Belgian Brewery Implements Augmented Reality, Direct Print to PET

In conjunction with a popular Belgian television show, Martens Beer has utilized the newest technologies available to promote a special flavor of the beer.

"This interactive promotion campaign could be achieved thanks to innovative changes in the brewery manufacturing site, introducing technologies from different world leading suppliers," explains Danny Dresselaerts from the Martens brewery. "Bottling beer in PET bottles and printing images of TV show characters directly on the bottle are unique projects as such. And we added augmented reality which enables the characters in the images to talk to the consumer via their smart phones or tablets.

"PET Bottles are 100 percent recyclable, much lighter to transport and the beer tastes exactly the same as beer in a glass bottle," Dresselaerts added. "The direct print technology was developed by the German company KHS, implementing low-migration inks from Agfa. We will add extra TV characters along the promotion campaign so the consumers will experience new stories along the line. This combination of marketing and technology is unique and may well change the way we will package food and drinks in the future. We expect the bottles to be a collectors’ item soon, whether empty or full."

Martens Beer, a Belgian brewery, prints directly to PET bottles.

For the Martens brewery's PET bottle decoration, NMP Systems, a subsidiary of KHS, combined dedicated low migration UV-curable inks from Agfa Graphics with the first industrial scaleDirect Print powered by KHS technology. The system prints color images (1080 dpi – four colors + white) at PET line speeds, creating unprecedented speed-to-market and variable image decoration capability. In 2014, Agfa Graphics' low-migration (LM) UV-curable inkjet inks were honored by essenscia, the Belgian Federation for Chemistry and Life Sciences Industries, with the prestigious bi-annual Innovation Award. They are based on specific chemical formulations, compliant with European guidelines on food package printing. They are designed primarily for printing directly on labels, blister foils, lids and more for food and pharmaceutical applications. Agfa Graphics' LM inks deliver durable solutions and can be customized for specific packaging materials.

Source: Agfa Graphics.