Australia

Australia’s first Mark Andy Performance Series P5 version flexographic press to be installed locally has been claimed by Perth-based print provider, LabelForce. Taking place just before Christmas, the installation marks the first sale for supplier, Aldus Engineering of the P5 model in the Australian market, and the fifth P series press to be sold locally. More than 100 of the P series presses have been sold worldwide since their release just over two years ago. This latest installation of the 430mm wide, eight colour P5 (pictured) compliments the Mark Andy 2200 servo flexo press that was purchased by the

The plan to split the company into three divisions put forward by major German trading and manufacturing group, L. Possehl & Co. mbH, has won the approval of the manroland administrator. manroland’s Offenbach sheetfed printing systems site is to be restructured in the form of a management buyout under the planned three-way split of the company as part of its ongoing insolvency proceedings. The web press manufacturing site at Augsburg, where the IPMG and PMP 96-page presses are being made, will be acquired by L. Possehl &Co. Plauen, the third manufacturing site that was restructured last year as a

Currently there is not a good enough infrastructure in place to get optimum benefit from biodegradable packaging, even if it is widely available. Europe leads regulatory reform, with the US trailing behind. Asia and Australia are making headway, but Asia (and in particular China) suffer from a confused approach. Consumers are driving demand, with major retailers including Coca-cola and Walmart getting on board. However, despite increased demand, the key cost barriers for suppliers are R&D costs, production costs, and economies of scale. PLA dominates bioplastics use, but new materials are being developed from algae and microbacterial sources and advances

The myriad troubles battering the printing industry claimed their biggest scalp on Friday as manroland - the world’s second biggest press manufacturer - was declared insolvent. The German press manufacturing giant sent a shiver through the spine of the industry by filing a petition to initiate insolvency proceedings, after negotiations with a new potential investor, whihc were on the 'home straight' failed. The company has also filed a request for self-administration in order to finalise the on-going

CAMBRIDGE & WIGTON, UK—Nov. 2, 2011—Innovia Films, a leading global manufacturer of speciality films, and PragmatIC Printing, the pioneer in imprinted logic circuits, have announced the successful integration of printed electronic functionality onto Innovia Films’ Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) label substrates. The first prototypes are interactive bottle labels that activate a sequence of flashing lights when the bottle is held. This is only one example, from numerous possibilities, of how active packaging can be used to attract, inform or interact with the consumer. Innovia Films exhibited the prototype electronic labels on its stand at the Packaging Innovations show held

The world’s three biggest offset press manufacturers - Heidelberg, manroland and KBA - have all announced significant moves into digital printing over the past three months, all of which may well pave their way to their entry into high volume inkjet. Reelfed inkjet has the potential to take a large share of work currently printed offset, although whether this comes to pass will depend on the quality that the developers are able to achieve...