Fujifilm introduced a brace of new products for the flexo market at this month’s European Label Expo.
This included LuXtreme, a new LED UV curing system that can be retrofitted to any narrow web flexo press to allow it to run UV LED inks. It’s a water-cooled system developed primarily by IST and has up to a 720mm lamp length, scalable in 24mm steps. It can run at speeds of up to 200mpm, with Fujifilm claiming that it offers 30-50 percent higher radiant intensity than competitive LED curing systems, up to 25W/cm².
Manuel Schrutt, head of packaging for Fujifilm EMEA, says that it has a lot of power reserve which was a crucial factor in choosing to partner with IST, adding: “We are running at 50 percent of power and far outperforming other systems that run at 100 percent. The lifetime of the LED is longer so we can guarantee the lifetime straightaway for three years.” He says that the main advantage is the print speed, noting: “Higher performance on press with less curing power which is a cost saving.”
This is matched by a new ink, CuremaX IDFC, which has been designed for indirect food contact packaging, specifically The Swiss Ordinance (SR 817.023. 21). It’s a dual cure UV ink that can be cured with either LED or conventional lamps though its primarily designed for use with LED curing. This ink is suitable for applications from self-adhesive labels and unsupported films to saturated pouches and shrink sleeves. It will work with all typical synthetic and non-synthetic substrates used by label printers including PE, PP, OPP, PET, PVC and aluminium as well as coated and uncoated papers. This ink can also be over printed with thermal transfer ribbons and cold foil adhesives.
Finally, Fujifilm also announced a partnership with the Swiss company Lüscher Technologies that will see Fujifilm resell the Lüscher range of MultiDX! and Xpose! platesetters on a worldwide basis. Schrutt told me: “Luscher is well known as a premium high quality supplier so we wanted to use their quality together with our Flenex plates.”
Fujifilm also showed off the Revoria PC1100 at Label Expo. Schrutt noted: “They are very good for booklet labels and we sold a press for this. And we do see quite some interest for this area.” He added that customers also used the Revoria’s ability to print gold and silver effects online to avoid the need for an additional process.
Schrutt also offered an update on the FP790 flexible film packaging press, which has just completed its installation at a UK test site at the end of August. For now the customer prefers to remain anonymous though he is hoping to announce further details at the start of next year.
You can find further details from fujifilm.com.
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