Distinct Packabilities buys Graphium

Fujifilm North America Corporation’s Graphic Systems Division has sold the Graphium, a digital hybrid, four color plus white UV inkjet press integrated with in-line flexo and finishing, to Distinct Packabilities, a Shepherdsville, Kentucky-based print provider.

Distinct Packabilities, a wholly owned subsidiary of Publisher’s Printing Company, a fifth generation family-run business since 1866, is a provider of label printing and flexible packaging. It offers a wide range of flexible packaging and prime label converting capabilities, along with in-house art, graphics, pre-press and platemaking services.

Graphium is a high-speed hybrid UV inkjet press designed specifically for the narrow web market by FFEI and marketed exclusively in North America by Fujifilm.  

Graphium is able to handle a print width of either 13in or 16in, and can print some of the thinnest label substrates up to heavy duty vinyl, as well as board stock.

It is the first press to be configured with under and over white, allowing pure white designs with opacity that exceeds traditional flexo white. Its modular design provides functionality as it combines inkjet, flexographic printing and finishing, all in-line. Utilizing greyscale print heads that produce a range of drop sizes from 6 to 42 picoliters combined with inter-color LED pinning of Fujifilm Uvijet inks enables Graphium to print fine details, smooth tones and small font text demanded by the most exacting customers at single-pass print speeds up to 164ft/min. Flexo stations with Fujifilm Clarity Water Washable Flexo plates and Fujifilm UV Flexo inks are configured in-line before and after the inkjet print engine to provide the ultimate capability to produce unique, high-quality labels.

‘Fujifilm and Distinct Packabilities are going to establish a new standard for digital print quality in the flexible packaging and prime label markets,’ said David Haley, vice-president of Distinct Packabilities.

‘With a print asset of this magnitude in the hands of our experienced staff of some of the best printers in the world, we intend to shift a number of paradigms that have prevailed in these markets for too long when it comes to print quality.’

Haley added that Graphium offers labels and packaging printers a digital print quality and capability proposition which had previously not been available. He is anxious to get the press into the production environment in order to begin offering a new suite of products and services to current and prospective customers.

‘Its print capability can produce up to 13,240fph at a resolution up to 1,080dpi and an eight-level grayscale. This digital press will print all of the common substrates found throughout our other production processes while achieving excellent adhesion, light fastness, and durability. Also, for us, the ability to very quickly move in and out of a rapidly changing print schedule is very important.

‘We believe Graphium is the digital print asset that will allow us to re-establish many of the legacy paradigms throughout the industry when it comes to short print runs, fast turnaround times and incredible print quality. We’re anxious to get it into the hands of our printers and start putting these super high quality, quick turn, short-run printed products out into the marketplace. Our customers continue to need these capacities and their color and graphics quality demands only continue to proliferate. We feel we now have an incredibly powerful weapon in our arsenal that will allow us to meet and exceed these demands.’