Graphic Labels, a label manufacturer in Orlando, FL, USA, sought advanced digital label printing, because many of its customers demanded short run orders with fast turnaround. The company’s three flexo presses require a lot of prep time – and constant plate changes – making customized label runs time consuming and costly.

Owner Michael Bartole, who also serves as manager and press operator, along with his father, Gustav, who founded the company, had the depth of knowledge and experience to move into digital, but the high cost of entry was daunting. They were not shy about investing – Gustav previously built and ran a leading printing company in Venezuela, which included three Gallus presses. However, their forced move to America out of a politically difficult nation taken over by Hugo Chavez made them more cost-conscious than ever.
Says Michael Bartole, “Facing a cost of entry at $500,000 to $1 million for getting into digital, we first took a small step with a $50,000 converted color laser office printer.”

The Bartoles did save time by eliminating plate changes, but in many cases this gain was more than lost because of how slow the system printed. At a labels trade show, they learned of a retrofit innovation from IPT Digital (powered by Memjet inkjet technology), and were surprised to find a digital color system with running speeds more than 10x their existing digital system with much better print quality.

Adds Michael, “We found a way to complete in digital label production at a fraction of what we expected to invest – equaling quality and productivity of major printers who had invested $1 million or more to acquire their digital capacity. On a day-to-day basis, we also eliminated plate costs and many hours of set-up time and provided customers with next day delivery. Our productivity went significantly up; we produce more labels in less time.”

The Bartoles have a food label customer, running 40 different label designs of the same size. “We can run these almost without stopping between designs,” Michael says. “If we used our traditional label press, we would have spent $6,000 on plates plus about 60 hours of set-up time.”

Graphic Labels’ investment was highly cost efficient, according to the Bartoles, because they were able to use several of the press functions that they already had on the production floor. This includes unwind, web-cleaning, web tension control, and web transport at required speed, lamination inline with printing, diecutting, stripping away the diecut waste, and rewinding of the printed and die cut labels, ready for the customer.