Inkjet continues to prove a formidable contender to screen and flexo in the well-developed arenas of wide-format and narrow-web label printing. Inkjet is also making inroads into general production printing and offset. In wide-format, EFI Vutek competes against screen with the DS series.

Inkjet has pushed into the narrow-web label sector and opened the door to added-value short-run labels previously out of the budget of anyone but the most high-end packaging buyers. Narrow-web presses, like the Nilpeter’s Caslon, offer a host of inline extras, such as single-pass foiling, embossing or laminating. EFI’s Jetrion 4000 machine, also equipped with Xaar’s 1001 printheads, is another full-color competitor to flexo- or toner-printed labels.

Inkjet also successfully complements other processes. For example, label press manufacturers demonstrate how their machines could run inline after flexo kit offers variably printed label runs. Variable data is a key driver, but there is a buzz about industrial inkjet with the HP Inkjet Web Press that churns through 122m per minute, working out 2,600 A4 pages per minute.

Tags: inkjet printer

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