Labelexpo 2018 in Rosemont ended on a high note, with a lot of excitement and, more importantly for those who exhibited, sales. For those of you not familiar with this show, it alternates each year between Europe and the U.S. The European show is usually bigger and garners a higher attendance. However, this year the U.S. version of the expo, while physically smaller, was not without a lot of exciting new products. 

In an effort to reach those service providers newly interested in label production, there were a number of new entry-level press hardware introductions shown. Xeikon announced a Label Discovery solution which consists of a Xeikon 3030 + entryDCoat and digital converting line that can be used inline or offline.

Mark Andy displayed and celebrated more than 100 installations of the Digital One, their entry-level solution. Memjet OEM partners, including Colordyne, and PPSI showed their latest offerings built with the new DuraLink imaging platform. We will cover more developments in the DuraLink platform in a future article. Epson introduced their new SurePress along with a selection of ColorWorks commercial label printers. Heidelberg/Gallus premiered its Gallus Smartfire, their entry-level label solution powered by Memjet printheads. This introduction is interesting in a number of ways. First, Heidelberg has recently committed to integrate the Heidelberg and Gallus sales, support, and R&D teams, which should make it easier to get existing Heidelberg customers to look at the Gallus label presses as they make their entry into label production. Second, and even more importantly, the price for the Smartfire is about $150,000, bringing the barrier of entry within reach for those looking at a new production line.