Durst, a manufacturer of advanced digital printing and production technologies, has announced that The Label Makers has invested in a second Tau 330 RSC single-pass label press after a spike in demand from converters and brand owners impressed with Durst’s UV inkjet digital technology.

The Durst Tau 330 RSC production machine, which was installed in January, brings another leap in quality and a 60% uplift in production capacity for The Label Makers, known as Labmak, in Bradford, UK, which successfully completed beta testing of the world’s first machine in late autumn.

“Yet again, it’s unbelievable photographic quality,” says David Webster, managing director of Labmak, which has invested around £2.5million in Durst technology over the past six years. “We need flexibility, continuity and industrial scale production to meet our demanding customer requirements. The Durst Tau 330 RSC provides all this and more, printing at 78 linear m/m (245 fpm).

“Customer requirements are changing constantly,” he adds. “In this market, label delivery dates now typically get changed hourly, not even on a daily basis, so we have to have flexibility of printing on either machine or even transferring work from flexo. Durst Workflow software enables us to manipulate files press side, so jobs can be tweaked immediately without sending the file back to the studio, which could easily take up to 20 minutes. Any changes are now done in five minutes – it’s a major time-saver.”

Durst’s Tau 330 RSC press features 13″ (330mm) print width combined with print speeds of up to 245 fpm at 1200 x 1200 dpi printing resolutions. The press achieves a production capacity of 1,485 m² per hour, and thanks to its 8-color stations (CMYK+W+OVG) with new designed high pigmented inks it delivers excellent flexo look-alike print quality with close to 95% pantone color gamut coverage.

Webster adds, “The print quality is phenomenal. We do now have supermarket chains who are requesting the jobs be printed inkjet rather than flexo because of the vibrancy of the colors, the screen effect of the inks and the perfect print registration. This second Tau 330 RSC investment gives us the opportunity to take on more clients and better service our existing customers. Previously, we were mainly using the Durst Tau presses for the personal care markets. Now, with new capabilities, we are producing everything from food labels through to high-quality wines and spirits on the Durst Tau 330 RSC.”

Helmuth Munter, segment manager, Durst Label & Packaging Printing, says, “The Label Makers in the UK is a shining example of our ‘Configure Your Future’ theme and what can be achieved with Durst technology. The Tau RSC can handle a huge range of substrates for a broad range of application options. First launched at Labelexpo 2017, the Durst Tau 330 RSC is now installed at more than 25 locations across Europe. This is leading-edge, game-changing technology with the highest printing speeds, which is available at economic cost on a global scale for a broad range of customers, including small and medium-sized label converters.”