With digital, gravure, screen and offset printing capabilities in-house, Top Print I-Labels Technology has now added narrow web flexo in the form of an Omet XFlex X4 line. Part of a group of companies with headquarters in Singapore, the Chengdu facility, which opened in 2013, is complemented by plants in Suzhou and Chongqing, which employ 80 people.

Wang DaXun, general manager at Chengdu, has built a successful business with a high profit margin that is as indicative of the specialized nature of the work, especially in the anti-counterfeiting sector.

“Of all the leading brands, both Western and Chinese, we found that Omet performed the best on filmic substrates, which together with its 440mm web width, gives it a clear advantage over the other presses, and us over our competitors,” says DaXun. 

With a well-established user-base in China (now more than 70 machines installed) and a good name for after-sales support from its base in Suzhou, Omet has built a solid reputation among Chinese label converters.

Currently enjoying a high level of demand for its thermal transfer labels, which it is in the process of switching from gravure to flexo, Top Print is also growing its business in shrink sleeves for the liquor and food market sectors, and recently won an Award in the Asia-Pacific Japan region for this work. With the complex nature of many of its jobs, Top Print’s new Omet is often limited to running speeds of around 70 m/m, but on easier work, DaXun says it holds brilliant register at 190 m/m and praises the press for its intuitive ease of operation. “Two or three days was all it took for our operators to learn how to run it commercially. It is a very functional machine with a high degree of efficiency with its inline capabilities.”

The 8-color X4 comes equipped with cold foil, twin die stations, web turn bars, and delam/relam facility, which will be able to work to full capacity in the company’s new 6,000 square meter factory that is planned.

With label demand growing quickly, DaXun is looking at cooperative investment opportunities in Western China. “The local Chengdu market needs more investment in new technology to satisfy the needs of the brand owners who are requesting ever more complex labels,” he explains.