Packaging
SUN CHEMICAL ANNOUNCES BETA PARTNER FOR FASTJET PRESS
Sunday 01. June 2008 - Sun Chemical has announced IMG Digipack GmbH, based in Remscheid, Germany, as its first beta partner for FastJet, the worlds fastest inkjet printing press for corrugated packaging.
Stefan Slembrouck, business manager for Sun Chemicals Digital Print Solutions division said: “It seems a long time since we demonstrated the first concept machine at drupa 2004 together with our partner Inca Digital Printers, but we have made a lot of positive progress since. In order to validate that the initial technology was stable in a realistic corrugated environment with dust, temperature changes and humidity, we built an alpha press with a full print width of 1,040mm. This prototype was installed in the UK in 2006 and has since been demonstrated to dozens of corrugated packaging printers.
“Over the last two years, we have used the crucial feedback from these demonstrations to develop a beta press which can be used as a full production machine and meet the markets requirements for high print quality and productivity. We are delighted to announce our partnership with IMG Digipack, a company which is ideally positioned to offer added value corrugated printing to sheet converters and end users and validate the technology.”
IMG Digipack managing director, Detlef Hulverscheidt, added: “IMG Digipack mainly serves a special sheet plant customer group (IMG partner plants) of our corrugated machinery company, IMG Klett GmbH. By using FastJet, we can now help them to enhance further their offering of small and medium order sizes for the multicolour printed boxes for the shelf ready packaging market. In conjunction with our leading boxmakers, BoxKing GT and BoxKing Fusion, the future-oriented sheet plant is able to print and convert tool-less within hours.”
FastJet was developed five years ago by Sun Chemical and Inca Digital Printers. The core technology is based on fixed colour arrays, with nearly 500 print heads that allow full colour printing at less than one second per square meter.
The press uses UV inkjet inks that have been designed specifically for FastJet. The inks, produced by SunJet, are extremely stable, produce vibrant, glossy colours and are virtually odour free.
FastJet was developed for printing corrugated sheets, particularly within the fast growing market for multi-colour, shelf-ready packaging and display applications. It is capable of printing thousands of square meters per hour in full colour, and economically serves the packaging market with short and medium run orders. It enables corrugated printers to better respond to the ever increasing demand for smaller, just-in-time jobs, as well as opening up new markets for customised packaging and display materials.
Bill Baxter, managing director of Inca Digital said: “It is a milestone for our company to see the first FastJet production press commissioned at a customer site. But now it has printed the first 10,000 sheets, even we are pleased with how consistently the press prints at high speed without nozzle loss.”
Visitors to drupa will have an opportunity throughout the show to visit the FastJet installation for a full demonstration. For further information, contact stefan.slembrouck@sunchemical.com .
A second FastJet press is currently being commissioned in the United Kingdom and a third will go to the United States later in 2008.