Inkjet & Digital Printing
Full-color individualization of complete blister cards
Friday 02. November 2018 - Koch Pac-Systeme has now introduced what may well be the worlds first blister machine allowing for inline individualization of full four-color print onto blister cards, even in batch sizes as small as one. Atlantic Zeisers new OMEGA Pro UV inkjet printer generation plays an important part in this innovation.
Already a success in the market and appreciated worldwide for its high productivity and reliability, the KBS-PL blister machine is now available with an optional printing module featuring Atlantic Zeiser technology. “Our customers have, of course, already used our machine to apply variable data to blisters, for instance in order to serialize them”, says Jürgen Welker, Director Automation and Technology at Koch Pac-Systeme. “But the new printer from Atlantic Zeiser is a technological milestone which opens up completely new perspectives. One complete side of a blister card can now be individualized in color to a high standard – at a remarkable speed and with an impressive resolution.” Such personalization options are relevant when, for example, users wish to distribute product samples to a small customer base or to carry out personalized marketing and promotion campaigns. “At the Fachpack 2018 exhibition, where we presented the first prototype in action, we immediately received a handful of very concrete enquiries”, says Welker. “This shows that we have struck a nerve with our exhibit.” Koch Pac-Systeme, a leading manufacturer of blister machines for consumer products, amongst other things, had already cooperated with Atlantic Zeiser on and off in the past. “There are very few companies with comparable know-how in the field of digital inkjet printing”, explains Welker.
Highly productive thanks to the single pass method
Likewise, the introduction of the new OMEGA Pro printer generation is an important step for Atlantic Zeiser. “Users in many industries are desperately looking for new solutions not only for economic coding and serialization, but also for the individualization of complete packages or packaging parts”, says Thomas Stenkamp, Senior Sales Engineer at Atlantic Zeiser. “Our new OMEGA Pro generation is the ideal printing system for such tasks – no matter if the requirements include monochrome or full color printing.” Thanks to the single pass method, the four-color OMEGA Pro 4C system integrated into Koch Pacs blister machine combines the flexibility of digital printing with the productivity of offset printing. With a 600 dpi resolution, even the finest details and contours can be optimally displayed – even with font sizes as small as 3 pt. The OMEGA Pro uses innovative embedded RIP technology to facilitate inline ripping of the variable data components. “The time saving is enormous because the transfer of unnecessarily large data volumes produced by pre-ripping entire documents is avoided”, explains Stenkamp. Fully automatic cleaning of the inkjet nozzles ensures consistently flawless print quality and the highest possible availability.
Individualized printing also for blister foils?
It is no wonder that Jürgen Welker from Koch Pac-Systeme is already considering further applications for this printing technology. “We aim at being able to individually print the blister foil itself in the near future. Some challenges remain to be solved there, e.g. longer drying times. But in Atlantic Zeiser, we have a cooperation partner who shares our pioneering spirit and our aim to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible.”