Encountering all of the digital presses at Labelexpo always generates a sense of wonder – several, actually. First there’s the wonderful type of wonder, the gee-whiz excitement about digital printing processes, about how far they have come in a mere 20 years. Second is the calculating sense of wonder, the guess as to how far digital print will push against Fortress Flexo this year, or any year. Then there’s the quizzical wonder, which asks yet again: How long can 30 or 40 digital inkjet press manufacturers make a go of it in the narrow web industry?

We ask this question every year, and every year it seems that more inkjet label printers are competing in the digital space. I don’t possess the sales records of these companies, but they must be doing something well to keep the crowds coming to their booths at the trade shows.

The other print processes, HP Indigo’s digital offset and Xeikon’s dry toner, are well established at the top of the digital press market. HP is by far the category leader, but with such a crowded field, nobody is complacent. Inkjet had to play catch-up in its early days in narrow web, but today it is fairly well established and improving all the time.

One oddity well noted by industry observers has been the struggle by the makers of conventional presses to establish themselves successfully as producers of digital color label presses.

“Visitors to Nilpeter’s booth may be startled to find that just one press will be featured.”

In the late 1990s, Nilpeter and Mark Andy put their brand names on Xeikon engines to let their customers and the industry know that they, too, could compete in the digital arena. Mark Andy’s effort soon faded, and though Nilpeter placed a number of digital presses with label converters (some of which might still be running), the company discontinued the offering within a few years.

The first attempt to bring the benefits of inkjet printing to narrow web was the Digital Label Alliance, launched in 1997 by Webtron, along with 17 converters. At the time still a force in the industry, Webtron and its investors pursued the concept of a digital inkjet module that would fit into an inline flexo press. It did not come to fruition, however, despite several years of work. Soon thereafter, Webtron was acquired by PCMC and the brand disappeared from the marketplace.

But the idea took hold and wouldn’t go away. A modular narrow web press featuring flexo, digital and finishing systems remained in the minds of engineers throughout the industry. About a decade ago, the folks at Mark Andy worked in secret on just such a hybrid press. The company acknowledged its project around the time of a Labelexpo in Brussels, taking select clients offsite to see the new creature, but it did not go into production, and once again the respected press maker stepped back from digital.

Around the same time, in the middle of the previous decade, a company called Jetrion showed up at Labelexpo with a standalone digital color UV inkjet press. Rough, yes, but it worked, and it was supported by Flint Ink. About five minutes later, Sun Chemical unveiled a similar box-like inkjet press, but that ink maker did not pursue the project. Jetrion kept at it, made progress and eventually was acquired by EFI. Today, the Jetrion inkjet press is operational in many label converting shops. A few years ago it showed up in Brussels complete with an SEI laser cutter and some finishing opportunities, well on the way to achieving the hybrid dream. (At press time, EFI announced that it has acquired Matan Digital Printers of Israel, a manufacturer of industrial inkjet machinery.)

About seven years ago, Nilpeter made a re-entry into the narrow web digital market with the introduction of the Caslon, a color inkjet module developed in partnership with UK-based FFEI (Fujifilm Electronic Imaging). As with its first dry-toner effort, Nilpeter succeeded in placing Caslon units around the industry but discontinued its involvement in the project recently.

FFEI continues with its Xaar-based inkjet system under the new name Graphium, a hybrid press with a variety of options. Billed as ideal for labels, packaging and specialty print, Graphium incorporates flexo print stations and a host of finishing systems into the press.
Back in St. Louis, the folks at Mark Andy vowed to produce a digital label press worthy of the brand, and they decided to make it entirely in-house. The company hired a platoon of ex-Hewlett-Packard brains and put them into a building in San Diego with laptops, raw materials and coffee. A year later, in 2014, they went to Labelexpo in Chicago and raised the curtain on the Mark Andy Digital Series. This machine features a seven-color inkjet unit (CMYKOV+W) placed into the frame of a Performance P7 press. It’s been less than a year since the debut, but the company has been promoting the Digital Series aggressively.

Back in Denmark, there’s a door at Nilpeter’s headquarters that remains closed. Few people, certainly not I, can enter. That’s where the new ideas come from. Just today (as I write), we have learned about the Panorama, a new digital press that will take center stage – correction: the only stage – at Nilpeter’s stand in Brussels.

Inkjet, yes. CMYK+W. The technology comes from Screen, no stranger to the process and utilizes Kyocera printheads. “The engine is the same as the Screen Truepress,” says Jakob Landberg, Nilpeter’s director of sales and marketing. “The workflow system also is from Screen. This is well-documented technology at high quality.”

Nilpeter engineers the basic structure and adds diecutting using the company’s QC system. Panorama includes a varnishing unit, smart matrix stripping, length slitting and small roll dual rewinds. A mark sensor allows the precise re-inserting of webs for reverse printing, or overprinting of pre-printed webs, included with variable data.

Visitors to the Nilpeter booth in Brussels might be startled to find that just one press will be featured in the large space: the Panorama. “At our stand, we will show only one machine: the digital press,” says Landberg. That’s a bold move. The company will have a film press at the Package Printing Workshop elsewhere at Labelexpo, but still.

Let us not overlook Gallus, a major force in narrow web label printing and converting since the dawn of time. When Indigo introduced its web-fed digital press in the mid-90s, Gallus stepped right up to create the Rolls Royce of finishing systems for the new technology. The price tag was high, but the concept became legend.

Since those days, the Gallus company has changed but not its focus on quality. Still, the cry of the digital phoenix is irresistible, and Gallus responded last year by announcing the future launch of the DCS 340, a partnership of Heidelberg (the owner of Gallus) and Fujifilm. It is (what else?) a hybrid press, a classic flexo machine with a digital heart.

Arthur C. Clarke said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” I have not lost my wonder, for digital print or babies or any number of magical things built from the stuff of life. Nilpeter and Mark Andy are trying again, so many others are trying anew, and I celebrate the trying and failing and trying again.



The author is president of Jack Kenny Media, a communications firm specializing in the packaging industry, and is the former editor of L&NW magazine. He can be reached at [email protected].