanol, along with other industrial alcohol solvents like n- propanol, is also used in the production of disinfectants and sanitary products such as hand gels.

“With the increased demands for sanitary, medical, and pharmaceutical products as a response to COVID-19, resources are increasingly being diverted into this area, at the expense of other sectors and products,” BCF said. “There are even concerns some countries are considering introducing a restriction of ethanol, limiting supplies exclusively for health/pharmaceutical purposes. A robust response to COVID-19 is understandable but if the allocation of resources is diverted entirely in the health/sanitary product direction, there will inevitably be knock-on effects elsewhere, including on vital printed packaging for food and pharmaceutical products.”

“In the past few days, BCF members have reported that prices for ethanol and n-propanol have risen by up to 350% since last week, adding thousands of pounds a week in additional material costs. There are greater concerns that supplies will dry up completely in the future,” BCF CEO Tom Bowtell said. “BCF has already been in touch with officials at BEIS to make them aware of members’ concerns and how these shortages of supply may affect the availability of food packaging and packaging in other critical areas, like pharmaceutical products.”

“While it is understandable measures are being taken to ensure a robust response to the COVID-19 outbreak, we also need to make sure that the baby is not thrown out with the bathwater,” said Debbie Waldron-Hoines of European Flexographic Industry Association. “Ethanol is a vital raw material for printing inks used for Flexible Food Packaging, a vital part of the food supply chain. We urge the UK Government, and governments across Europe, to take action to ensure supplies of essential raw materials continue to be made available for the purposes of essential packaging manufacturing.”

“This new option allows us to access a customer’s machine in real time to help diagnose problems quickly and efficiently, minimizing down-time and getting customers back into production quicker,” explains H&B Global Service Manager Doug Corbett. “We are very excited to be adding a Remote Support option to help enhance our customer service capabilities.”

Remote Support for sheetfed or web ExcelCoats includes a web cam for troubleshooting coating application or mechanical issues, and Wi-Fi access for remote electrical diagnostics. Remote Support retrofits are available for prior installs.

The company says H&B Remote Support became standard due to the increase of large, integrated printers utilizing ExcelCoats across multiple shifts.

In addition to the sheet format, the area coverage for coating and the running length, including make ready and expected waste sheets, the anilox rollers used are also considered. The most common anilox rollers with GTT, Hexagonal, Hashur and ART gravures are taken into account. The coating quantity calculator also offers the option of calculating the required coating quantities for straight and perfecting jobs, if these are to be produced with the same coating and the same anilox roller, in just one calculation run. With different coatings and/or anilox rollers for perfecting, the user can also calculate these quantities by means of a second calculation run, without having to re-enter all parameters. Only the additional amount of coating required for filling and circulation per print run must be added by the calculator’s user, as this varies depending on the system and the peripherals used, such as coating temperature control, for example.

The coating quantity calculator is suitable for all common, unpigmented coating systems (UV-, dispersion-, solvent-, oil-based) and is currently available in four languages: German, English, Spanish and Polish. Both a desktop version and an optimized web app for smartphones and tablet PCs are available.

The new UV coater offers production speeds of up to 60,000 rph and features highly automated operation and automatic cleaning at the push of a button and anilox roller change within a few minutes. The coating unit is suitable for full-solid finishing of covers or as spot coating for the partial finishing of printed images. The company explains a compact UV dryer is integrated into the superstructure after the coating unit to allow a wide range of paper substrates to be processed. The UV coater processes substrates with a grammage of between 60g/m² – 250g/m² (38 – 160lbs). Between 2 and 5g/m² of coating is applied depending on the anilox roller.

Meanwhile, Koenig & Bauer says intelligent copy control in the quarterfold makes for a trouble-free folding sequence, and as a result, production conditions are always consistent irrespective of operator skill. Copies are slowed effectively and with a minimum of abrasion, and aligned in the direction of fold during deceleration, says the company. The automatic copy control system is self-adjusting regardless of production speed and copy thickness.

Koenig & Bauer explains the microporous turner bars no longer need to be set for different ribbon widths, and can operate with a minimal air cushion and ribbon guides. A modular design and dedicated drives throughout allow the superstructure to be customized for specific production scenarios, the company says, noting a short web lead allows a more even web tension.

Now offering an anilox coater option, the EZ Koat 20 Plus and 30 Plus are ideally suited for running soft-touch and matte coatings. The standard Kompac Coating System remains in place to switch to UV/aqueous gloss and satin coatings when desired.

Kompac explains, unlike competitive systems, the EZ Koat product line operates with a digital lamp driver, providing variable curing and drying capabilities as well as instant start-up after coating changes. Kompac explains its patented technology translates to a 25 percent power reduction.

For users in high-production environments, Kompac provides options for the EZ Koat 20 and 30 Plus, including high-pile pallet feeders and stackers, sheet turners for two-sided capabilities, and inline conveyors for running on digital, offset presses and other finishing equipment.

The Bobst K5 Expert, successor to its K5000 metallizer, can run at speeds up to 1,200 metres per minutes and is available in widths from 2,450 to 3,650 mm and can house increased roll diameters of up to 1,270 mm to meet new industry trends. The vacuum metallization system, aimed at the packaging industry, houses what Bobst describes as the largest coating drum in the industry at 700 mm, which improves collection efficiency by 16 percent. This means less aluminium consumption and increased boat life.

The K5 EXPERT features a totally redesigned evaporation source providing the widest coating window in the market, which Bobst states to be up to 50 percent wider than some competitor. This larger window translates in better coating uniformity and collection efficiency, minimizing aluminium wire waste.   

A more intuitive HMI screen and software interface make the machine easy to operate. Its new design allows the operator to run everything from the front of the machine and to be positioned much closer to view the evaporation source and metallization process through the strobe window.

Another new feature, which the company describes as unique in the industry, is the Automatic Sequential Control (ASC) system, which speeds up start-up of the machine with minimum operator involvement required, making the K5 EXPERT easy to operate.

In addition to the Bobst Winding Mechanism, based on true tension control, the new model incorporates low friction Ferrofluidic seals for better tension control on the rewind – producing a virtually wrinkle-free roll-to-roll vacuum metallization process.

The K5 Expert also has a variety of energy saving and waste reduction features including ECO mode which reduces energy consumption by up to 50 percent during stand-by and Film Save mode which has a synchronized faster shutter action (opening in just five seconds) and aluminium wire ramp up to minimize the amount of un-metallized film (waste) to less than 400 metres per roll, explains Bobst.

As an option, the High Deposition (HD) source has an improved design for higher speed of operation for those metallization jobs that require a high deposition rate of up to 4.0 OD.

The system has a top roller with adjustable temperature to 248° F (120° C); large diameter non-stick silicone rollers; adjustable speed control up to 20 feet (6 metres) per minute; a maximum nip opening of 2 inches (50.8 mm); and five auto-grip supply and take-up shafts with brake tension control on the operator side.

The TRESU iVarnish range is specifically formulated for use with TRESU’s iCoat and TRESU Pinta flexo coating systems, which offer inline spot and flood varnish applications, following the printing stage.

TRESU describes iVarnish properties as providing strong slip angle for easy feeding of the substrate, rub resistance for brand integrity, and viscosity characteristics for optimized curing and drying at speeds of up to 5,000 sheets per hour on board substrates ranging from 180 to 500 gsm.

The iVarnish OPV range includes UV-curable and water-based high-gloss, gloss and matte varnishes.

Available in a 63-inch laminating width, the JetMounter Fuzion XD features interchangeable, large diameter non-stick silicone rollers; a heat-assist top roller with digital display for Celsius/Fahrenheit; a heavy-duty lift mechanism for precise, calibrated pressure control; adjustable speed control up to 20 feet per minute; and four auto-grip supply or take-up shafts with adjustable brake tension on the operator side for roll-to-roll lamination.

Additional features on the JetMounter Fuzion XD include a centre release, fold down feed table with a lay-flat paper in-feed guide; latching storage compartment on each side of the stand; maximum nip opening of one inch; and heavy-duty lockable casters for greater stability and maneuverability. The model can also accommodate 10-inch diameter rolled material and is cTUVus and CE-certified.

“The deal between TRESU Group and HP reinforces the digital print process as a competitive solution for short-run folding carton packaging with higher shelf-appeal in smaller volumes,” stated Søren Maarssø, COO of TRESU Group.

The solution was demonstrated inline with the HP Indigo 30000 for the first time during an HP Indigo customer event in Israel on June 18. The TRESU iCoat 30000 coater is equipped with quick changeover mechanisms for sleeves and plates designed to reduce setup time.

“Understanding how critical coating is in the folding carton market, we needed to work with a company that has vast experience in the specific needs of the industry,” said Alon Bar-Shany, Vice President and General Manager, Indigo Division, HP.

The technology will be publicly demonstrated in HP’s booth at Labelexpo Europe in September 2013. The first units of both the HP Indigo 30000 Digital Press and TRESU iCoat 30000 are expected to be installed at select launch customer sites by the end of 2013.

The new twin-option system, described by MGI as the market’s fastest inkjet spot UV system for raised coating, is to be made available in Fall 2013. Existing JETvarnish 3D systems can be upgraded in the field.

The JETvarnish 3D twin option can apply 3D raised effects at speeds of up to 2,234 12×18-inch sheets per hour. It also doubles the amount of coating that can be applied in one pass to a maximum of 200 microns, which MGI explains can help open up new markets like Braille.

With the twin option, speeds for 3D spot UV coating with raised effects are doubled compared to the standard JETvarnish 3D configuration. MGI’s inkjet technology features a fixed head configuration for obtaining these speeds in one pass.

At Graphitec, MGI is also previewing its Nova UV system designed to work inline with the company’s Meteor presses. The Nova UV system is also available as a standalone unit.

The Ultra 300Ai is designed to protect print from scratches and scuffs when running at high press speeds, reaching up to 148 feet (45 metres) per minute. The new Duplo coater can apply a gloss or satin finish on substrates up to 350 gsm, and paper sizes up to 13×19 inches.

The Ultra 300Ai is connectable inline with any HP Indigo 7×00 series press. The electronic interface provides bi-directional communication that will alert the press to stop in the event a paper jam occurs in the UV coater. The Ultra 300Ai can also be used near-line or off-line using an optional high-capacity, air-suction feeder. The Ultra 300Ai features what Duplo refers to as an intelligent control system for producing coated sheets with a smear-free finish.

While at Dscoop8, Duplo also plans to exhibit its DC-745 slitter/cutter/creaser and the DFS-3500 full-bleed bookletmaking system. The DC-745 is describes as Duplo’s most powerful all-in-one finishing system, performing up to 10 slits, 25 cuts and 20 creases in a single pass.

Combining the creasing and slitting functions of the DC-445 creaser with the stitching, folding and trimming capabilities of the mid-range DBM-350 bookletmaker, the DFS-3500 bookletmaking system is described by Duplo as an all-in-one solution for lower volume jobs. 


In addition to the DP60 Pro, MGI is also highlighting the Meteor DP20. Described as a 4-in-1 photo press, the DP20 can duplex print, laminate, cut and crease in one pass, making it suitable for applications like photo-books, calendars, photo prints, greeting cards and flyers.