Digital label production: faster and easier than ever before

Mark D. Strobel, vice president of sales and marketing for Primera, looks at the different ways of setting up a digital label printing operation, and argues that a solution involving ‘benchtop’ digital print and finishing systems provides a cost effective entry point

Why consider a venture into the digital side of the label business? The answer is simple: it creates new opportunities.

There are two main routes to the digital label world. Firstly, you can look at a major investment in a high speed, standalone production press, such as a toner or inkjet machine which is intended to complement a conventional press and will require a separate finishing unit, either on- or off-line, with semi-rotary die-cutting (or very rarely, laser finishing). Such systems will normally represent an investment in the order of several hundred thousand dollars.

The second route, and one pioneered by companies like Primera, is an all-in-one ‘benchtop’ solution which includes digital printing and die cutting in the same package and represent a total investment of around USD $50,000. It has a different functionality in terms of throughput, and is ideally positioned for producing short runs of high quality labels which are finished in the same machine pass. This might include prototyping, production of marketing samples and personalized labeling projects.

Primera’s CX1200 Digital Color Label Press and the FX1200 Digital Label Finishing System are examples of these types of systems, designed to quickly and easily produce short- to medium-runs of labels in any size and shape in full photographic color without the need for flexible or hard-tooled dies.

A further advantage of going down the smaller system route is that operation is considerably easier. Most of the skills you’ll need to operate the press already exist in your pre-press department, so hiring new personnel is usually not necessary. We find that after a day or two of training at Primera’s locations in Minnesota, Germany, Australia and Sao Paulo, Brazil, an operator can be up and running complete jobs with photographic and PMS color-matched output quality and complex digital die cuts.

What has been the experience of users? Randy Arnold, owner of Capital Label, says his Primera CX1200 and FX1200 system ‘has given us the opportunity to print higher-end labels than we were able to in the past. We’ve taken on new business that we would have had to turn away previously. The speed and ease of use make label printing simple – we’re able to crank out small runs without plates. All in all we’re very pleased with the equipment and it should pay for itself in no time.’

Richard Newsome, president of Sticky Business, installed the Primera CX1200/FX1200 system to ‘test the waters’ for in-house, short-run digital label printing, and found it to be a highly cost effective solution for his business model.

A key part of the functionality of ‘benchtop’ solutions is the die cut technology, which is either integrated in the machine, or in the case of the Primera CX-FX system, comes as a two part solution. In the case of the FX1200 finishing system, instead of flexible or hard-tooled dies, we use carbon steel blades to cut virtually any size and any shape. Since there are no dies, there are no die costs and no waits. A job that is submitted in the morning can easily be delivered in the afternoon, regardless of the shape. Primera’s exclusive QuadraCut technology utilizes up to four blades across the web, delivering throughput up to four times faster than single-knife systems.

‘It is simply amazing what can be done when the die-cutting process goes digital,’ says Andreas Hoffmann, managing director of Primera Europe, located in Wiesbaden, Germany. ‘Our customers can cut any shape simply by drawing an outline in their design software. This feature alone saves our customers so much time and money.’

This article was published in the 2011 L&L Yearbook 

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