Flexo Technology The future of flexo
Phil Baldwin is Sales Manager at Mark Andy UK
Phil Baldwin of Mark Andy UK assesses the role of flexo in the changing market for narrow and mid web printing.
How fl exo used to be for short run labels
A
s with all technology leaders, Mark Andy knows that it cannot aff ord to rest on its laurels in a market sector that is changing at a faster
pace than at any time in its history. Today’s consumer shopping habits and the role of printed packaging bear little resemblance to those of even 20 years ago, so it’s essential that technology suppliers react quickly to the latest demands. Just as web widths grew from 7” and 10” (178mm and 254mm) and letterpress gave way to high defi nition fl exo as a quality process, so label converters with faster presses began to cope more easily with longer runs and more complex work, including additional colours and print enhancements. By the early 2000s, so- called narrow web had moved up to 13” and 17” (330mm and 430mm), and more recently into the 20” and 26” web widths (508mm and 660mm), which began to move the technology away from its traditional label market and into areas of fl exible packaging.
These changes coincided with the successful launch and development of digital technology in the label market, following a somewhat stuttering introduction in the commercial print sector in the 1990s. The question soon became, where does fl exo fi t in the label market these days? In Mark
Andy’s case, it has been the use of its long-term tried and trusted fl exo technology blended with the latest that digital print can off er, both in toner- based and inkjet form to create a hybrid. There was much talk of digital killing fl exo, much like fl exo killed letterpress, but Mark Andy believe there will always be space and a requirement for fl exo in this market sector, because digital requires fl exo for fi nishing and many packaging deigns benefi t from having a fl exo option. The question was, how to go about this fusion of technology to the best eff ect, both from the customers’ point of view and the converters’ standpoint as a profi table production process? Do you fuse fl exo with toner or fl exo with inkjet? Mark Andy decided to do both and now has the most extensive range of narrow web hybrid technology available from a single manufacturer.
It all dates back to 2012 when they began developing their own inkjet solution, which was launched in 2015 as the Digital Series. It was
How fl exo/digital combine for short run labels now
and remains the only single-supplier true inkjet/ fl exo hybrid and came at a time where there was no similar solution. However, this type of press was a major investment aimed at bigger volume markets and converters, and they knew smaller printers also wanted a digital/fl exo hybrid, but without the high investment cost. So, at Labelexpo Europe in 2016 Mark Andy launched the Digital One as a compact toner- based hybrid at an aff ordable price point that allows smaller converters to bring previously outsourced digital work back in-house. It was the fi rst press of its kind and fi lled the void between desktop and large commercial digital technology, and it became an instant success. In 2019 they launched the Digital Pro 3 following market feedback, and in 2023 they launched the third version, the Digital Pro Plus, keeping the same model of aff ordable price point for shorter runs, a compact design, and a digital/fl exo single pass hybrid. To date, Mark Andy have over 300 of these presses installed worldwide.
24
June 2024
www.convertermag.com
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