SOS, GMG and Vivid are teaming up for an open house event on 14 and 15 September, where Roland’s LEC2-330 and LEF2-300 machines will be used to showcase the potential and importance of packaging prototyping.

The ‘3D proof’ event will take place at Vivid’s showroom in Ashby De La Zouch, Leicestershire, and feature packaging mock-ups on real substrates in real time, including cartons, labels and foil packs.

Printing will be done on two of the latest Roland machines supplied by SOS, namely the LEC2-330 – driven by GMG colour management software – and LEF2-300. Samples will then be cut and folded on Vivid’s VeloBlade range of equipment, enabling visitors to take away a finished product. 

The LEC2-330 is Roland’s latest UV printer and creates packaging proofs directly onto the production substrate and premium labels. It has a maximum 762mm media width and can print, cut, perforate, varnish, emboss and add textured UV. A larger 1265mm width version (LEC2-640) is also available. The LEF2-300 is a direct-to-object benchtop UV printer, for objects up to 100mm thick. It enables the printing of photos, graphics and finely-detailed text with claimed ‘stunning’ quality, onto PVC and plastics, canvas, wood, leather, fabric, acrylics and glass.

The event will showcase GMG colour management on the LEC2-330, which enables accurate proofs on packaging production substrates, incorporating white ink – particularly useful for printing on transparent and metallic materials.

GMG OpenColor creates a CMYK and multicolour press simulation with GMG ColorProof. The Calibration Creation Wizard enables management of output conditions in GMG OpenColor, streamlined configuration of printing parameters, and printing and measuring of test charts for visual evaluation.

The event will use the wide range of cutting-edge print finishing equipment at Vivid’s showroom covering lamination, digital foiling, cutting, creasing and folding, including the VeloBlade range of digital die-cutting systems. Vivid will also be demonstrating their recently launched Zip Core Packaging Software, which has been created to enhance every aspect of packaging design from start to finish.

SOS sales manager Ashley Fleming said, ‘The latest equipment and software for packaging proofs can achieve levels of speed and accuracy which a decade ago would be unheard of. This is a must-see event for anyone in the packaging industry.’

Opening times are 10am to 5.30pm on 14 September 2022, and 10am to 3.30pm on 15 September, 2022.