Data Points: Hybrid Digital Label Presses

Over the past year, several label press vendors have brought out “hybrid” presses featuring both flexographic and full-color inkjet capabilities on a single press. These machines are typically compared to, and compete with, installed digital label presses that use either toner or inkjet technologies. These hybrid inkjet presses present opportunities and challenges for label printers and converters, both for printing and producing finished labels. These devices are specified as digital label presses with multiple and modularly-variable analog printing with some level of physical conversion capabilities in-line with the digital print engine. However, these new hybrid systems do not include third-party “bolt-on” inkjet print heads and associated software that are integrated into existing flexographic label presses for monochrome or color printing.