The first Labelexpo to take place outside Brussels is on course to the be the biggest yet with a 28% increase in exhibitor numbers to more than 650 companies due to exhibit in Barcelona.
The show is not taking place until 16-19 September at the Fira Gran Via in the Spanish city, so further participants can be expected. Even at this stage there are some details of product launches: from Epson, HP, Dantex among others.
This growth may be related to the decision to expand the show to include carton printing as well as flexible packaging and narrow web labels. The arrival of the EU Packaging Waste Regulations are pushing brands towards single material packaging and towards the use of recyclable materials, thus cartons rather than packaging that needs separate labels. This can reduce the ease of handling in one waste stream.
There has been announced collaboration with Brunton, low key for the show this year, but with the potential for a much larger print on packaging event in two years time. This is a gap that shows in Dusseldorf do not address. There is a presence at Drupa, but commercial printing has remained key with Interpack and K do not focus on print.
There will be showcase areas for flexible packaging and cartons to educate label printers about the potential and requirements of these sectors. A number of manufacturers producing narrow width label presses will be emphasising developments in other sectors, Bobst being typical.
Marketing director Patrick Graber says: “At Bobst, the anticipation for Labelexpo Europe is building rapidly as we prepare to present our latest technology advances for simplifying label, flexible packaging and folding carton manufacturing,” Being able to match colours for customers across the different technologies and applications is a key advantage of working with a single supplier.
Another with packaging at front of mind is Canon. It has outlined plans for a digital carton and a corrugated press. It has an inkjet label print platform and in Edale a subsidiary building conventional flexo label presses and which has adapted these machines for printing cartons.
It has also encouraged Heidelberg to step forward alongside Gallus. Gallus has previously taken centre stage at Labelexpo and plans to focus on the MatteJet extension of the GallusOne inkjet press. But Heidelberg’s brand will be equally visible, referring to litho printed wet labels and in mould labels, but also with carton printing expertise.
There will be a number of presses targeting short run flexible packaging from manufacturers that have built wider machines than the conventional 340mm/430mm web widths, pushing to 540mm or wide. Mark Andy for example is promising a mid web press for flexible packaging and MPS is promising a packaging press launch with no further details at this point.
What is known is that Epson will introduce the L5034 label press. This was shown in concept form at Drupa and most recently at China Print. It is a six-colour machine with 1200dpi printheads and printing water based ink. Throughput at 340mm wide is 13.5m/min thanks to a scanning print method.
HP is on home ground as its European headquarters is just north of the city. It will show the high speed V12 along with the Indigo 6K+, a more productive version of the Indigo 6K. This comes through enhanced automation and software and the ability to print on virtually any substrate presented to it. HP Indigo has enjoyed success with helping label printers diversify into flexible packaging with what is now the Indigo 200K. Might something else be on the cards for Barcelona?
