Digital Pay Off

Published: July 01, 2009, By Edited by Yolanda Simonsis

Tapecon describes itself as a leader in providing superior quality custom decals, labels, and printed electronics. To ensure a comfortable lead in the markets it serves, the 90-year-old company recently made an investment in a Xeikon 3300 digital color label press. State-of-the-art technology keeps it forever young and innovative when it comes to providing custom solutions for its customers that serve a wide array of vertical markets, such as food and beverage, health and beauty, medical/medical devices and military, to name a few.

According to Jay Ziegler, director of marketing and strategy at Tapecon, “We take pride in our man and machine competencies and deliver high-impact decal, overlay, and label solutions that enhance, identify, and protect our customers' products. With our digital printing expertise, we are able to offer high-quality, short-to-medium runs with quicker turnarounds, and cost savings to our customers. The Xeikon 3300 will further enable us to provide these value-added solutions. It is truly an industry leading digital color press in terms of its imaging quality, reliability, productivity, and eco-friendliness.”

One-Hit White

The Xeikon 3300 is said to offer true 1,200 dpi resolution at four bits per spot. With a top speed of 63 fpm and a monthly duty cycle of 2.3 million ft, it's considered an extremely fast and reliable digital five-color label press, particularly suited for short-to-medium print runs and just-in-time jobs.

Four stations are suited for standard process colors; the fifth color station can be used for spot colors (for gamut expansion and producing brand colors), one-hit opaque white, and special security toner. “In our experience, the Xeikon 3300 is the only digital color label press with one-hit opaque white capability,” adds Ziegler.

“One of the major advantages of the Xeikon 3300 is its format flexibility. Unlike other digital label presses, it has no frame size restrictions,” continues Ziegler. The Xeikon 3300 can handle scalable substrate widths up to 13 in. and is claimed to have virtually no restriction on the length of the printed label. It is capable of handling an unmatched range of substrates from various self-adhesive films, including coextruded film, to unsupported film, paper, transparent and opaque foils, and paperboard with weights ranging from 1.6 mil to 16-pt board stock. The dry toner electrophotography imaging process enables the use of conventional substrates without coating or pre-treatment.

The press also features full rotary printing technology, enabling printing at rated engine speeds, for maximum productivity. The positioning of the labels can be adjusted to meet finishing equipment requirements, and labels with variable formats and sizes can be printed in the same run, leading to increased productivity and reduced waste and costs.

In addition, the press comes with the latest generation of Xeikon's unique X-800 digital front-end. Based on open standards, the X-800 enables the implementation of fully automated workflows in any production environment, integrating with any MIS, says the manufacturer. The X-800 is said to process all common input files and significantly lowers the threshold for including metadata, such as sequential numbers or bar codes.

“The Xeikon 3300 has enabled us to continue our tradition of investing in cutting-edge technology and diverse capabilities,” concludes Ziegler, with the ability to enhance its competitive advantage.