Versatility of Xeikon 3500 flagship digital label press will be on display at booth #4027

Itasca, IL, – Xeikon, an innovator in digital color printing technology, announced today that the company will demonstrate unique label and packaging applications at booth #4027 during Graph Expo 2011, from Sept. 11-14 in Chicago, IL. The Xeikon booth is located within the "Pack Print" pavilion of the show hall. All the applications will be produced on the Xeikon 3500, highlighting the flexibility of its flagship digital label press.
"The Xeikon 3500 has raised the bar for digital label printing with its unmatched width and the ability to print on a wide variety of substrates. The press is aimed at providing expanded capabilities to label and packaging printers, enabling them to meet the growing demands of this market," said Michael V. Ring, president of Xeikon America Inc. "We're excited to put the outstanding productivity of this versatile machine on display at Graph Expo."

The applications printed at the Xeikon booth will utilize a broad range of substrates, from regular paper to synthetic metallized stocks, as well as paperboard. In addition, Xeikon will also demonstrate inline finishing capabilities involving UV-varnishing, super-glossing, slitting and rewinding. The company will also have a workflow area at the booth which will house its industry leading software partners such as EskoArtwork and Prisme Technologies.

"The Xeikon 3500 is a leading color digital printing solution for label and packaging converters," said Bob Leahey, Associate Director at InfoTrends, a consulting firm that focuses on digital printing markets. "The 3500's very wide digital web and full rotary printing technology make it a top digital option in terms of productivity and flexibility."

The Xeikon 3500 is the only toner based digital label press that can handle web widths from 9.8 inches all the way up to 20.3 inches. Due to its full rotary printing technology and variable repeat length with no frame size restrictions, the press speed and throughput are unaffected by the number of colors used as well as the size of the labels. In addition, the Xeikon 3500 has a monthly duty cycle of 3.8 million square feet, which is the highest among any digital label press in its class.

Due to all its abovementioned attributes, the Xeikon 3500 has a significant impact on the breakeven point between digital label printing and conventional printing technologies. It enables cost-effective production of label volumes beyond the usual 14,000 linear feet limit using digital technology, and speeds up the transition from analog to digital label production. Plus, the press opens up new application opportunities in diverse market segments in addition to pressure-sensitive labels, such as short-run packaging, folding cartons, point-of-purchase applications, as well as heat transfers.

Equipped with high-precision LED-based imaging heads, the Xeikon 3500 features true 1200 dpi resolution and 1200 x 3600 dpi imaging addressability with variable dot density, generating excellent image quality. Consequently, it is challenging the current quality-productivity paradigm by offering these two mutually exclusive capabilities to label converters. They don't have to sacrifice one for the sake of the other, as is usually the case with other offerings.

The Xeikon 3500 comes equipped with five (5) color stations: four (4) for the standard process colors and the fifth for the use of spot colors for gamut expansion and brand color matching. The fifth station can also be used for applying a special security toner for anti-counterfeiting applications, and a 'one-pass' opaque white toner to create the much desired 'no-label or label-less look' on transparent films.

The Xeikon 3500 takes advantage of Xeikon's X-800 Digital Front End. Based on open standards, the X-800 can be integrated into any production environment. Its modular set-up allows label printers to manage different production elements in the most efficient manner. Prepress functions, such as impositions and color management, can be performed in the prepress environment, allowing the press operator to focus on production. The X-800 also allows easy inclusion of metadata functionalities, such as sequential numbers and/or barcodes.