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U.K. Printer Begins Production on High-Speed Digital Press for Corrugated Packaging
Watford, UK
- December 08, 2005 -- Sun Chemical Digital™, a recently created division of Sun Chemical, has announced installation of the first digital high-speed printer for corrugated packaging at Jardin Corrugated Cases in Ely, U.K. The press, which is called FastJet™, is the fastest digital press available. It can produce up to 6000m² board printed in four colors with a spot varnish at a resolution of 300dpi. The targeted market is transport boxes with display function. 
FastJet has been developed together with Inca Digital, Printers. It is a single-pass printer with 480 print heads fixed in stationary arrays which are 1040mm wide. The board makes a single pass under the print head array and emerges fully printed. FastJet offers all the advantages of digital printing, such as personalized images, mass customization, lower costs on short runs and virtually no variation in printing. The inks are UV ink jet inks made by Sun Chemical's SunJet™. These inks were developed specifically for this application to avoid nozzle drops and to achieve full cure at very high speed.
The press installed at Jardin Corrugated Cases is a prototype for testing the reliability of the technology in an industrial environment. However, Kevin Hennessy, managing director of Jardin, plans to immediately use the press for regular production. He says the first orders already are being processed, and one job was produced before the printer was shipped from Inca. "Many of the prints we have seen are of superb quality and we have already produced images that can even be used as displays," he explained.
Digital single pass printing in 1040mm width at a 100m linear speed is a technological revolution. But Heather Kendle, marketing director at Inca, says it has always been the company's business objective to produce single-pass printers. Consequently, many of the components and designs integrated in FastJet have already been tested in other Inca  products. "The testing over three months at Inca has been so successful that we have begun building a second machine," she said.
Sun Chemical plans the first installation of commercial digital presses at the end of 2006 in Europe and North America. They will cost about €2.5 million, which is comparable to the price of a multicolor flexographic press.
Stefan Slembrouck, director digital packaging solutions, explains: "Sun Chemical will offer each potential customer a calculation scheme to help compare the cost of digital versus flexo or offset printing." The calculated cross-over points are at 1,500m² to 2,500m², depending on how often flexo plates are normally used. "This will make it a very interesting economic alternative for many print jobs since the average print run in the corrugated industry has dropped below 3,000m²," he added.
Since there are no costs preparing films and plates, any interested customer can place orders at Jardin and introduce samples or sell digitally printed boxes to promote the advantages of digital printing before deciding to buy a FastJet printer. It also can be used to easily make design changes in packaging prototypes.
"With FastJet, we have produced the first industrial digital printer for packaging, and market responses are very encouraging," Slembrouck said.
About Sun Chemical
Sun Chemical, the world's largest producer of printing inks and pigments, is a leading provider of materials to packaging, publication, coatings, plastics, cosmetics, and other industrial markets. With annual sales approaching $4 billion, Sun Chemical has over 12,000 employees supporting customers around the world. The Sun Chemical Group of companies includes such well-known names as Coates Lorilleux, Hartmann, Kohl & Madden and US Ink.
Sun Chemical Corporation in the U.S. and Sun Chemical Limited in England are subsidiaries of Sun Chemical Group B.V., the Netherlands. Sun Chemical has headquarters in Parsippany, New Jersey, U.S.A.; Watford, England; and Weesp, the Netherlands. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.sunchemical.com.
About Inca Digital Printers
Inca Digital Printers was formed during drupa 2000 and is one of the world's leading pioneers and manufacturers of inkjet printing technology. The company, which was recently bought by Dainippon Screen, has expanded significantly since its formation and today employs more than 140 people, at their base in Cambridge, England, with a third of employees working in R&D. In April 2005, the company won two Queen's Awards for Enterprise acknowledging achievements in Innovation and International Trade.
Inca's Eagle and Columbia printers set the early standards in flatbed inkjet technology. In addition to flatbed technology, Inca is developing single pass printing technology. The first application being developed is designed for the corrugated packaging sector in partnership with Sun Chemical. For more information, please visit www.incadigital.com.
Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd (Kyoto, Japan) is listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Osaka Securities Exchange with the securities code number: 7735. The company is one of the world's largest manufacturers and suppliers of system components for the prepress and printing industries. Inca Digital Printers is now a member of the Dainippon Screen Group of Companies. Inca will be part of a new division within Screen. For further information please visit www.screen.co.jp.
About Jardin
Jardin Corrugated Cases is a highly successful, independent single site corrugator plant in Cambridgeshire. Jardin prides itself in offering outstanding customer service as a one-stop-shop for all corrugated products. An extremely innovative company, Jardin is capable of manufacturing a range of products beyond many of its competitors' capabilities. The biggest single market area for Jardin is horticulture, especially the cut flower market. This will be a key market for Digital Printing, two orders having already been produced for this market prior to final commissioning of the machine. For more information please visit www.avroind.com.
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