The Ipswich-based sheetfed and web house installed a ten-colour B1 Komori GL1040P perfector with Mabeg reel sheeter earlier this year, as part of an investment programme that the company hopes will increase turnover by up to £2m. The press has been configured with beta.c 220 temperature control and a beta.f dampening filtration unit from Technotrans. According to Paul Sadler, operations director at the ISO 14001 certified company, one of the critical elements to running alcohol free is ensuring that chemicals are clean and ink tack exactly right. “Good chemistry is critical to running without alcohol and it needs to be controlled well which it is with the beta.f. The filter life it good too.” “We like using technotrans because their products are good and their service and support is reliable. We are very pleased to have completed the circle in our move to having an alcohol-free pressroom.”....

The Ipswich-based sheetfed and web house installed a ten-colour B1 Komori GL1040P perfector with Mabeg reel sheeter earlier this year, as part of an investment programme that the company hopes will increase turnover by up to £2m. The press has been configured with beta.c 220 temperature control and a beta.f dampening filtration unit from Technotrans. According to Paul Sadler, operations director at the ISO 14001 certified company, one of the critical elements to running alcohol free is ensuring that chemicals are clean and ink tack exactly right. “Good chemistry is critical to running without alcohol and it needs to be controlled well which it is with the beta.f. The filter life it good too.” “We like using technotrans because their products are good and their service and support is reliable. We are very pleased to have completed the circle in our move to having an alcohol-free pressroom.”....

ICE is designed for heat-sensitive substrates such as polyethylene (PE) and thermal labels that are pliable and commonly used on flexible packaging. According to the manufacturer, the new toner, which will run on all new and installed Xeikon 3000 series digital presses, is highly lightfast with a “top opaque-white quality” and can be printed onto conventional substrates without the need for priming. ICE will be commercially available from Q4 of 2013. Lode Deprez, vice-president of consumables and process group at Xeikon said that ICE was a breakthrough in dry toner technology for the firm. “Until now, dry toner technology was not expected to be able to work with substrates for this type of job. Following requests from our user base, Xeikon specifically developed the ICE toner to be suited for heat-sensitive materials. We pushed back the boundaries in toner development and digital label printing,” he said. Xeikon’s marketing communications manager Frank Jacobs told PrintWeek that the toner, which has undergone “extensive testing”, had been developed as a result of research and feedback from the manufacturer’s label customers. “This opens up new opportunities for us and our customers and will be particularly suitable for those working in cosmetics and healthcare labeling where there is a need for flexible packaging such as bottles and tubes that need to be squeezed.” Unveiling the new toner this week at Xeikon’s UK Print Café, hosted by Midlands-based CS Labels, Jacobs also announced details of a new “low-threshold” initiative to give label converters the opportunity to test their own labels on Xeikon presses. From 15 June to 15 September this year, label converters will be able to upload their own label designs to a dedicated website (www.seetheproof.com) and have them printed onto paper labels, structured wine label material, metalised labels, transparent and white PE labels. All labels will be printed using the new ICE toner and can be picked up from Xeikon’s stand at this year’s Labelexpo Europe, in Brussels from 24-27 September. Labels that aren’t collected at the show will be sent to companies afterwards. Jacobs said that Xeikon had increased its footprint by 60% since the last Labelexpo Europe, to take a 465sqm stand. He added: “Labelexpo is very important to us. We are a clear number two after HP Indigo in this market and we want to be present everywhere. We already have a 30% share of the European market, which we want to grow, but globally we have 20% and we want to grow this to 30% as well. “Latin America and Asia Pacific will now become very important markets for us going...

The French manufacturer showed a prototype inline hot foil option for the JETvarnish at this week’s Graphitec show in Paris. The foiling system works at the same speed as the JETvarnish and lays down an inkjet varnish layer as the ‘glue’ base for the foil, with heated rollers that move in or out of position to apply the foil. In standard spot coating mode the JETvarnish can produce up to 3,000sph in B2 format. MGI marketing director Kevin Abergel said the system did not require special consumables, and worked with standard “market available” foils. “It means we can produce variable data hot foil stamping, so it’s potentially massive,” he said. “We’re getting a good result already for our first try at this, but it will look better.” The current foiling system is in prototype form, but MGI hopes to have it ready for commercial launch by the Print exhibition in Chicago in September. Pricing is not available for the foiling unit at this stage. This week the French manufacturer also showed a new higher-speed version of the JETvarnish 3D, using a second inkjet engine. It produces raised, “digitally embossed” effects at twice the speed that was possible before, meaning a 30 micron 3D coating can now be applied to A3 sheets at 3,150sph rather than 1,575sph. “With the twin option we can either double the thickness of the coating, for applications such as Braille, or double the speed,” explained Abergel. Existing users can upgrade to the faster version for around €50,000 (£42,500). MGI also previewed a new flood UV coater for its Meteor digital presses, the Nova UV, at the event. It can work inline or as a standalone unit....

ICE is designed for heat-sensitive substrates such as polyethylene (PE) and thermal labels that are pliable and commonly used on flexible packaging. According to the manufacturer, the new toner, which will run on all new and installed Xeikon 3000 series digital presses, is highly lightfast with a “top opaque-white quality” and can be printed onto conventional substrates without the need for priming. ICE will be commercially available from Q4 of 2013. Lode Deprez, vice-president of consumables and process group at Xeikon said that ICE was a breakthrough in dry toner technology for the firm. “Until now, dry toner technology was not expected to be able to work with substrates for this type of job. Following requests from our user base, Xeikon specifically developed the ICE toner to be suited for heat-sensitive materials. We pushed back the boundaries in toner development and digital label printing,” he said. Xeikon’s marketing communications manager Frank Jacobs told PrintWeek that the toner, which has undergone “extensive testing”, had been developed as a result of research and feedback from the manufacturer’s label customers. “This opens up new opportunities for us and our customers and will be particularly suitable for those working in cosmetics and healthcare labeling where there is a need for flexible packaging such as bottles and tubes that need to be squeezed.” Unveiling the new toner this week at Xeikon’s UK Print Café, hosted by Midlands-based CS Labels, Jacobs also announced details of a new “low-threshold” initiative to give label converters the opportunity to test their own labels on Xeikon presses. From 15 June to 15 September this year, label converters will be able to upload their own label designs to a dedicated website (www.seetheproof.com) and have them printed onto paper labels, structured wine label material, metalised labels, transparent and white PE labels. All labels will be printed using the new ICE toner and can be picked up from Xeikon’s stand at this year’s Labelexpo Europe, in Brussels from 24-27 September. Labels that aren’t collected at the show will be sent to companies afterwards. Jacobs said that Xeikon had increased its footprint by 60% since the last Labelexpo Europe, to take a 465sqm stand. He added: “Labelexpo is very important to us. We are a clear number two after HP Indigo in this market and we want to be present everywhere. We already have a 30% share of the European market, which we want to grow, but globally we have 20% and we want to grow this to 30% as well. “Latin America and Asia Pacific will now become very important markets for us going...