Finishing & Screen Printing

Canon announces inline carton board coating and cutting solution for Océ InfiniStream

Monday 12. May 2014 - First inline carton board coating, cutting and stacking solution for the roll-fed Océ InfiniStream

Installed at German packaging printer Joh. Leupold GmbH
Result of strategic partnership with TRESU Group and bielomatik
Canon, a world leader in imaging solutions, has installed its first inline carton board coating, cutting and stacking solution for the roll-fed Océ InfiniStream at packaging printer Joh. Leupold GmbH, based in Schwabach, Germany. The installation is the first result of a strategic partnership with TRESU Group and bielomatik to extend Canon’s solution offering for the ground-breaking Océ InfiniStream Technology for digital printing of folding cartons.
TRESU Group, a leading provider of flexographic printing technology and coating solutions for packaging and commercial printing, and bielomatik, a company of the Leuze Group, manufacturing and engineering experts in systems and customer-specific solutions for paper converting and plastic welding, are both suppliers of highly regarded solutions for the printing industry.
Web-fed coating and cutting
TRESU Group and bielomatik provide an industry-scale inline coating, cutting and stacking configuration for digital carton board printing with the Océ InfiniStream consisting of the optimized flexo printing coating unit, TRESU webCoat, and the new bielomatik CFS di72 digital-controlled cutter, including piler with non-stop palletizing. The printed output is coated with industry-standard UV or aqueous varnishes and then precisely cut into sheets and stacked on pallets ready for subsequent processes, e.g. die-cutting or decoration such as hot-foil stamping or embossing. The system can handle any sheet size between B2 and B1 formats up to 1060 mm length.
Dirk Vößing, CEO of bielomatik, Leuze GmbH + Co. KG says: “It’s an honour for bielomatik, being part of this new technology for the packaging market. Being selected by the market leader confirms our quality-conscious and customer-focused work and our expertise in paper and carton processing. This partnership of three well-known companies will offer perfect solutions for the digital printing and processing of folding carton for the packaging industry.”
Søren Maarssø, COO of TRESU Group, Denmark, adds: “We are very honoured by being chosen as a partner for the Océ InfiniStream project. We see this project as a natural step, for the full line set-up, from the traditional web coating into the world of digital printing production and therefore we are pleased to be able to bring the TRESU coating technology into this project.”
New standards in digital folding carton printing
This partnership is a further important step in Canon’s strategy to take digital printing of folding cartons to the next level. The lack of industrial-scale productivity is one of the major reasons for the low digital penetration of the folding carton market. With the introduction of the roll-fed Océ InfiniStream technology, Canon offers a digital printing solution that is surpassing current digital systems in productivity and format size to become a serious alternative to sheet-fed, offset printing systems. Professional folding carton production requires coating and high-precision cutting and stacking solutions for heavy cardboard. The partnership with TRESU Group and bielomatik underlines Canon’s commitment to the packaging market and to becoming a major digital player in that arena.
Peter Wolff, Director of Commercial Printing, Canon Europe, comments: “With the InfiniStream Technology, Canon is investing heavily in the booming digitally printed packaging market. We are proud to have bielomatik and TRESU Group on board to further extend our solution offering. Both companies bring many years of experience in the packaging market into the partnership, supporting us to create a complete solution that matches professional standards. The installation and testing at Leupold is part of Canon’s proof-of-concept strategy to co-develop packaging solutions with lead customers.”
Bernd Assmann, Managing Director of Leupold, states: “Market developments clearly show the need for digital print solutions complementing analogue printing technologies to meet the demanding requirements of brand owners regarding cost and responsiveness. The Océ InfiniStream technology has made considerable progress in the last months. The integration of a professional coating and cutting unit is a major step towards a complete solution for industrial digital printing on folding cartons.”
Peak performance in digital package printing
Océ InfiniStream is the answer to fundamental trends in the packaging value chain, for example decreasing run lengths, waste and cost reduction or reduced turnaround times for faster campaign execution. The technology offers quality and productivity at sheetfed offset level, coupled with minimum set-up times and a unique capability to individually change content and artwork from sheet to sheet, allowing unrivalled time, cost and value improvements in folding carton production. Integrated in a roll-fed modular print tower architecture, the electrophotographic liquid toner process enables high quality printing on standard carton board with an extended colour gamut based on 7 colours. With a line speed of 120 metres per minute (394 feet per minute), the system produces 14,400 B2 (50 x 70 cm) or 7,200 B1 (70 x 100 cm) sheets per hour on a 28 inch-wide web.