Xeikon to launch digital IML Suite at K-Messe 2013

Xeikon announces its presence at the K-Messe 2013. Xeikon will show the Xeikon 3050 digital press printing live at the show, the ThermoFlexX 30 and numerous plastic containers decorated with various digital printing techniques.

The trend of ever shorter runs and more different versions cannot be neglected anymore. In an attempt to defend their market share, brand owners are looking for ways to differentiate themselves. Short runs and more specifically special versions of their packaging are a way of doing that. Digital printing can make decoration affordable for smaller runs: it brings the fastest time-to-market and it has the highest print quality. Digital label printing has a proven track record in label production.

At the K-Messe Xeikon will show a broad range of solutions for short run plastic decoration. Xeikon will be printing live on IML (in-mold) and transfer printing substrates, and will highlight the value of each decoration method in combination with digital printing. The K-Messe will mark the launch of a suite of components to build a solution for thick wall plastic containers decorated with IML. This Xeikon IML Suite consists of digital presses, substrates, software tools and finishing hardware.

Filip Weymans Director Segment Marketing Labels and Packaging at Xeikon explains: “Xeikon invented digital printing 20 years ago and today we are a very clear top 3 player in digital label and packaging printing. In the past years we have developed several decorating technologies for plastic containers and we know that industry is ready for it.”

With the heat transfer technique, designs are digitally printed on a substrate with a release coating. In a second step, this printed image can be transferred onto a plastic object with an applicator. The printing quality is top and it has the advantage over IML that the decoration is done later in the supply chain, leaving more logistical flexibility and a significant reduction in inventory costs.

Filip Weymans adds: “We have customers using this process in production lines since 2008; some of these customers have multiple Xeikon digital presses only for the decoration of pails.”

Xeikon will exhibit at the K-Messe in booth 12F56, Messe Dusseldorf from October 16-23. For more information about Xeikon solutions for the labels market, visit www.Xeikon.com/labels-packaging