After ten years committed to HP Indigo, EPac Flexible Packaging is bringing Fujifilm into the fold.
The distributed short run pouch producer has struck a strategic alliance for Fujifilm’s inkjet FP970 press for flexible packaging. The deal covers an undisclosed number of machines over an undisclosed period. But the first press is heading for a new plant in Phoenix, Arizona. This will be the largest facility in the group serving businesses across the US south west.
The inkjet press will enable EPac to take on longer runs and so stay with customers as they expand. There is still a big gap between the kinds of runs that the Indigo 200k, its most productive machine, can address and the minimum order quantities that conventional flexo presses demand. The FP970 sits in this gap. It can run at 50m/min on a web that is 790mm wide at a resolution of 1200dpi with water based inks. The Indigo 200k has as similar web width at 762mm and images at 812dpi for a 2438dpi optical resolution and has a top four-colour print speed at 40m/min.
“Incorporating this technology gives brand owners of all sizes the continued agility of digital while providing a true end to end scaling solution for flexible packaging,” president of shared services at EPac Flexible Packaging, Parag Patel says. The company adds that the technology suits longer runs to meet customer requirements as they grow.
Beyond the new Arizona facility, EPac has 13 sites in the US and Canada, five in Europe including at Silverstone and Sheffield, one each in Africa, Australia and Indonesia.
The Fujifilm partnership complements a ten press £36.5 million three-year deal struck with HP to place the Indigo 200K across the group in February this year which followed a month after investment company Butterfly acquired the ePac business.
As well as building a plant in Phoenix, EPac has plans to expand plants in Vancouver, Atlanta and Philadelphia.
The deal also underlines the importance of the packaging sector to Fujifilm. While closing down its large format and B2 Jetpress machines, it retained the packaging press and its unique Aquafuse inkjet technology. The FP970 is currently alone as an inkjet press that is commercially available for flexible packaging. Its pilot installation was at Eco Flexibles in the UK.
