Xeikon has announced that Craftsman Label, a custom label manufacturer in Clackamas, OR, USA, has expanded its business into the digital label market after purchasing and installing a Xeikon 3030 digital color press.

Craftsman Label, Inc. was founded in 1978 and purchased by current owner, Marvin Wolfson, in 2002. Following decades of growth and expansion since its conception, Craftsman has established a flourishing business within the flexographic print process, producing labels for every industry, from the food and beverage markets to automotive and manufacturing industries.

The flexographic capabilities of Craftsman have allowed the company to become a full-service, custom label converter with clients across the US, Canada and around the world. With the installation of the Xeikon 3030, the company can now offer more cost-effective short and mid-length runs.

Craftsman Label owner Marv Wolfson says, “Due to the fact that we primarily print high quality prime labels, we decided a toner-based solution met our needs. We selected Xeikon because their Xeikon 3030 system not only met our current technical and financial requirements, but could also be upgraded on-site to one of their higher capacity models without losing our initial investment in the press. Other solutions with similar capabilities require a complete replacement of the press which could mean a loss of some of the original financial investment and significant downtime.”

The Xeikon 3030 offers a high level of productivity as the press speed is independent of the number of colors being printed as well as the repeat length of the label. The press has true 1200 x 3600 dpi imaging resolution, with media widths of up to 13 inches, and can handle a variety of substrates without pretreatment or priming. Of particular importance to Craftsman was Xeikon’s “one-pass” opaque white toner, which is ideal for Craftsman’s production of high quality labels.

“Craftsman is the kind of company that we really enjoy working with. They are creative and constantly looking for new ways to serve their customers. Their impressive growth and commitment to offering more options led them to digital, and Xeikon’s technological capabilities are a great fit for their business, ” says Todd Blumsack, vice president of sales and marketing at Xeikon America, Inc. “Our technology gives them a winning combination of productivity, print quality, flexibility and sustainability.”