Following seven months of rigorous R&D, IPT Digital and its partner RDP Marathon have announced the installation of three new and  JFlex870 digital print conversion systems, powered by Memjet print engines.

“Interestingly enough, our first three clients represent three very different types of customer,” says Peter Kuschnitzky of IPT digital. “Each was drawn to the JFlex870 for a different reason and each will benefit from a unique feature, demonstrating the versatility of this innovative conversion system.”

One of the companies to install the system is currently printing labels on a toner-based digital printer and then having to move them to a separate unit for laminating and diecutting. Mounting a JFlex870 on the older model press will give it the capacity to print, varnish and diecut inline – all at 225 fpm. Instead of taking 83 minutes, for example, to run 5000 four-inch labels on the old diecutter, the JFlex870 will both print and diecut in seven minutes.

Another inaugural customer needs a digital printing conversion system able to print variable information, and the JFlex870 is an ideal fit because it can cope with printing consecutive bar codes, variable or sequential serial numbers and personalized individual labels. In this case, the JFlex870 will be mounted on the upper rail system of the company’s printing platform. “The base press is a 13-inch wide format so we had to design the print heads to sit on a gantry system allowing them to be moved anywhere across the wider web,” explains Eric Short of RDP Marathon. “This new design now allows us to double up print heads and offer future customers print widths of up to 17 inches.”

The third new customer is a conventional printing company that committed to the installation of a JFlex870 after being impressed by the quality of print samples. It also liked the idea that it could run the digital printing conversion system side-by-side its normal flexo printing so certain jobs could be printed digitally and others conventionally. The JFlex870 will be affixed above the print stations of a two-decade old printing press with enough height not to impede the operation of the flexo stations when the digital head is not in use. Existing hot air dryers will help dry the fast-moving 225 fpm water-based Inkjet ink and the existing varnish, laminating and diecutting station will be used to finish the labels.

“Once again, a fully-depreciated press gets a new lease on life,” says Kuschnitzky.

For more information about the JFlex870, contact Peter Kuschnitzky at [email protected].