Business - Knowledge

The latest edition of Avery Dennison’s Select Solutions catalogue reveals market trends as well as developments and solutions across many different market segments.

The changes in communication technology, from mobile phones to social media developments, has had a fundamental impact on how people consumed Information and content from 2011 to 2016, according to Smithers Pira.

Food packaging will grow at a faster rate than the overall packaging market from 2016 to 2021, at 3.0% CAGR in real value and print area.

i-Sub Digital has announced it will be giving away a free Digi-Foil DF system with every Mimaki UJF-3042 MkII and UJF-6042 MkII printer order placed before 22nd December 2016.

The UJF-3042 MkII and the UJF-6042 MkII printers feature print speeds 20% faster than their predecessors, making them the perfect choice for sign and display companies seeking more productive and profitable ways to conduct business. They can print using a range of different inks, supporting a very wide range of applications with varying levels of abrasion resistance and flexibility up to 170%.
With Mimaki’s PR-200 inkjet primer, printing on substrates normally considered beyond the reach of UV-printers is possible, including glass, metal and resins, and Mimaki Clear Control (MCC), a clear varnish ink, can be used to both highlight areas with spot or flood coating and deliver embossing with multiple passes.

The UJF-3042 MkII and UJF-6042 MkII have the ability to print on objects up to 153 mm thick. Advanced functionality provides a print table that moves during printing to reduce vibration, delivers precise dot placement and enables high quality printing on a wide range of objects and materials. Operators can preset Mimaki Expand Color in the printers’ RasterLink digital front end for upgraded colour representation with more vibrant, solid colour and brighter tones.

Mimaki Circulation Technology (MCT) circulates the White inks at regular intervals to ensure consistent solid White printed results. The printers’ fully enclosed print table improves safety while also keeping dust and other contaminants out of the system.

The UJF-3042 MkII and UJF-6042 MkII printers are fully compatible with the i-Sub Digi-Foil DF system, exclusively available from i-Sub. Offering outstanding foiling effects onto virtually any material by skilfully blending traditional craft techniques with state-of-the-art technology, Digi-Foil delivers a vibrant range of digital foils that produce stunning quality finishes on virtually any substrate and offer foil effects identical to traditional foiling but faster and more cost-effectively.

Presentation boxes, packaging (short run and proofing/mock-ups), promotional items, gifts, trophies and leather goods will benefit from the Digi-Foil touch, as will folders, control panels, phone cases and tablets or PCs. Almost every printable substrate can be given that luxurious foil effect quickly and easily.

Digi-Foil's extensive range includes the following effects and finishes:

•    Silver
•    Gold
•    Coloured metallics
•    Woodgrains
•    Holographic
•    Watermarks
•    Security marking
•    Opaque
•    Patterned, and many, many more

With the ability to produce various finishes such as stippled, gloss or matt and the option to over-varnish on the Digi-Foil areas − or the whole printed area − the potential applications are endless and open up a whole new range of profitable and productive business opportunities.

Delivering superior productivity, quality and flexibility the UJF-3042 MkII and the UJF-6042 MkII are the latest generation of UV flatbed printers from Mimaki. Priced from just £20,995, purchasers enjoy added value when they buy from i-Sub, including flexible finance options and trade-in offers on previous UJF models. Plus the incredible Digi-Foil DF system is completely free on orders for the UJF-3042 MkII and UJF-6042 MkII printers placed before 22 December 2016.

Visit http://i-subdigital.com/mimaki-ujf-6042.html or call +44 (0)1536 415511 for more information.

At a time when recycling is making headlines, Quality Print Services (QPS) is celebrating five years since the launch of its cartridge recycling scheme.

QPS introduced the free programme for its customers in 2011 – long before the 5p carrier bag charge was introduced and campaigns began to call for coffee shop chains to recycle their cups.

The end-to-end cartridge recycling programme was developed in partnership with ink brand Nazdar to minimise the signage and graphics industry's generation of landfill waste and its environmental effects. QPS began collecting empties when delivering new ones or while visiting customers as part of its renowned printer service support.

To further reduce road miles, the recycling process is kept local to QPS's HQ in Burscough, Lancashire. Any remaining ink goes to a nearby solvent recovery centre while separated cartridge components are sent to a reprocessing plant in the north of the county, where they are ground down and reprocessed into clean chips for resale to UK plastics manufacturers.

In the past twelve months alone, QPS has collected around 3.5 tonnes of plastic cartridges and saved them from going to landfill.

As well as reducing their environmental impact, this means QPS's customers don't have to worry about disposing hazardous materials or finding space to store their empty cartridges as they build up.

"Five years after launching our ink cartridge recycling programme we remain one of the only suppliers to offer this service to our customers," says Chris Bailey, Director, QPS.

"More and more print buyers are demanding environmental action from their print providers and we can offer help in this area free of charge. What's more, our customers who sign up for the recycling programme will receive certification of their involvement, which can help support an application for ISO 14001."

He adds: "Our industry creates a vast amount of waste, far too much of which ends up in landfill. It's up to all of us to help reduce that, but we make it as easy as possible for our customers."

QPS also champions British business – the majority of the Nazdar wide-format ink it sells is made in the UK – so is proud to contribute to the British circular economy by providing recycled plastic chips for re-manufacturing into new products.

All QPS customers who take regular deliveries of Nazdar ink cartridges are eligible for the programme. For more information about the campaign or QPS's large-format print products and services, please email sales@qualityprintservices.com or call + 44(0)1704 897575.

For more information on Nazdar and its comprehensive range of ink solutions, please visit www.nazdar.com.

[Picture caption: Used Nazdar ink cartridges are turned into plastic chips for remanufacturing]

Xaar plc has announced that its innovative Xaar 2001 printhead has won the ‘Product of the Year Award’ at the 20th NMI Awards held at the Hilton Hotel, Bankside (17th November, London, UK).

The NMI Awards is a prestigious annual programme delivered by NMI, a UK industry association for electronic systems, microelectronics and semiconductors; its mission is to increase the quality and quantity of electronic engineering and manufacturing in the UK and Ireland. This year’s awards received a record number of entries making competition stronger than ever.

The Xaar 2001 printhead delivers a powerful combination of market-leading image quality, highest productivity and industrial reliability for ceramic tile decoration. Tile manufacturers can print a wider range of tile patterns and designs whilst increasing production uptime. Ultimate image quality is achieved by jetting one colour at a resolution of up to 720 dpi with 2000 nozzles per printhead; this delivers the high ink laydown needed for bold colours and special effects. Line speeds of up to 50 m/min ensure highest productivity and maximum throughput. The Xaar 2001 incorporates multiple technologies unique to Xaar which deliver unrivalled industrial reliability.

“This award is a well-deserved credit to all those who were involved in developing the Xaar 2001” said Ted Wiggans, Xaar’s Chief Operations Officer. “We took an innovative approach to the design and development of this new printhead which allowed us to bring it to a very successful market launch in a record time earlier this year. There is no doubt that it will have a significant impact on the ceramic tile decoration market globally.”
 
[Photo caption: The Xaar team picking up the award for "Product of the Year" at the NMI Awards.]