Albéa Tubes Americas, a subsidiary of French packaging giant Albéa Group, has installed a Durst Tau 330 UV Inkjet digital press to enhance its production of plastic and laminate tubes for the beauty, personal care, oral care and pharma markets. Albéa specializes in a wide range of beauty and personal care packaging, and is a global leader in the manufacturing of plastic and laminate tubes, mascaras, lipsticks, samplers and foam pumps.

Roy Turner, vice president and general manager of Albéa Tubes Americas, says these evolving markets presented new demands for smaller batch sizes. The challenge for the company was to satisfy customer requirements while addressing the subsequent cost pressure. The solution for printing on laminate tubes, Turner explains, was to introduce a new production technology that provides flexibility and economic efficiency regardless of batch size. The choice of Durst’s digital UV inkjet printing over competing toner technologies followed an extensive evaluation process of test runs and product sampling. “The Durst Tau 330 is our answer to the challenges we currently face,” Turner says. “Its premium print quality and operating efficiency were the decisive factors for us.  The Tau 330 is a solid and hard-wearing construction, designed to operate 24/7. Our system comes with seven colors and is equipped with low-migration ink. These features open up new market opportunities for us, in addition to our standard offer.”

“We’re pleased to welcome an industry leader like Albéa Tubes Americas to the Durst family,” comments Christopher Howard, vice president, Industrial Segment Business, Durst US. “Once again, Durst’s imaging technology and innovation is the first choice of leading companies to tackle the most demanding printing applications.”

Albéa’s decision to acquire the Tau 330 also was influenced by its higher productivity, its larger color spectrum – which covers 90 percent of the Pantone color scale – its highly opaque white printing in efficient single-pass mode, and its excellent ink adhesion without any special finishing treatment.

Durst’s Low-Migration UV Ink System, which is available exclusively on the Tau 330, meets the stringent criteria for printing on primary packaging.