The choice in post print embellishment of a printed sheet is increasing and increasingly interesting in the run up to Drupa.
A technology that had once been limited to spot varnishing now covers foil application, Braille, embossing effects and in format and at speeds previously not considered. This will build on the huge interest shown in Scodix at the last Drupa.
This time around numerous laminating machines will be showing some kind of spot varnish ability and all the ability to apply a foil, using a digital press to apply a toner which after softening in the laminator’s heated rollers acts as a glue for roll of foil. While this is suitable for shorter runs and smaller formats (because of the limitations of digital printing), it is not feasible for packaging or longer run litho print.
Swiss lamination and foiling press manufacturer Steinemann introduced Dmax, a high speed inkjet varnishing machine around 18 months ago. This machine can run at 10,000 B1+ sheets an hour with different levels of varnish using Ricoh printheads at 600dpi. The company has a presence on the Heidelberg stand at Drupa as well as its own stand. While it has published nothing ahead of the show, digital embellishment would go hand in hand with the Primefire 106 B1 inkjet press that will be the centrepiece of Heidelberg’s stand.
MGI showed a concept JetVarnish machine at the last Drupa and again at Ipex two years ago. This is now the JetVarnish 3D Evo, billed as “the world’s first B1+ scaleable sheetfed digital enhancement press”.
The format, up to 750×1,200mm, is aimed at carton production, enabling fully variable spot varnish, raised varnish for 3D effects and digitally embossed foils in a single pass. At B2 format, it will run at 4,000sph.
The first installation has taken place at a French commercial printer providing at least six weeks feedback and samples before the show opens. It comes as Konica Minolta, a 10% investor in MGI, has doubled its stake in the business. KM now owns 40.5% of the business. There is a clear affinity between the KM-1 B2 inkjet press and the MGI digital embellishment technologies.
At the same time Konica Minolta becomes a worldwide distributor of all MGI’s technologies and will step up joint developments. KM is predicting it will achieve sales of ¥50 billion in the labels and packaging segment by 2020; MGI will add a further ¥10 billion to that.
Scodix remains in the box seat in terms of digital embellishment. Its Drupa focus is on the Scodix E106, a B1+ format machine which it expects will be “highly disruptive in the packaging sector” according to CEO Roy Porat. “We have already taken eight press orders from prospective customers with many claiming that this was the kind of unique capability they urgently need.”
That capability includes the ability to deliver various kinds of varnish, including Braille and halftone effects, embossing and foiling, which is a unit supplied by Compact Foilers.
The new machine comes with a Mabel feeder and can achieve speeds up to 4,000sph, dependent on the complexity of the desired finishing and sheet format. Porat adds: “Now brand owners can create stunning new products using foil over foil, adding Scodix Sense effects over foil, or personalising with Scodix Variable Data Sense or Scodix Variable Data Foil – effects that were previously unachievable in this market.”
The most unexpected entry to this sphere comes from Landa Digital Printing with what it calls Metallography. This is essentially a bronzing machine for the digital age, using nano flakes of metal which adhere to a special adhesive which can be applied as an ink or inkjet to hold the metal particles in place. Any not touching the adhesive remain within the application device.
The development is at the proof of concept stage and will be at Drupa to garner feedback and perhaps licensing deals. The big advantage it offers is the elimination of the waste that is an inevitable part of applying a foil, not only in the relative small amount of foil that may be applied to the product, but also in the carrier materials that become waste.
The MGI JetVarnish is one of a number of new machines coming to Drupa offering to take value added finishing into the digital age using inkjet heads to apply varnishes, adhesives and other fluids to enable faster turnaround of cartons and without the need for expensive die making.
