Epson America

After extensive research, Luminer Converting Group decided to purchase an Epson Surepress L-4033AW, designed for prime label converters and commercial printers.

Today, nearly everything in consumer packaging is about custom, boutique-type products. To succeed in this market, wide-format printers must have a flexible, problem-solving approach. Vendors must continue to listen and help the package-printing market resolve challenges like the increase in costly short runs, the need for more target marketing, higher costs of operation, press reliability, and color accuracy.

In the world of packaging, labels lead in the adoption of digital with rapid growth in both electrophotography and inkjet. While the main force behind this is the proliferation of SKUs, driven by the brands, there are many other factors that are enabling this growth.

Over the years, Annan & Bird's outsized ambitions have made it something of a bellwether in the industry. Founded in 1987 with a single 44˝ x 60˝ 5-color Harris press and 12 employees, the family-run business by 2007 had acquired a fleet of large-format presses and a lengthy client list.

News on suppliers to the packaging printing industry, including items on Avery Dennison Corp., Creative Labels Inc. and Epson, Lotus Labels and Xeikon, Grafix Equipment and Mark Andy.

Epson America, Inc. today announced that leading converter, Creative Labels Inc., has purchased and installed the Epson SurePress L-4033A. Creative Labels will be using the inkjet digital label press to produce vibrant, high-quality labels for numerous applications, including food and beverage, health and beauty, and technical goods.

InfoTrends recently surveyed converters of labels, folding cartons, and flexible packaging in North America, ultimately to ask a few overarching questions: What do converters want when it comes to print technology? What are their pain points? How can digital printing presses help? Our survey, of course, asked many other questions, but those are the key ones.

As a premium brand, JACLO realized that its packaging needed to reflect the changing retail environment. With the EPSON® ColorWorks™ C3400 label printer, JACLO found a solution that met all of its needs. The printer produces color labels on demand as wide as 4.4 inches and at speeds up to 3.7 inches per second. Chris Pike, COO, at JACLO was sold on the idea of moving to on-demand labeling, and JACLO installed a series of Epson printers into operations, which eliminated the need for pre-printed label stocks. JACLO was also able to connect the printers to its ERP system, which resulted in a totally automated labeling operation.

Esko has formed an OEM partnership with Epson to provide a customized digital front-end (DFE) for use with the Epson SurePress L-4033A and L-4033AW inkjet digital label presses. The new DFE will be standard on Epson SurePress L-4033 series presses sold in Europe and Australia, and will be an option for presses sold in other parts of the world.

Ben Franklin Press & Label, an award-winning Napa, CA-based printer and converter, has selected the Epson SurePress L-4033A inkjet digital label press to produce vibrant, high-quality wine labels for numerous wineries. “We spent over a year investigating the digital press market and our research took us to Labelexpo 2011 in Brussels and then to drupa 2012 in Germany.”