Coast Label Company, a Southern, CA-based label manufacturer In business since 1970, recently acquired a 13” Durst Tau 330E digital UV inkjet press – a digital press purchase that was made following a long technology-vetting process.

According to Coast Label’s owner and president, Craig Moreland, the company decided on the Durst machine in order to continue its strong advancement into the durable and specialty labels segment. Moreland says there were several reasons behind Coast Label’s transitioning to digital, including efficiency as well as growing customer demand for full color and multiple versions on even the simplest industrial labels – a key market for Coast Label. One of the company’s largest verticals, is the high-performance industrial label market. “We just hadn’t found a piece of equipment that we wanted to own. We offer UL-recognized components and other products that have a strong need for ink performance, adhesive performance and substrate performance,” Moreland says. “This is where the toner technologies don’t really work very well for our needs.”

Moreland continues, “This year at Labelexpo, it was clear that UV digital label printing had arrived in terms of quality and speed – that was one of the things that finally tipped us toward the Tau 330E. With the Tau, we’ve got the enhanced capabilities of a very durable ink set that, in a lot of cases, will not require overlamination. It certainly is fast and will not require any delays for making printing plates. We also expect to be able to make labels with lower levels of waste, which ties into our TLMI LIFE-certified facility environmental initiatives. We’ll be able to do things faster and offer better service levels and enhanced products with a very hi gh level of quality and repeatability.”

As the market evolves, service times and ordering strategies are evolving as well.  Coast Label looks forward to being able to offer new ways of purchasing as well as new products. “We see it as game-changing to be able to offer shorter runs with lots of versioning at a competitive price,” Moreland adds.  “We already do a lot of work in the variable information space with consecutive numbers and bar codes, and database jobs. The Durst Tau further enhances our capabilities in this area.”

The Tau 330E is a UV inkjet label press printing 8-inch or 13-inch widths in four or five colors at speeds of up to 157 fpm and a resolution of up to 1,260 dpi.  The system has been engineered with particular attention to equipment cost while maintaining the speed and printing quality of the flagship Tau 330 label press.  By reducing the color offering from seven in the original Tau 330, Durst is able to offer a more economical model. Coast Label has combined the Tau 330E with the Grafisk Maskinfabrik( GM) DC330 Mini semi-rotary finishing system with inline integration, thus creating a seamless workflow.

Coast Label Company is a four-time winner of TLMI’s prestigious Eugene Singer Award for Best Managed Company.