Koenig & Bauer Accelerates Role In Offset Printing Label Market

Published: August 15, 2018

DALLAS, TX | In its bid to become the go-to press manufacturer for label production, Koenig & Bauer is strengthening its position and focus to target the globally increasing demand for all types of offset printed labels, including wet glue, cut and stack, and in-mold. Label printers choose Koenig & Bauer due to the company’s history of solid and custom-built press manufacturing excellence, advanced sophisticated automated technology and a stellar reputation for fast service and quick responsiveness.

It is the desire to not only respond to a label maker’s current print operation but its future needs that has prompted Koenig & Bauer’s research and development teams to produce critical press features for this growing market. Label printers require specific features that help productivity, oversee quality and color control, and promote efficiency and less waste.

As the number of consumer goods continues to grow on store shelves, labels are a premium selling point. Label designers are adding more dramatic color and images as well as high-end foil and PMS colors to draw a consumer’s eye to the product. At its recent open house, Koenig & Bauer demonstrated a variety of special effects using a double coater press with cold foil application. With more colors on a label, printers need to have quality and color control systems to reduce variability.

The Rapida 106 is equipped with a sophisticated camera system that enables the operator to stay abreast of its label production. The Koenig & Bauer QualiTronic on-press measuring and control system uses inline measurements to evaluate every single sheet of labels and to quickly detect possible defects. This is especially important for label printers in the pharmaceutical industry that need to carefully compare drug ingredients printed on the label against a PDF. Koenig & Bauer also offers additional systems to help the operator monitor label print quality such as ErgoTronic ColorControl for the measurement of ink densities and L*a*b* values, and a variety of register systems both inline and online.

Not only is quality and color control necessary but productivity and efficiency. Koenig & Bauer has developed systems for label printers to alleviate these areas as well. Due to the greater amount of colors being used on label printing, printers require roller wash-up systems to quickly wash those colors up and move on to the next job. Koenig & Bauer offers its DriveTronic SRW (Simultaneous Roller Wash) to provide increased productivity as well as high color quality and consistency for label production. Having the ability to wash the rollers up while the job is running is a key contributor to reducing makeready times. It also allows label printers to wash the rollers thoroughly for correct color matches upon starting up.

Koenig & Bauer has also fashioned substrate specific packages depending on the types of labels being produced. For example, it offers a lightweight paper package for those producing cut and stack labels and an in-mould label package.

As the leader in the LED-UV drying market, Koenig & Bauer is pleased to see how its label print customers utilize this drying system to benefit their workflow. The development of LED-UV has been a boon to the label industry. Label printers usually use thin substrates to produce their product, which is prone to be distorted when subjected to heat in the drying process. With LED-UV, there is no heat. This allows label printers to have better control over the production process, improved registration, and higher quality.

Roll to sheet feeders are an important component for any fast-paced label printing environment. This equipment provides much better speed and efficiency for a label printer, allows the printer to buy the roll directly from the mill at a much lower price, and finds that a roll runs much more consistently and smoothly during print production.

Another important product that Koenig & Bauer offers to label printers is its rotary die-cutter Rapida RDC 106.” The Rapida RDC 106 features die-cutting and hole punching for in-mould and other label applications via embossing, creasing, cutting, and stripping. The machine offers cutting outputs of up to 15,000 sheets per hour and productivity is increased by up to 300% for label applications. Koenig & Bauer has held demonstrations of its Rapida RDC 106 running self-adhesive label production at the world record speed of 17,000 sheets per hour.

KBA North America is located in Dallas, Texas and a member of the Koenig & Bauer Group, which was established 200 years ago in Würzburg, Germany.

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