HP Indigo 20000 press

Innovative Label Solutions is a privately owned converting business based in Hamilton, near Cincinnati. It has used flexo since starting up in 1996 and has a reputation for being one of the most innovative digital users since first adopting HP Indigo technology in 2005. By Sean Smyth.

Today digital accounts for 60% of the turnover, and the company mission statement to be the North American market leader and partner of choice for digital labels and packaging is positioned prominently through the plant. This proportion will grow further after it installed one of the first wide web HP Indigo 20000 presses for flexible packaging in summer 2014.

ILS already operates four HP Indigo WS6000 presses, used for the US ‘Share a Coke with …’ campaign which it co-ordinated. Three are reel-to-reel, the other configured inline into a Delta Industrial Mod-Tech finishing unit featuring coating, lamination, die-cutting, slitting and rewinding. Other near-line finishing equipment includes two ABG Omega Digicon units and a Digilam laminator.

The 20000 press is the largest Indigo webfed machine, and has a maximum web width of 762 mm with print width of 737 mm.

There is an unwind into the flexo priming station ‒ HP recommends all substrates are primed – into the seven colour print unit. ILS has two white stations, the four process colours and space for a spot colour that could include metallic silver.

Using two white units highlights the importance of white in flexibles, and interestingly HP is varying the click charge for white, while keeping the standard click for other colours. Users pay a fixed click for each black frame, a higher rate for cyan, magenta, yellow as well as orange, green, violet and other standard colours. For white, there is a fixed frame charge to cover BIDs, PIPs, blankets, imaging oil, etc, and the user then buys cans of white ink, with usage some 850 full frames per 5 kg can. So the cost of white varies according to the coverage.

The 20000 uses single shot imaging, where the image is built up onto the blanket and then transferred to the substrate. Altogether 12 colours can be printed, allowing double-sided sandwich printing. The press prints frames with a maximum repeat of 1117.5 mm, speed varies according to job format. In the three colour EPM (enhanced productivity mode using only cyan, magenta and yellow) the maximum speed is 44.8 m/min, falling to 26.8 m/min for five colour jobs.

The front end SmartStream Labels and Packaging Server is an Esko system, supporting scalable RIPping, ICC profiling, step and repeat, and automated workflow. After printing, there is an inspection table with a turner bar to view reverse print, which is common, and a rewind, or the web can be converted inline on the ABG Digicon 3000. This wider finishing system is designed in partnership with UK flexo press manufacturer Edale which builds the unit at its facility near Portsmouth. The Digicon 3000 comprises a corona unit, then flexo station for adhesive, coating or flexo print with a chill roller to keep heat sensitive substrates cool. There is flexo coater, laminator, quick changeover die-cutting in either full or semi-rotary mode into slitting and turret rewinding.

The line has the capability of cold foiling or cast and cure UV varnishing inline and can dry bond laminate and form-fill-seal. The whole priming, pressline and finishing line is some 40 metres long. It is early days for the ILS installation, but it is looking to develop its flexible packaging business, taking advantage of the wider web to offer stand up pouches and three-sided sealed bags.

The larger press will also being used for labels, and other early installations include Ultimate Packaging in the UK, Rako Etiketten in Germany, Wipf in Switzerland, Seikou Packaging in Japan and Emerald Packaging in California. The 20000 press is HP’s first push into dedicated flexible packaging, and it has done much development to achieve approvals for food applications, although most users are laminating the result. Flexible packaging production will never be the same again.