Gallus has designed the Gallus One inkjet press as the ideal press for the label producer today according to Dario Urbinati, CEO of Gallus.
The press was the highlight of a stand at Labelexpo which was very much more modest than those for Gallus in the past and far removed too from a traditional location in the early halls of the Brussels exhibition site. Instead it took space in Hall 11, the furthest from the centre of the show.
But the new press is very much at the centre of trends that are shaping the industry, namely the loss of industry skills and changing purchasing patterns. Both drive the need for automation says Urbinati. “Human intervention has become the bottleneck to growth. So automation becomes a necessity. Previously automation was about cost saving; now it’s essential. Without it, you do not have a business anymore.”
This awareness drove Gallus into deep conversations with customers about the pain points the press manufacturer needed to address and which has underpinned development of the Gallus One. It is a press to lead the digital transformation of the industry. “However,” he says, “it is not just a press. It is part of an eco system where the press can run almost autonomously.”
According to Gallus, the digital transformation is about less waste generation, less energy consumption and greater integration through the use of APIs and to enable prepress the option of work from home.
To date, Gallus has perhaps two machines in Europe in operation, but has a burgeoning order book. “We have several machines in place across Europe and are currently working on one press every two weeks having already achieved the sales target for 2023. And we already have orders for double-digit sales for 2024. “The market has accepted the idea of a highly automated production platform,” says Urbinati.
However, the press currently offers just four colours and is being sold as a capital cost plus consumables model rather than anything based on subscriptions and per click payments.
For existing label printers with Gallus flexo technology there is the option of adding a Labelfire inkjet module to the Labelmaster 340 platform.
