Digital Print and Packaging – Digital Embellishment Going Mainstream

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Both Labelexpo 2018 and Print 2018 both ended on high notes, with a lot of excitement and more importantly for those who exhibited, sales. In the last article I looked at some of the new flexo, digital and hybrid presses. Although I found some of the more interesting hardware developments were around offline and inline digital embellishment and finishing. 

Since the introduction by MGI and Scodix of the 3D offline digital varnish embellishment printers at drupa 2012, there has been increasing development in this area to the point where we are now seeing not only more offline but now inline and even bespoke digital embellishment, and not just 3D varnish effects but more elaborate effects as well. In fact, as the digital printing of labels and use of varnish enhancements in digital print has increased, the desire for inline embellishment and finishing has pushed hardware manufacturers to find new ways to enhance printed products of all types.

Embellishment using hot and cold foil film has been available for years but enabling this explosion in digital embellishment development are three main components; quick drying varnishes, high volume printheads, and most recently Nano ink and metal technology that can be mixed with the electrophotographic polymers or ejected through the printheads. Inkjet printheads from Fujifilm Dimatix are being used for direct print to objects, including raised embellishment, and Xaar printheads are at the core of many of the 3D applications as well.

This rapid evolution includes the award winning MGI JETVarnish 3D Web introduced in 2017 at Labelexpo. MGI has also been working with their partner Konica Minolta on end to end packaging print solutions for labels and packaging. This continued development should ultimately lead to the long awaited MGI AlphaJET B1 Sheetfed Digital Press with inline print, embellishment, finishing and printed electronics rumored to be shown this November at ALL4PACK in Paris. In the meantime Scodix is continuing to develop their embellishment product line with its B-1 format E106, currently installed at Gundlach Packaging where it is being used for folding cartons. This is in addition to their currently available flagship ULTRA2 Series of presses. Duplo has released their DDC-810 Raised Spot UV Coater to address the needs of those with entry level production needs, so digital embellishment is now available for a full range of printing demands.

While many digital press manufacturers are partnering with many of these offline solutions, one of the first ‘inline’ products we saw was the HP Indigo GEM solution, which was introduced in 2017 and then demonstrated and offered for ‘pre-sale’ at Labelexpo in Belgium. At Labelexpo 2018 it made it to the product portfolio. The one pass solution is installed inline and can provide a “fully digital, tooling-free, and streamlined production line. It enables an efficient, print process for any label type, and allows the application of digital foil, tactile silk screen-like effects, spot varnish, mini textures, digital holograms, full flood varnish in gloss and matte, and more”. This solution was developed with JetFX Technologies and will be sold exclusively in this configuration by HP. 

JefFX also has an OEM relationship with AB Graphic International (ABG) for an offline web fed system, and for the first time showed their own branded sheet fed embellishment platform at Print 2018. When asked, they said their solution is at least 30% faster and 30% less expensive than their other market competitors. Other press manufacturers are jumping in as well. As previously reported, Xeikon is working on one pass inline digital embellishments using their Fusion Technology. It should include high opaque white, foiling, matte, and gloss varnish in flood and spot modes when released.

Inline embellishment in digital toner presses has been evolving as well. While it started with raised varnish and is available from Xerox, Ricoh, and Kodak, it has reached new heights (no pun intended) as seen in the release of the Xerox Iridesse, which can not only add 3D varnish effects, but can also include gold and silver metallics and high opaque white. We covered this press in great detail in an earlier article.

We can only expect to see even more development in this area in label and packaging production, but also in commercial and industrial print as well. Just remember that everything that glitters is not gold…