HSG spots promise of Domino

The Domino X630i that HSG has installed began as a Sun Automation development with Domino taking it on to seize an opportunity for short run cases.

The first corrugated packaging printer in the UK with the Domino X630i single-pass inkjet press was also the UK’s first beta user of the Sun Automation Corr Stream single-pass inkjet press. 

This is scarcely surprising. The Domino is essentially the same machine and it acquired the rights to the development so the press at HSG in Bradford acquired some upgrades and a new name at the same time.

Even then HSG is no stranger to inkjet printing having installed a multi-pass machine to start with. But single-pass printing is the opportunity, says Colin Cutts. “These are very much exciting times.”

The quality at 600dpi is a match for high quality flexo printing and for the lower end of the litho lam market. “In flexo we aim at a ∂e3 variation. This printer achieves ∂e3. It means that the box is the same every time because we are guaranteed that colour.”

The press runs with 48 printheads across the width, costing some £10,000 each, mounted just 1.5mm from the board. Protecting them from damage is essential. They print waterless ink at 3,000m/hr, using the same set of inks on coated and uncoated with 50 micron accuracy.

The opportunity is about adding value to what would appear to be low cost corrugated cases. Using digital printing, HSG can print a unique QR code on each box of a run of 10-20,000 boxes. “We could never print the QR code before because of the accuracy of print needed. Now we are getting quite excited about what we can do.”

Waterbased inks are essential both to keep costs manageable compared to UV inks and to cope with concerns about ink migration. It means the single-pass approach makes financial sense against both multi-pass machines and single-pass UV technology.

“When we go to talk to a potential customer we can now give two or three examples of a printed and finished box.” This is also essential to show the potential of digital printing, to change images on the fly, to create a mix of different boxes in a series, even to personalise a box. None of this was available previously. An order for 10,000 boxes meant and order for 10,000 identical boxes.

The overall cost compared to the flexo alternative has to include the cost of plates and makeready, neither of which the digital press has.