HP Showcases Label and Flexible Packaging Solutions at Labelexpo

HP Indigo 8000

At Labelexpo Europe 2019, HP Inc. is demonstrating new solutions across the HP Indigo digital portfolio of presses, workflow and partner solutions, offering label and packaging converters new ways to grow business with more innovative products and higher efficiency.

A provider of digital label and packaging presses, HP Indigo also reported continued adoption of its digital solutions, driven by demand for higher quality packaging, diversified food products, brand protection, shrink sleeves, pouches, embellishments and more sustainable printing.

“HP Indigo labels and packaging production offers a world of profitable applications at the highest quality, helping HP Indigo customers outpace market growth and double print volume every four years,” said Alon Bar-Shany, general manager, HP Indigo. “Converters are investing in a digital future with HP Indigo, operating more than 2000 presses worldwide.”

Shrink sleeves on beer cans by HP and Karlville

Turn-key pouch solution

At Labelexpo Europe Brussels at the HP Stand (5C200), from Sept. 24 to 27, HP Indigo and Karlville are unveiling a new solution to optimize pouch production for HP Indigo digital printing, allowing immediate time-to-market for short and medium runs. The HP Indigo Digital Pouch Factory demo makes its debut at the show with the HP Indigo 20000 Digital Press and Karlville Pack Ready lamination and pouch making machines. The turn-key solution makes it easy to enter the market to deliver pouches on-demand, more sustainably, while complying with food packaging regulations. HP Indigo ElectroInks can be used for food-packaging applications and are free of UV-reactive chemistries.

Boost productivity with flexo to HP Indigo 8000 digital press conversion

The HP Indigo 8000 Digital Press, the industry’s most productive narrow-web press, is enabling converters to be more productive by moving medium run length, multi SKU and time-sensitive jobs from flexo to HP Indigo. Visitors to the HP stand can see press printing at up to 80 m (262 ft) per minute, as well as survey one-shift towers of production printed by Interket of the Netherlands and L’Eperon of France, winners of HP Indigo 8000 Challenge. Many HP Indigo 8000 users are printing some 20,000 meters per shift, with an 85,000-meter one-day record set recently in Asia.

Print profitable applications and stand-out with digital embellishment

Label converters with HP Indigo’s LEP-based technology can print on the industry’s broadest range of substrates and thereby diversify into new applications, including high-value shrink sleeves for the growing craft beverage market.

HP announced the HP Indigo ElectroInk white ink portfolio would expand with HP Indigo ElectroInk Premium White for Sleeves for narrow-web presses. The new high slip white ink can deliver a wider range of opacity levels, in a single print process, and is designed specially to help more efficient shrink sleeve converting.

In combination with Karlville PLUS Series seamers and Tornado Tunnel shrinker, converters have a complete solution for shrink sleeve production. Visitors to Labelexpo are invited to the HP Stand to watch live printing of shrink sleeves on the HP Indigo 20000 Digital Press and inline coating with the ABG ILC 762, followed by converting on beer cans at the adjacent Karlville stand (8A54).

GEM composition

Digital embellishment advances by HP Indigo and partners offer ways to stand out from the competition: The HP Indigo GEM integrated with the HP Indigo 6900 Digital Press can produce digital spot and tactile varnishes, digital foils, and a range of other creative effects. The one-pass solution needs only one operator and one digital file per job. In Europe, GEM beta testing in now beginning at All4Labels, Germany.

Beta testing of the first GEM unit is in progress at ILS in the US. “ILS is a pioneering customer in HP Indigo digital labels and packaging technology. The HP Indigo GEM solution offers the ability to disrupt the market with a fully digital printing solution including variable embellishments,” says Jay Dollries, president and CEO of ILS This latest innovation delivers a broad range of embellishments and creative options.”

The GEM is scheduled to begin commercial availability at the end of the year.

Additionally, in collaboration with Kurz, a leader in thin film technology, a new inline KURZ DM-JETLINER digital metallization solution with the HP Indigo 6900 makes its Labelexpo debut, demonstrating silver and gold digital foiling. This solution simplifies the production of high-value labels with metallic effects in one pass, on a wide range of substrates at full press speed with no tooling and lower waste compared to analog solution. All4labels is also running the Kurz inline solution.

HP Indigo ElectroInk Silver for HP Indigo 6000 series presses delivers metallic effects in one printing process, today running on more than 300 presses worldwide in applications such as health and beauty, beverage, and household.

Another new ink, HP Indigo ElectroInk Fade Resistant Orange, is now released to complete a seven-color ink set for outdoor label applications requiring high lightfastness.

Brand protection solutions

Brands and leading e-commerce platforms are responding to the growing threat of counterfeiting by implementing print-enabled protection, opening new business opportunities for converters. The HP Indigo 6900 delivers a wide variety of brand protection solutions including inks and software tools. HP Indigo ElectroInk Invisible Yellow and Blue are only visible under UV light, delivering high performance for security applications. Coupled with new software and cloud-based solutions that allow anti-counterfeiting marks, micro text fonts, and protected track and trace solutions, converters can offer unique layered security, static or serialized, for brand protection.

HP Indigo also announced a collaboration with Agfa NV, expanding its security portfolio to offer unique variable data designs for brand protection and security applications.

HP Indigo 20000

New sustainability applications support environmental stewardship

HP Indigo is helping drive new sustainable labels and packaging business with on-demand, low-waste printing, alongside a growing portfolio of environmental credentials. At Labelexpo, HP is presenting new sustainable packaging solutions and new credentials including:

• Green Leaf sustainability mark from Intertek for the HP Indigo 6900, HP Indigo 8000 and HP Indigo 20000, independently verifying the digital presses for environmental credentials.
• TUV Austria “OK Compost Home” and “OK Compost Industrial” marks awarded to HP, verifying HP Indigo ElectroInks can be used as printing inks for packaging recoverable through composting and biodegradation according to leading standards, such as EU regulation EN 13432.
• Deinking tests conducted by Cadel Deinking of Spain verifying that HP Indigo digitally printed flexible packaging, including coating, can be fully deinked. The results on a range of substrates open new ways for brands and service providers to work towards higher sustainability, where deinking is an essential stage in the recycling process.

Automation powered by workflow solutions from HP and partners

HP Production Pro for Indigo Labels and Packaging is installed today on more than 170 HP Indigo presses, delivering fast processing of even the most complex data jobs including mass customization, security, and variable brand protection. New workflow offerings for HP Indigo digital press users include:

• An enhanced Esko Automation Engine for HP Production Pro for HP Indigo Labels and Packaging enables HP Indigo users to boost productivity while using Esko DeskPack templates.
• Web2pack workflow solutions powered by PrintOS Site Flow and partner solutions for automating end-to-end packaging fulfillment to deliver dozens of jobs per day with minimum touchpoints.
• Visitors to the HP booth are invited to customize packaging and watch a live demo of end-to-end web2pack automation, from online job submission on the Infigo software-powered storefront, through automated pre-press and end-to-end production management using PrintOS Site Flow.

HP PrintOS new applications and enhancements

With over 10000 converters and PSPs and 20000 registered users globally, HP PrintOS is a secure, industry-leading cloud platform enabling converters and PSPs to manage and control their print operations from anywhere at any time. HP is presenting new advancements at Labelexpo:

• PrintOS Enhanced Productivity Mode (EPM) Preflight for Labels and Packaging, replacing manual file analysis and offering an effortless way to check the compatibility of PDF files for printing 33% faster using three colors.
• HP PrintOS Marketplace - a disruptive cloud-based solutions community to enable on-demand subscription to a wide variety of value-add workflow apps and licenses, plus a new community of ideas, services and more, from HP and any third-party vendor for customers to share, sell, upload and download designs, solutions.
• Print Beat Jobs report, enabling customers to optimize printing quotations and focus on job types printed in an inefficient manner, important to the pharma and food industry.
• PrintOS OEE, empowering converters to use the industry-standard Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) methodology to gain insights into HP Indigo press efficiency.

Desktop labeling solutions

HP Specialty Printing Systems (SPS) OEM partners are demonstrating a wide range of desktop labeling applications, from prime and sub-prime through GHS and industrial, enabled by HP Thermal Inkjet Technology. In an in-store customization experience, Afinia Label, the first HP OEM partner to adopt the HP SI-1300 print engine, is demonstrating how desktop label printing offers brands the perfect solution to engage consumers.

Get an edge with revolutionary services

HP Service Edge is launching a new service for HP Indigo digital press customers that enables the prediction of potential press issues or failures before they occur. The HP Predictive Press Care service uses artificial intelligence (AI) and real-time press data algorithms to analyze press status. HP experts send notifications with corrective actions to counter incidents before production is impacted.

Source: HP

The preceding press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with Packaging Impressions. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of Packaging Impressions.