Flexo Technology
Hybrid machines are on the rise, and for good reason
Defects caused by missing nozzles as well as density unevenness are monitored by a camera and compensated for using algorithms
For Swiss press manufacturer Gallus Ferd. Rüesch AG it’s confirmation of the inline concept that it has always pursued. Dieter Finna says that when the company is developing new hybrid solutions, it builds on three phases that have shaped its digital development.
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ince reliability and speed of printing are no longer limiting factors, these are now in fact driving the development of hybrid digital flexo presses.
Looking back at the design of Gallus presses, the production of labels and packaging in a single pass is in the DNA of the St Gallen-based press manufacturer. This did not change even when electrophotographic digital printing processes and production methods with stand- alone machines made their way onto the label printing market.
THE BASIS OF CURRENT HYBRID SOLUTIONS Gallus brought a hybrid digital flexographic printing system onto the market when it first entered the field of digital printing, with the Labelfire in 2016. In the years that followed, it underwent significant further development and
is now used by high-performance users in 24/7 continuous operations. The demands of brand owners in the tobacco sector have significantly shaped the development of machine systems. In today’s market, the Gallus Labelfire is used equally for labels, folding cartons and special packaging. Having reached this stage, the company can look back on three development phases that it has gone through in the design of hybrid machine systems.
PHASED DEVELOPMENT OF DIGITAL PRINTING
The first phase, which Gallus describes as the innovation phase of digital solutions, involves the challenge of integrating inkjet printing into a hybrid digital/flexographic printing system. The starting point for development was the initial lack of performance consistency of inkjet, compared
to conventional processes. This made it necessary to integrate improved print head technology into the machine concept. With their integration, Gallus then succeeded in significantly expanding the process window in which inkjet print heads function reliably.
Due to a lack of existing solutions on the market, Heidelberg/Gallus decided in 2019 to carry out numerous in-house developments, which heralded the stabilization and thus the second phase of its hybrid digital flexographic printing system. The focus was on the camera-based “Vision System” for artifact compensation and the associated development of necessary algorithms to counteract detected errors such as missing nozzles and density unevenness in solid areas. A major leap in print quality was also achieved by lowering the print heads nearer to the substrate, which significantly increased the jet
June 2023
www.convertermag.com
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