Heidelberg has unveiled the new label press that it’s been working on with Gallus and Fujifilm at a Gallus Innovation Days customer event. The Gallus DCS 340 (Digital Converting System) has been designed for the self-adhesive labels market, which Heidelberg believes is growing by around four percent a year.
Essentially it uses the chassis from an existing Gallus ECS340 machine, giving it a web width of 340mm. It’s a hybrid press with two flexo units and a flexo varnish unit as well as an inkjet module. It uses eight colours – CMYK plus orange, violet, green and white and runs at 50 mpm.
Heidelberg and Gallus jointly developed the digital production system for industrial label printing in less than one year. Heidelberg is to manufacture the inkjet unit at its Wiesloch-Walldorf site, while the flexo and converting units for the new press will be produced at the Gallus plant in St. Gallen, Switzerland. It will use UV inkjet technology from Fujifilm Dimatix with 1200 dpi resolution. Heidelberg is also working with Fujifilm on a sheetfed inkjet press for the commercial print market.
Heidelberg CEO Gerold Linzbach commented: “The only way to rapidly leverage growth potential in digital printing is through partnerships. This helps us get a lot closer to our medium-term sales targets in the digital sector.”
The system is slated to enter series production in the coming year with a cost of £1m to £1.2m.
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