Nilpeter Places an Eye on the Future at Open House

More than 140 attendees flocked to the newly renovated Nilpeter Technology Center on Thursday, Nov. 12 in Cincinnati to receive an up close look at the company’s latest technology. In addition to Nilpeter’s latest flexo technology, visitors witnessed the North American debut of the PANORAMA digital line and learned more about a new partnership between Nilpeter and Clemson University.

The open house event was dubbed “Bases Loaded,” representing the three bases of flexo technology being offered by Nilpeter. Throughout the event, Nilpeter’s FB-3300, FB-3 and FA-4* were on display, producing a variety of labels with differing finishing elements.

In addition to the flexo demonstrations, the event featured a keynote speech by Dr. Charles “Chip” Tonkin, the director of the Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics at Clemson University. Paul Teachout, Nilpeter’s vice president of sales and marketing, said Tonkin discussed how Clemson is working hard to produce the next generation of packaging professionals.

“He did about an hour and a half keynote speech on the next generation of packaging, packaging design, what packaging is going to look like in the future and how Clemson University is doing the consumer research into printed electronics, augmented reality and all the different trends that are coming that we need to be prepared for in the packaging industry,” Teachout said.

In addition to hosting Tonkin for the keynote speech, Teachout said event attendees learned about the partnership that has developed between Nilpeter and Clemson. Specifically, Nilpeter announced that it will be providing a fully outfitted FB-3 press to Clemson’s graphic communications program to help educate and engage students in the packaging industry.

Teachout explained that approximately 75 percent of the workforce in the industry is 45 years old or older, and to attract young minds to this business, it is imperative to introduce them to the latest technology available.

“In order for us to capture that next generation, we need to provide Clean Hand Technology solutions, presses that run with Clean Inking systems and run with tablet controls,” he said. “If you can run a smart phone or a tablet, you can navigate through the operation of these presses with the wireless controls, the clean inking solutions, the job recall and job setup functions of the machine.”

The other element of the “Bases Loaded” event was to introduce Nilpeter’s new PANORAMA product line. This new digital solution debuted at Labelexpo 2015 in Brussels and features Nilpeter’s DP-3 digital press and an inline converting system, complete with a flexo station for primers, coaters and more, a quick-change die station, a zero-waste matrix rewinder, a slitting unit and a dual rewind deliver.

Visitors learned about Nilpeter's flexo presses, new digital offering and its relationship with Clemson University.

Teachout said that PANORAMA is serving as a reintroduction to the digital market for Nilpeter, which became the first narrow web press manufacturer to enter the digital field in 2007. With this new solution, Teachout explains that Nilpeter’s goal is to bring more reliability to digital printing.

“Our mission is to reengage at another level in the digital market arena,” he said. “We want to go in with the most reliable system in the marketplace because that’s the biggest challenge out there now — the reliability and the amount of uptime.”

While the “Bases Loaded” event served as a platform to introduce key stakeholders to Nilpeter’s latest technological developments in conventional and digital printing, Teachout said the company is still looking ahead. Though he did not provide specifics, Teachout said that Nilpeter has big plans for Labelexpo 2016 in Chicago.

“Stay tuned for Nilpeter at Labelexpo 2016 because we’re going to shake things up,” he said.