Loading
ar ch de en es fr hi
it ja nl pl pt ru th
tr

In the first week of December 2022, BOBST opened its doors to its demo/experience center in Alpharetta for customers and prospects to see the new DM340 label press. We were invited to cover the event that, here on the second day, already has some great takeaways. In this article, I will describe the DM340 and what it is - and in that context, a full disclaimer. I am not a specialist in flexo/label/hybrid/, so this is more of an overview of what I see and hear from the people I have interviewed in the past few days. Another disclaimer, I have not been asked or paid by BOBST to write this article, so it is my opinion 100%.

By Editor Morten B. Reitoft

I have visited many label converters over the past years, and the more I learn about the label/flexible market, the more interesting I find it. I remember I once told a good friend that I was not interested in labels, as the product had such a short life span. He laughed and said most commercial work has an even shorter life span - and I had to give him credit. Labels and flexible, and the technology involved is impressive, and when I see labels today, I am as excited as I am with the most beautiful books, covers, etc., that I see from the Commercial space.

So what I learned from visiting companies like MPS, Nilpeter, HP, Canon, and more is that the label/flexible market is so vast that converters often use different technologies to achieve what the customers need. Customers need labels for many applications; some need to be used on glass or plastics, some indoors, some outdoors, some must function in cold conditions, some in heat, some with high humidity, and so forth. So you can imagine that the applications require a lot of knowledge to serve customers right, but also highly flexible machines.

These machines are entirely different from offset machines in the commercial space, as the typical flexo-printing machine can utilize several technologies in one machine. All the machines I know of are web-based, so the typical setup starts with an unwinder. An all-flexo-press will have several flexo-printing units that use sleeves instead of plates. The quality of these sleeves - and the printing quality - has increased significantly over the past twenty years. To accommodate the colors needed by a brand, separations are typically not in CMYK but to the lowest number of colors capable of reproducing the colors required. So when you see a flexo press, some jobs use three colors, some a lot. Some flexo-machines can have offset as an integrated part of the press - and very often, you will see different types of foils, varnishes, etc., installed on the press. And sometimes on a rail, so the specific unit can be inserted in the production sequence where needed.

Some companies offer an entirely different approach to the label market - one is, for example, CodiMag from France, who have developed offset label machines and claim these to have the flexibility of flexo, the quality of offset, and the ease of use as digital. We will soon try to describe what CodiMag offers!

And then there is digital. HP is by far the leader in digital toner-based labels. Still, the need for personalization, short runs, and even higher flexibility is now opening up for inkjet. Suppliers such as DURST, Domino, and BOST deliver digital machines. But, as many labels today use foil, different varnishes, and several other technologies, digital modules can be added to the flexo line, turning these machines into Hybrid solutions.

This leads us to the new BOBST DM340.

In a presentation by Business Unit Director for North America Matt Bennett, he presents the sweet spot for the DM340. Toner-based and other digital-only label printers are for short runs, small volume, and moving up in the market, complexity, volume, and speed, the dedicated FLEXO machines take over - and well, just in between those two markets, the DM340 fits like a hand in a glove :-) All according to BOBST. Judging from the attendees, the DM340 seems to fit in perfectly as a machine that can be configured to your demand and expanded as your needs grow.

Built on a solid metal frame, the machine can be configured from an all-digital to a hybrid machine with all the blinks and whistles you can imagine. The configuration being demoed at the Open House consists of an unwinder, with some tension control, the almost mandatory corona-treater from Vetaphone, followed by the first flexo-unit. The first flexo-unit is used to print white but can, of course, be used for whatever is needed - typically white or pre-treatment. The solution has a splicer control sensor to ensure the substrate is ready for production. After the first flexo-print unit, you now see the Mouvent Digital Print unit. The seven-color digital printing unit is the same (new version, though) as the Mouvent LB702 series. You can also choose to use digital white in your setup - which comes in handy when you have variable data on a transparent substrate - or if you don't have any flexo-units in your configuration :-)

After the digital print module, this solution has yet another flexo-unit, which is used for a clear spot-varnish in the demos here.

As mentioned, you can configure the machine to your needs, so you would typically choose to have more flexo-units here. However, in the demo setup, BOBST configured a rotary die-cutter. Innovative and integrated with the entire workflow. The rotary die-cutter has a semi-automatic guidance and setup system with an automated plate feeder - and when the demo is running, I can see on the guests that this is smart, fast, and effective - I will revert on that later!

After the rotary die-cutter, the setup has an Accucheck module that checks the job against several parameters. Dean Heartel from BOBST explains how the Accucheck, which is currently also used on folding carton equipment from BOBST, will gain more features as they are currently under development.

Finally, the labels pass through the quick-cutter and snowball before being rewound and ready for further processing.

So for who is this machine?
BOBST has built a machine, and they have set the bar high. The sweet spot Matt Bennett defined in his presentation is for sure a good place for the DM340, but I believe that the DM340 appeal to an even broader customer base. When I spoke to even startups and smaller companies, the interest was not in the digital-only Mouvent solution but in going directly to the highly flexible DM340. What I heard from the attendees at the Open House event was that the fast setup time and how it can be configured and expanded further later on are excellent add-ons, and in times when markets continue to grow, it's about having the right equipment. Another KPI that surprised me a bit was the one-supplier approach. As most Flexo machines can be configured with modules from different suppliers, some converters experience a battle about who to call when issues occur. Last but not least, the service organization is constantly being touted as extremely important, and again BOBST scores high.

It will, of course, be interesting to see how the market will judge the DM340 when it's being delivered; however, the speed of 100 m/m is very attractive, and though the new HP V12 is a serious contender, it's also a machine that probably targets a slightly different market. For companies who look into the mixture of a conventional press, with all the advantages of digital, the DM340 seems like an excellent machine to consider!

Proofed (Human)

Click here to Generate Audio

Author: Morten B. Reitoft
Add/View comments for this article →


Comments
user

Cookies collect information from your web browser to provide a better online experience. In inkish.news we use cookies. If you continue browsing we understand that you accept our cookies.