Finishing - Digital Enhancement

A growing opportunity for print service providers is digital printing enhancement: print work that is embellished or enhanced with special effects produced on digital presses or finishing equipment.

Highcon will be showcasing its latest innovations in digital finishing for the folding carton and corrugated segments at drupa 2020. Both the Euclid and Beam product platforms have been enhanced, and the Euclid 5 and Beam 2 will be highlighted throughout the event.

After first investing in digital printing with a Komori Impremia IS29 digital press, Color Ink, a producer of point-of-sales displays and premium packaging, has added a Highcon Euclid III digital diecutting system.

Industry veteran Michael Ciaramella has joined Highcon as the company's VP sales and GM Americas. Prior to joining Highcon, Ciaramella held positions at Microsoft, HP, Scitex, Kodak, and Agfa.

At the 2019 Digital Packaging Summit, MGI and Konica Minolta highlighted the companies' portfolio of digital printing and embellishment equipment. This included MGI's JETvarnish 3D platform and Konica Minolta's Accurio print solutions.

The MGI JETvarnish 3D One represents a major new advancement in bringing digital special effects to the mainstream of the commercial printing, finishing, and packaging industries. The JETvarnish 3D One will be making its international debut this week at PRINTING United, which will be held Oct. 23-25 in Dallas.

For the past year, Phase 1 Prototypes, a Dallas-based packaging laboratory for brands to create and develop new product designs, has been implementing embellishments with its MGI JETvarnish 3D digital print enrichment press. Recently, Phase 1's work was on display at a “Project Peacock Print Fair” event held in Dallas.

Scodix has revealed its two newest digital enhancement presses, the Scodix Ultra 101 and the Scodix Ultra 202. The Scodix Ultra 101 is a stepping stone into digital enhancement and is compatible with offset and HP Indigo presses. The Scodix Ultra 202 meanwhile, is fully-functioned, with a wide array of enhancement capabilities.

TPC Printing & Packaging was recognized for outstanding design and production for five different projects, collecting a total of nine different awards at the 75th North American Paperboard Packaging Competition.

Virtual Packaging, a Grapevine, Texas-based producer of packaging prototypes, mockups and comps, is scheduled to install a Highcon Beam digital cutter and creaser this spring. It will be the first Highcon Beam installed in an all-digital B1 packaging ecosystem in North America and will help move Virtual Packaging into production-length runs of folding cartons.