Nilpeter Says Buyers’ Demand for Quality Boosts Interest in Offset

Responding to a greater interest in rotary UV-offset, especially among high-end converters in the EU-countries, Nilpeter plans to boost spending on its UV-rotary offset press sales budget by 50 percent in the current trading year.

“Most interest has come from European converters, but that’s not surprising since their customers expect them to meet demanding quality standards, especially at the high end of the consumer market,” says Jakob Landberg, Nilpeter’s sales and marketing director. “Quality tends to be less of a market determinator in the USA, which depends largely on water-based flexo printing. However, several of the large label converters with global accounts are showing increased interest in UV-rotary offset. Most of this growth is influenced by the demands of the corporate buyers. As key influencers, they tend to be familiar with the process and its ability to deliver consistent print quality and colour reproduction. This is vital to support a brand’s image and give shelf-appeal to products in the healthcare, toiletries, cosmetics and some pharmaceutical sectors. Other important growth sectors include wine and spirits labelling.”

Nilpeter pioneered the concept of offset as a combination press process as long ago as 1994. The original 330 mm wide MO-3300 press is now a third-generation press, sold as the MO-Line. There are now more than 175 individual MO-presses installed throughout the world. Major users include the large, integrated labelling and packaging groups, as typified by CCL, Skanem and WS Packaging who are all MO-users. The platform format allows MO-users to augment the primary offset units with secondary UV-flexo and even gravure modules, while interchangeable rotary screen and hot/cold foil modules add to the range of decorative effects. The latest MO-S model offers optional servo-drive technology, which increases the machine’s overall performance and versatility for various types of labels and flexible packaging.

The MO’s design and control systems allow for quick set-ups facilities and fast make-readies, aided by interchangeable print modules. The development of a computerised controller for MO-presses to achieve efficient ink/water balances for varying run lengths has halved set-ups times to 15 minutes for individual units, while reducing set-up wastage. This has helped facilitate the printing of smaller run lengths while retaining offset quality. “End-users are reluctant to order large quantities of labels for fast-moving consumer goods and risk expensive waste. MO operators can maintain consistent levels of quality whatever the size of the run, anywhere in the world,” says Landberg.

Top-end highly automated UV-offset and UV-flexo presses share similar design attributes, but not when transferring inks to paper or filmic substrates. Flexo’s direct printing principal makes it ideal for applying uniform coatings and printing consistent solid areas. With UV-flexo, the specially-formulated inks can be applied in varying thicknesses, allowing the printing of clearly-defined bar codes and opaque white backgrounds when producing clear-on-clear filmic labels. By contrast, all offset presses require more complex inking trains to transfer less fluid and more paste-like inks to the offset blanket as part of the general ink/dampening process. However, the combination of UV-curable offset inks and a suitable printing plate allows pin-sharp halftone effects with minimal dot gain that retains highlight detail and prints fine fleshtones and vignettes. This level of quality is much harder to achieve with flexo. Even experienced press operators will still only achieve near-offset results, despite recent advances in UV-inks and flexo platemaking.

Another truism is that rotary UV-offset presses are more expensive to install compared to simpler flexo presses, which have fewer moving parts. Also, those new to offset may have to install new repro and platemaking equipment, although trade platemaking houses are widely distributed in most developed countries. However, Landberg argues that offset can introduce tangible benefits in terms of cost and productivity. “Compared with UV-flexo, it is a far more stable and productive process,” he says. “It is backed by proven, industry-wide quality standards that help operators to quickly achieve accurate colour measurements and precise control over ink settings during set-ups and the print run. Also, in the longer term a firm’s overall platemaking costs are considerablly lower. Digitally or conventionally-imaged metal offset plates are five to ten times cheaper to make compared with polymer flexo plates.”

As far as Nilpeter is concerned, prospective offset users must realistically weigh up the respective strengths and weaknesses of the two processes. And for those that must meet today’s stringent quality standards, the case for adopting combination press technology, as typified by the MO-Line, appears to be getting stronger as globalization of trade takes firmer hold.