Inkjet & Digital Printing

Auraprint installs first HP Indigo WS6000 Digital Press in Finland

Tuesday 19. April 2011 - HP today announced that Auraprint Oy, of Turku, has installed the first HP Indigo WS6000 Digital Press in Finland to respond to the growing demand for high quality, short-run labels and shrink sleeves.

Founded in 1886, Auraprint offers a broad range of printing products ranging from general commercial print to self-adhesive labels, RFID labels, tickets, shrink sleeves and forms. With production facilities in Turku the company employs 115 people and supplies printed products throughout Finland. With three thousand customers from all sorts of businesses and industries Auraprint prints labels for food and drink, cosmetics and pharmaceutical and healthcare products.
The company has been using inkjet digital technology for nearly twenty years and was used to handling files for variable data printing of bar codes, sell-by dates, batch numbers and other track and trace information, however, this was done in monochrome only. About ten years ago, Auraprint moved into full colour digital sheet-fed production using dry toner technologies. Three years ago it installed the first machine for digital label production in Finland, again using dry toner technology.
“After running our dry toner system for two years, we realised that we needed additional production capacity and after evaluating the presses available, decided that the HP Indigo WS6000 Digital Press would best suit our needs,” said Tero-Matti Kinanen, managing director, Auraprint Oy. “We wanted to be able to handle a range of different materials and with this press, we are able to do wrap-around labels and shrink sleeves as well as self-adhesive labels on a wide variety of substrates. Because there is very little heat in the process, we can print films and many more substrates than before. The ability to print with white ink is also an advantage in label and shrink sleeve production.”
“Our WS6000 integrated well into our existing workflow and the support and operator training from HP was very good,” Kinanen said. “Run length and cost are the factors that determine whether we print orders digitally or conventionally. Our customers are more concerned with quality and service than in knowing how jobs are produced, though of course, some jobs can only be printed digitally.”
Innovation and adapting to changes in the market are part of Auraprint’s tradition. For example, manufacturing continuous forms was begun in the 1950s, but with the introduction of computer forms, that market declined steeply and so the company moved into roll label production. It has since developed its label business to include smart (RFID) labels, multiple layer solutions and shrink sleeve production.
On-line efficiency
Auraprint introduced a web-to-print service for label production in 2010. NETikett has proved to be a popular way for companies to order and reorder labels. Customers are able to choose substrates, weight, volume and number of variations within the run in a cost-effective solution.
“NETikett adds a new dimension to our service, and our WS6000 press offers a versatility we did not have before,” concluded Kinanen.
HP Indigo presses are sold in Finland by Visutech. Visutech is a media group conducting business within the Nordic countries; Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, with its head office in Gothenburg.