This article is sponsored by Canon as part of WhatTheyThink’s Print Product Spotlight series. In preparing this article, the WhatTheyThink Print Product Section editors conducted original, in-depth research into Canon’s LS2000. This Product Spotlight describes what the editors feel are the product’s strengths in the marketplace. Canon previewed the final article for accuracy but had no editorial control over the content.

(Watch David Zwang’s video interview with Canon Production Solutions’ Jason Koyama here.)

Canon has extensive experience with inkjet for commercial applications and maintains a leading global position. In 2018, in an effort to better understand the label and packaging market needs, they did some testing with the Canon LabelStream 4000 label press. Since that time, they have leveraged those initial efforts to the beginning of what is expected to be a successful new approach, initially for labels and then corrugated and folding cartons in the future.

Labels comprise a wide variety of uses, including food packaging, personal care, household and industrial products amongst others. Today, they are increasingly required to be produced in small batches and with fast delivery times resulting from the need to respond quickly to a growing array of different products, packaging innovations, and the challenges of an ever-changing supply chain. These needs are what the LabelStream LS2000 is designed for.

LabelStream LS2000

The LabelStream LS2000 is built on water-based inkjet technology, making it the ideal solution for label converters looking for a reliable, productive, and flexible digital press that can fulfill the demand for shorter runs of diverse, labels, produced against tighter deadlines.

The press can handle industry standard substrates using inline priming with their unique ColorGrip technology applied to images not as a flood coat to synthetic paper and film, including lower-heat-resistant film, opening up possibilities for diverse label applications.

The LabelStream LS2000 is an inkjet press targeted at the label converting and printing market supporting a print width of 90mm (3.5 in.) to 340mm (13.4 in.). It prints at speeds up to 40 m/min (131 fpm) with automated media wind back to reduce make ready time and minimize waste between jobs. It is designed with constant monitoring and automatic adjustment of registration, color, and imaging quality to help achieve increased uptime.

The press features a new 2400 x 1200 dpi printhead with an ink circulation mechanism that to keep the ink moving along a precise flow path to the tips of all the nozzles, helping to minimize nozzle failure due to clogging and to extend the life of the printhead. The durable long line, single-cast printheads extending across the entire print width are easy to install by operators to prevent marks where printheads usually overlap. For reliable and stable production, printhead maintenance and quality control are automated, as is color measurement and adjustment, while the digital front end offers tight workflow integration for outstanding ease of use and operational efficiency.

The LabelStream LS2000 features Canon-developed printheads and water-based polymer inks, a highly saturated aqueous pigment-based ink system, and is finished with a thin ink lay down all to help achieve vibrant colors and maximize color fidelity on a diverse range of media and maintain the paper texture for an output that can simulate offset printing including high robustness and a surface that counters abrasion. The thin ink layer of the print is almost imperceptible to the touch, which allows printed substrates including textured media, chosen for a certain design, to maintain their original look and feel. It is designed to support a wide variety of applications including standard and textured paper and low heat-resistant film.

The LS2000 can run a high-opacity white ink integrated with low temperature fixing for film imaging. But white ink imaged on film is only one key requirement for labels. It also supports a variety of paper poly and synthetic substrates. It is designed for a wide range of label applications including food, beverage, HPC, pharma, as well as industrial and household chemical labeling. The flexibility also supports automotive, transport and logistics, durables, and retail labeling as well.

Canon is leveraging their extensive Prisma-based technology for press analytics and remote support and can be used for product production management, analytics and support. Status LEDs distributed across the machine show the operator where to intervene without needing to consult the main screen. It has an intuitive user dashboard interface and DFE using an open system architecture to support prepress solutions from Esko, Hybrid Software, OneVision, and Ultimate Tech.

The LabelStream LS2000 includes a streamlined media path, “in press” intelligent quality control, automated head cleaning that helps maximize print quality and uptime, and is controlled by Prisma in press. Quality control includes constant monitoring and adjustment of color, registration, and image quality throughout. It also includes automated ICC profile creation to support the changing variety of label media needs. The joint printhead is designed for stable ink ejection to help maintain consistent quality.

As more print service providers are beginning to look at expanding into labels and packaging, the LS2000 was designed with ease of use and hands off production in mind. The transparent engine window helps operators check operation status at a glance, while the full-front operation and maintenance saves them time and helps them maintain a streamlined workflow. Canon envisions an automated production floor with multiple presses supported by one operator performing print and finishing operations. With their progressive view of Factory 4.0 integration via open system design with new collaborators, the future looks exciting. These collaborators include some of the core packaging workflow solution providers including Esko, Hybrid Software, One Vision Software AG, and Ultimate Tech.

In Closing

Canon is an innovator, which is why they have been able to capture the lead in the production inkjet market for the last 10+ years. This is undoubtedly a reflection of their development capabilities evidenced by the fact that they have been one of the top 5 US patent producers for the last 37 consecutive years. Today, in addition to the LS2000, they have the LX-P5510, LX-D5500, and LX-P1300 desktop dye and pigment inkjet printers to help meet the need of in-house on demand labels.

The acquisition of Edale, the British manufacturer of tailor-made flexographic presses, brought skilled engineers and automated flexographic label and carton printers to the Canon product line. At drupa, Canon showed a Single-Pass Carton Production line offering multiple in-line embellishments and traditional flatbed finishing. In their development pipeline is a sheetfed single-pass digital corrugated press as well. Converters are also finding the Arizona and Colorado large-format printers are a good entry level choice for folding cartons.

The LabelStream LS2000 is expected to roll out in Europe in late 2025, with the US and other regions to follow. It will be supported by the global Canon service and support organizations.

Canon is a trademark or registered trademark of Canon Inc. in the United States and elsewhere. PRISMA, LabelStream and Arizona are trademarks or registered trademarks of Canon Production Printing Netherlands B.V.