Italian manufacturer Nuova Gidue S.r.l. held an Open House February 6-8 at its headquarters in Tavarnuzze, Tuscany, to present the new M9 all-in-one-pass multi-process press, which was designed for the carton and packaging industries.

According to the company, the press offers the completely redesigned M9 offset print group with heavy-duty frames, independent servo-driven inking units and format cassettes to achieve short set-up times and wastes. Each M9 offset print unit is driven by a total of seven servo motors and is one of the most automated and efficient print units in the carton and packaging industry.

Among its further innovations, the M9 offers a new flexo print unit which can use water-based and UV inks with high-power drying speed also on heavy solids. The M9 flexo unit is placed on the Gidue Universal Platform and can be easily interchanged with screen, cold foil and hot stamping Process heads. A new “heavy duty” tension control system for carton up to 500 gsm has been developed. A new M9 heavy duty Rotogravure unit was also shown live during the Open House, with impinged air drying system, which can print with water and solvent based inks.

The M9 proposes also a new converting section, with a vast range of functionalities: three die-cutting stations for self-adhesive substrates, three heavy duty die-cutting station for thick carton for embossing, creasing, die-cutting, one rotary servo-driven sheeting stations for heavy carton, one high-pile newly designed high-speed stacker and one dedicated delivery table for beer labels.

Gidue Managing Director Federico d’Annunzio comments, “Labels and packaging industries are getting closer, the M9 is designed to create a bridge between the two markets. The M9 fulfils most of the commitments of high-end added value Packaging, which can be produced all-in-one-pass using several printing and converting technologies. This also helped us to develop new short-runs technologies in gravure, offset and flexo printing and in the converting sections.”

He adds, “The first M9 will be delivered to a major Chinese converter to print liquor boxes and cigarettes packages who is looking for very high printing quality and new exclusive packaging solutions. We were pleased with the quantity and quality of our visitors to the Open House. It has been a good opportunity to show Gidue deep innovation capabilities and provide a guided tour of our facilities. Feedback from our guests was very positive and it is incredibly satisfying to see how people get impressed by our innovative M9 “big bambina!”