Olivia Cahoon

By Cassandra Balentine

As digital printing technologies continue to advance in terms of speed and quality, label and package printers are beginning to take notice.

Established in 1980 and offering more than 35 years of experience to its label and packaging clients, Century Label provides custom printed pressure-sensitive labels and shrink sleeves to businesses nationwide. The company employs a staff of 225 and occupies a 36,000 square foot manufacturing campus, in addition to 35,000 square feet of warehousing and distribution space at its headquarters in Bowling Green, OH.

According to Heidi Chambers, executive director, Century Label, precision printing and customer care are the company’s specialties. “With state-of-the-art digital and HD flexographic equipment and experienced color management and production teams, we are committed to providing custom printed products to meet each of our customers’ needs,” she offers.

Digital and Flexible
With roots as an analog provider, Century Label has successfully transitioned about 80 percent of its print work to digital.

Adopting the technology early on, the print services provider (PSP) installed its first digital press in 2000. “Century Label was an early adopter of HP Indigo technology, entering the market in 2000 with HP’s Series 1 press,” recalls Chambers. “Our founder, Al Caperna, had a great deal of foresight in that digital was game-changing technology in the print market,” she says.

The print provider initially selected HP Indigo technology based on several factors, including its 1,200 dpi resolution and one-to-one registration capabilities. Today, the shop operates three HP Indigo WS6800 Digital Presses to produce the majority of label and packaging jobs with customization and quality.
The HP Indigo WS6800 is a narrow-web printing solution for high-volume label and packaging production. It produce up to 131 linear feet per minute in color and feature advanced color automation and sophisticated color matching tools to ensure accuracy, consistency, and repeatability. It supports 0.5 to 18 pt. materials, including standard substrates with inline priming.

“Like buying a new computer or phone, technology becomes obsolete quickly. Therefore, we continue to invest in state-of-the-art printing equipment, workflow automation, quality inspection, and finishing improvements,” says Chambers.

Century Label also features a fully operational finishing department. When the PSP decided to expand its shrink sleeve offerings, it invested in a new seamer. It has also purchased additional converting equipment to keep up with capacity.

In addition to its printing and finishing capabilities, Century invested in Esko software back when it installed its first HP Indigo and has added three to four additional workflows each year. They also utilize the HP Mosaic Smartstream application, a unique software solution that enables the creation of unlimited designs of labels and shrink sleeves, making each piece an original.

In terms of substrates, Century Label prints on over 40 different materials, listing semi-gloss, white poly, and PETG as its mainstays.

With a mix of technology and a clientele of brand managers, color management is essential. “Perhaps the biggest challenge we have faced is color matching across platforms,” admits Chambers. “We became recognized experts in this area when we received the G7 qualification earlier this year.”

Customer Satisfaction
The use of digital is not an issue for Century Label’s customers. In fact, Chambers sees a new trend where brands are becoming educated on the quality that color digital printing provides, and have started to request it—sometimes over more economical options for longer print runs. She adds that quality has taken on a greater importance.

The company serves a variety of markets, from nutraceutical to industrial and chemical and health and beauty. However, its primary focus is food and beverage. “With continued popularity in craft beverages, this has become even more of a focal point,” admits Chambers.

The company recently utilized its digital printing capabilities to make a splash for Hella Bitters, a Brooklyn, NY-based company that produces various flavors of bitters and cocktail mixers. The brand was looking to make an impact on the West Coast, and planned to use the Winter Fancy Food show in San Francisco, CA as the venue to launch its new line of cocktail mixers.

However, the client hit a snag when they found themselves with a last-minute label redesign right before the show. In order to make its launch, they needed the new label proofs in hand, in CA, the day before the event. They connected with Century Label, who worked with the team to ensure this tight turnaround was met.

Tobin Ludwig, co-founder, Hella Bitters, says it enjoys a great workflow with its label provider. “We reach out last minute with hard tasks and deadlines, and it’s good knowing Century has the team, infrastructure, and know-how to meet demands,” he offers.

Early Adopters
Century Label is poised for success, armed with the latest digital technologies and field expertise as an earlier adopter of digital label and package printing technology.

Maintaining its reputation for early adoption, the print provider is adding to its lineup of HP Indigo WS6800s after realizing its need for increased digital capacity over the past year. The shop is excited to be a beta site for the new HP Indigo 8000. Announced by HP at drupa 2016, the HP Indigo 80000 Digital Press is a digital narrow web press that provides end-to-end label production with faster speeds—up to 262 feet per minute.

“Beginning this year, Century Label is the first HP customer in North America to install and enhance its production capabilities once again with the new HP Indigo 8000,” states Chambers. She explains that the enhanced speed allows for longer digital runs, increasing its capacity to handle large-scale jobs and enabling it to offer digital solutions in a space that has been traditionally filled by flexographic print.

“We are throwing all preconceived notions out the window and are going to test the boundaries of long-run digital. For example, whereas 5,000 feet may have previously been the crossover point to flexographic, we will create a new sweet spot for digital runs,” she shares.

With a platform similar to the WS6800, the 8000 provides familiarity and speed. Chambers says that because the 8000 features a two-engine system, it is able to nearly double the speed of its existing digital technology. “With this installation, we’re going to break every boundary in terms of crossover point. We’re going to rewrite the whole book.”

Trending Towards Digital
For Century Label, the future is digital, and has been for quite some time. By being proactive with its technology investments, the print provider offers its customers expertise, quality, and speed for digital label and shrink sleeve production. As brand owners become educated on the advantages of digital, Century looks forward to pushing boundaries and building its portfolio of services. dps

Nov2016, DPS Magazine

By DPS Staff

Technology can transform a business. While it is easy for organizations to stick with what they know, there are many benefits to investing in the latest technologies.

Access Direct Systems, Inc. understands the power of digital print technologies, and has made a strategic investment in inkjet in order to reduce costs and improve production capabilities. The company’s goal is to flip its operations from 80 percent offset/20 percent digital to 20 percent offset/80 percent digital.

Founded in 1969, the family owned and operated full-service direct mail marketing company started out as a data lettershop. It continued to grow as the business learned how to manage and utilize data for a range of applications. Today, the company employees a staff of over 500 and produces more than a billion pieces of mail annually. It operates out of three facilities totaling 250,000 square feet on Long Island, NY. Its clientele includes—but is not limited to—Fortune 1,000 companies in financial, publishing, and medical markets.

The management team at Access Direct combines more than 100 years of experience in direct mail marketing, printing, data management, and list management. John DiNozzi, current president/CEO, Access Direct, co-founded the company. DiNozzi offers over 40 years of experience in direct mail marketing with specialized expertise in the development and management of list processing and related direct mail computer applications. He’s joined by John V. DiNozzi, owner and EVP, and Lori Messina, owner/EVP, Access Direct. The two have each worked in the business for more than 30 years.

Eye on Inkjet
While Access Direct is set on its digital track, it didn’t start out there. About ten years ago, the company purchased a facility in Southern NJ to house its six web presses. Offset was, “a necessary evil,” because at that time customers believed that if you couldn’t preprint your own shells than you couldn’t produce the work. “So we entered that market and stayed in it as long as we had to,” admits Messina.

During this time, it operated in a pre-print environment, which included offset printed shells that were personalized with a fleet of 25 toner-based engines from Canon and an inline bindery.

According to Messina, the direct and transactional mail provider understood that something needed to change, but the challenge seemed impossible with the existing equipment on the market. “Because we are a data company, our vision was to move into variable personalization, and then color,” she explains. It knew inkjet was the answer, but they needed to find the right equipment match.

Access Direct wanted a solution to drive down costs, increase speed to market, save on postage, and consolidate units. Inkjet was the answer. To make the transition, they had to change internal and customer views of digital inkjet and take on a leadership position in the industry.

The company began seeing consolidation from its competitors. “My partners and I looked at each other and said that we didn’t want to be sitting ducks. If we wanted to be a leader in this industry, we have to be committed to it.” As part of securing a successful future, we decided to switch the entire company to inkjet. “And that’s what we did,” says Messina.

Meeting Demands
Before transitioning to inkjet, the company struggled to meet customer challenges due to pricing and technology limitations within the industry. “Our customers were demanding innovation,” says Messina, noting that it was industry changes driving these demands. Access Direct felt that it faced an almost impossible scenario where customers were asking for color and digital output, but at the same time procurement groups were demanding more affordable prices, faster production and better quality.

The key to making the impossible, possible, was forging a bridge to inkjet. Access Direct decided to take its relationship with Canon to the next level, and invested in the ColorStream 3900, a continuous feed, color inkjet press. “This press allowed us to continue operations using our existing workflow. That was important,” says Messina. With this new technology, the company could support its customers to a point where it made sense to say, “now we can step into inkjet.”

The ColorStream3900 allowed the company to start strategically selling its digital output. “Our future vison is for our customers to find value in migrating to digital variable color anticipate a complete 80/20 switch,” she adds. Already a Canon customer, Messina says the print manufacturer helped Access Direct “realize the impossible.” However, they did not make the decision to choose Canon production inkjet solutions lightly.

She says that for the better part of five to ten years, cost was the primary consideration as it related to B&W output. Getting into a new technology, and color, required a lot of research. Messina says her partner John V. DiNozzi, “probably investigated every print technology that was out there. The problem is that they didn’t suit our or our customers’ needs.”

Messina explains that every time DiNozzi came back from meeting with prospective manufacturers—print samples and estimates in hand—there was always an issue. Either the technology cost too much, didn’t offer high enough speeds, or had too many limitations. “We really just kept putting an investment in inkjet on the back burner until the end of 2013. It was then we decided to go and take a look at the ColorStream 3900. By the end of that year we installed the first machine and started taking advantage of its benefits.”

It took 12 months to transition to inkjet. In that time, the company installed four ColorStream 3900s. “We displaced 25 toner boxes by putting in those four machines,” comments Messina. “Within six months, we had the second machine on the floor and started to immediately transition work to that device. It made good sense at that point. Momentum was going. We just stayed on the train. We expanded the print room, calling it a print lab, and displaced the other machines. The whole building looks so different. You walk around and it’s incredible how much it’s changed. It’s exciting.”

In addition to the ColorStream 3900s, the print provider also owns one OcéVarioPrint i300 cutsheet inkjet device, and a toner-based Canon imagePRESS C800.

The decision to invest in the Océ VarioPrinti300 was a “no brainer” according to Messina. “Everyone talks about its dependability. It is a workhorse. It doesn’t go down. But the additional benefit for us is that it’s a sister machine to the ColorStream3900, and it’s easy to do reprints and things of that nature on it.”
Today, the company offers 100 percent digital color capabilities, including MICR. Although 80 percent of its work is still pre-printed shells, they anticipate digital to eventually come out on top.

Additionally, the company has since migrated to a near-line bindery, featuring state-of-the-art, high-speed finishing equipment including four high-speed Standard Hunkeler bindery lines. It also operates a Videk quality control camera system, utilizes advanced data and address hygiene procedures, as well as proprietary postal commingle schemes.

Looking Ahead
In the future, Access Direct hopes to acquire more equipment as clients convert to digital. The goal is to operate at 80 percent digital color with expanded color gamut and paper selection.

Since its digital restructure, the company is able to reduce cost and labor, expand offerings, improve speed to market, and offer higher value print products. It has also helped to grow the business, since customers moving to color increase revenue. “The customers are looking to transition and we’re in that process now, looking for our own leads and trying to grow the business,” says Messina.

She says if anyone were to ask her to look back at all the things that have changed Access Direct, she would never have guessed where they would be today with an investment in inkjet. “I thought I knew everything about Access Direct, but there is no way I would have predicted that almost three years later, I’m sitting here with such a different company. And that’s a powerful statement.” dps

Nov2016, DPS Magazine

By Olivia Cahoon

Print service providers (PSPs) often treat digitally printed products with spot or flood coat with either UV or aqueous solutions. It’s important to know the different types of coating because some adversely react to certain substrates. A proper coating can enhance appearance and durability, increasing the digitally printed product’s value.

As digital print grows, new demands affect the process of coating digitally printed output in high-volume production environments. This article focuses on the challenges and considerations of near line and offline coating solutions.

Coating 101
UV coating is popular for digital applications. Vibrant digitally printed applications like posters, book covers, cards, and other paper products with full-coverage images are generally UV coated. This type of coating enhances bright colors and adds value to printed objects while protecting the ink from damage.

While color enhancement makes coating popular, it’s also cost efficient. “UV coating liquid costs about 1.5 cents for a 12×18-inch sheet on both sides,” says Albert Nuno, coating solutions senior advisor, Brandtjen & Kluge.

Like lamination, UV coatings increase product life while enhancing color and vibrancy. Kevin Chen, product manager, Duplo USA, shares that it is popular for direct mail pieces going through the post office system because it protects against smudging.

Before adding coating services, many factors must be considered when looking at equipment. Basic considerations include sheet size, types of coatings, automation, and run lengths. “For some, gloss coating and a handfed machine is enough to handle all of the digital output they want coated, but for others, running the machine inline with another piece of finishing equipment or getting an automated feeder is necessary to keep up with demand,” says Max Allen, dealer manager, Graphic Whizard Inc.

“If you’re looking to just run UV gloss over postcards, then a roller coater may be best. If you’d like to offer high-quality finishes such as high-gloss UV, matte, pearlescent, soft touch, and other coatings with particulates, then a chamber/anilox system would be the right fit,” shares Joshua Bingham, international marketing manager, Harris & Bruno.

Once a PSP has a general idea of what type of a coater is needed, the selection narrows. Some machines offer features where the coating can be changed easily, while others need time to be cleaned. Auto gap features prevent smearing and varnish warm up heaters keep the varnish at an optimal working temperature, points out Chen.

Other considerations include a coater’s lifespan and durability, ease of use, and the ability to apply different types of coating. “The best idea is to pick your preferred coaters, then have each of them run coating over your prints so you can compare,” recommends Bingham.

Considerations and Solutions
In addition to UV, aqueous coatings are available. Aqueous-based coatings typically dry fast and do not require a heating lamp. It’s typically used to protect against smudges, blemishes, and scratches. The coating dries quickly and covers the entire sheet. With a higher gloss, it’s commonly used for direct mail applications. However, aqueous-based coatings may not be suitable for all substrates.

The heavy wax content in some toner-based printers prevents adhesion to the print surface, usually in heavy ink deposit areas. Peter Farmer, international sales director, Kompac Technologies LLC, shares that to provide the correct “keying” to the print, specially developed coatings are available.

For UV coating over digital toners, Nuno says silicone toners are the easiest method and have the widest market for UV coatings. The gloss levels reach from 80 to 90 percent. Wax toners don’t let the silicone-based coatings have a surface retention, so they don’t adhere as well and are a little more difficult to work with, he adds.

Substrate Considerations
Whether a print was produced using electrophotographic or inkjet, as well as the media used in a digital print job plays a large role on which type of coating should be used.

“Inkjet users have to be mindful of aqueous-based coatings, as they can wash out the color intensity. Toner print engines generally require more aggressive formulas to adhere to toner and prevent cracking or peeling,” advises Allen.

It is worth noting that cost-effective, inkjet-optimized coated stocks have limited availability. Slowly, press manufacturers are reformulating their inks to work on standard coated offset papers while more substrate options become available, shares Mike Barisonek, VP of sales and marketing, Epic Products International.

Toner-based output must also be carefully coated. Bingham shares if the wrong type of coating is used, the varnish could rub off and flake because the solution won’t adhere to the toner.

Barisonek adds that substrates used with toner-based inks should be mill coated, otherwise the post printing coating for UV and aqueous dives into the paper fibers. He explains that wax-based toners can also lead to problems for post-printing coating.

When coating inkjet output, also be wary of higher viscosity coatings. Inkjet output paper is generally very porous, which requires higher viscosity coatings to keep the coating from diving into the paper, explains Nuno. Using higher viscosity coatings can cause issues because the thicker coating needs more time to level off and smooth. A UV coater with infrared heating lamps helps speed up the coating flow process.

The substrate used is an essential factor. Farmer shares that non-absorbent stocks obtain the best gloss coating finishes and even some plastics are absorbent.

Synthetic media with low surface tension makes coating difficult, as well as inks and toners found in digital press engines. Bingham explains that corona treating can raise the surface tension of synthetic substrates to aid in adhesion. Glossy and dull-coated paper coat well, but uncoated stock generally dives so that the coating effect is difficult to see.

Allen says universal limitations of substrate types that can pass through a coater, like thin material, can wrap around an applicator roller when it hits the solution. Also, uncoated or overly porous stock will cause the UV solution to dive into the fibers of the page before a UV coating has time to cure.
Ultimately, if the characteristics inside the fuser oil, silicone, or ink changes, the formula has to change and the UV varnish needs to follow the characteristics of the ingredient, says Chen.

No matter what substrates need to be coated, there is generally a solution to achieve the best finished look. “With appropriate infrared intensity and the right coating, I have yet to see a coated stock that can’t have a professional, high-quality finish,” admits Allen.

Hybrid Environments
Environments that include both digital and analog printing equipment have special considerations in terms of finishing. For coating equipment, Chen shares that these environments can be tricky because if the humidity is high and a UV coater is running, the UV varnish will not adhere to the paper as well compared to in a controlled environment.

Quality UV coatings don’t create volatile organic compounds, because they produce 100 percent solids, making them environmentally friendly. Nuno suggests that a good maintenance schedule on a UV dryer is key in hybrid environments so that pollutants aren’t produced.

Allen agrees with the importance of maintenance. “UV systems are economical because they recycle the UV solution ensuring there is no waste. With a larger environment and the introduction of spray powder and more paper dust, operators will need to be a little bit more vigilant about ensuring no foreign particles get into their coating reservoir as it will be recycled and end up back on a job,” he says.

Bingham believes the challenge of a hybrid shop is having jobs that look the same no matter which machine they were printed and coated from. “In this situation, the versatility of a chamber/anilox metering system helps,” he comments.

No matter the challenge, a skilled team can overcome any difficulties. “A good understanding of substrate properties, a solid relationship with a coating supplier, and skilled operators make for successful coating,” suggests Barisonek.

Coating Showcase
A number of coating products targeting high-volume digital production environments are available.

Alliance Technology Corp. (ATC) provides the UV-36HA Cyclone Liquid Coating System. Handling a coating width of up to 36 inches and media up to one-inch thick, the device produces a high-quality finish on a variety of inks, toners, and substrates. It features an adjustable metering system and PLC touchscreen. Its dual doctor blade supports duplex media and an IR pre-heater enables increased coating adhesion to wax-infused toners and inks. The ACT UV-36HA Cyclone is designed to protect and enhance output materials from digital and photo printers as well as offset and lithographic presses.

American Ultraviolet provides its AUV-Coat UV coaters in 20-, 25-, 30-, 36-, and 40-inch models. The devices utilize a three roll roller coating and feature the option of both aqueous and UV coating capabilities.

Brandtjen & Kluge offers the OmniCoat UV roller coater series, available in a wide format series with the ability to coat over 5,000 sheets per hour. It’s capable of one-touch operation. The UV coating protects against humidity, scratching, fading, and scuffing while adding increased detail, vibrancy, and enhancing color. It’s available in matte, gloss, or satin.

Duplo USA carries the Ultra 300Ai, a high-end production UV coater built to connect to the HP Indigo 7000 series of print engines. It is designed for higher volume production and can run offline with a high-capacity stacker and feeder that limits reloading feeder and stacker time. It offers a high-quality gloss, satin, or matte finish while protecting from scratches or scuffs. It features a coating speed of up to 148 feet per minute.

The company previewed the Duplo Digital Spot UV coater at Graph Expo 2016. It is designed to add depth to images and enhance the appeal of printed products.
EMT International offers its Chameleon Coater, available in models UVF20, UVF30, and UVF42 for 20-, 30-, and 42-inch web width applications. The UV coater offers a standard speed of 500 feet per minute.

Epic Products International offers the Epic CT-660 and 750, each targeting high-volume digital production environments. Both products are capable of coating 4,000 sheets per hour and have a quick changeover between UV and aqueous-based coating with a touch pad operator interface. They are fully vented and light shielded for operating and pressroom safety.

Graphic Whizard offers the VividCoater XDC 480/660/750, its largest and most automated UV coaters to accommodate higher run length shops. All coaters have an optional 18-inch deep pile feeder and optional patterned rollers and regular rollers. The regular rollers feature a larger diameter to give troublesome coats a smoother finish.

Harris & Bruno offers the ExcelCoat series of offline/inline UV and aqueous-based coaters. For a high-volume digital production environment, the company suggests the fully automated ZR with a chamber/anilox system that allows printers to prime sheets. It features the Modular Circulation System, which offers separate sets of hoses and pumps, which allow high-throughput shops to have ten minute changeovers between incompatible chemistries. At Drupa 2016, Harris & Bruno featured the Corona Treatment Unit that eases wettability for primers and coatings over difficult adhesive substrates and ink.

Kompac carries coaters with automatic feeders or roll–roll feeds that handle high-volume digital product environments. The Kwik Finish range of coaters can coat over 5,000 sheets per hour and are suitable for flood and spot coating. They also feature the Kwik release blanket bars that make changing jobs a faster process. Additionally, coating change and clean up takes five minutes with the Kompac Vac.

Scodix Ultra Series Digital Enhancement Presses support offset, digital, and laminated print. The heart of these machines is the patent-pending Scodix Ultra Twin-Tray media handling system that conveys the sheets under the fixed array of ink heads in a single pass at a rate of up to 1,250 B2 size sheets per hour.

The company also offers the Scodix S Digital Presses, which produce Scodix SENSE by applying clear polymer to images in variable levels of thickness and texture of up to 250 microns, allowing for easy single or dual-sided printing.

Shark Machinery offers its SUV-18 Smart UV Coater, a low-maintenance, UV curing coating system. It is designed to provide a durable and high-quality finish to printed sheets. The SUV-18 is an 18 inch, hand-fed unit with optional feeding devices available. Its heated UV tank warms you coating to ensure better coating adhesion and a glossier shine. Also available is the company’s 24-inch UV Coater, SUV-24, and SUV-24 PLUS.

TEC Lighting provides a range of UV coaters, including its Tru Mini, which is designed with the short run printer in mind.

Ready to Roll
Coating for digitally printed output can add vibrancy and durability. While the substrate does affect the outcome of the coating, there are methods and coaters that can simplify the process. The coating landscape expands to address demands for attractive finishing for high-volume production environments. dps

Nov2016, DPS Magazine