Highcon has announced a new range of consumables for its digital cutting and creasing machines as a result of market research into the way customers were using its machines.
Not surprisingly, Highcon discovered that the majority of customers produce short to medium run lengths where setup time is critical to productivity. The system works by writing rules to foils that are then used to apply creases and cuts without needing to make an analogue die. Highcon also found that many customers wanted to re-use the DART creasing foils for repeat jobs, which really should have been fairly obvious from the outset. Nonetheless, Highcon has now developed two new ranges of its DART consumables – Premium and Economy.
The Premium range includes foils that can be used up to five times, if stored properly, in theory to produce up to 50,000 sheets. The storage conditions mean in temperatures of 18°C to 27°C and humidity of 40% – 60% with no folding, rolling or shaking of the written DART Foil. The rules can be written in under ten minutes for the first job and in less than five minutes for subsequent jobs. The reusability is due to changes in both the foil and the resin used to write the rules. They will work with paper or folding carton up to 600µ, while the Euclid IIIC can take corrugated boards up to 3mm thick.
Highcon claims that this should lead to savings of up to 80 percent on consumables but this is impossible to verify as Highcon refuses to discuss prices other than saying that the Premium range will come at a higher price than the current consumables. Nonetheless, any savings will depend on how many times you re-use the foils, which can only be reused with exactly the same job and substrate.
The Economy range is only for one-time use and for short runs up to 5,000 sheets on substrates up to 450µ. This is said to be a new range priced a little less than the current series. Customers can switch between Premium and Economy consumables depending on the job but cannot mix, for example, DART Premium resin with a DART Economy foil.
Yariv Ben-Yosef, Highcon’s vice president of Customer Success, commented: “Since I joined Highcon a year ago my team has been working closely with all our customers to improve productivity and ensure that they get the best out of their machines. These new consumables packages are a great demonstration of how our collaboration with our customers leads to new products, tailored to their success”
These new consumables will be available in the UK and Europe from December for the Euclid III and IIIS and in 2019 for the Euclid IIIC, possibly in the first quarter, and for the Beam machines in the first half.
Further details from Highcon here.
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