Itasca, IL - Xeikon, a leader in digital color printing innovation, today announced that it has tested and qualified synthetic substrates from Yupo Corporation of America, for its Xeikon 3000 Series of digital label presses. These new qualifications offer even more substrate flexibility to Xeikon users for their label and package printing needs. The qualified substrates are used to produce pressure sensitive labels for a broad array of consumer products ranging from food/beverage items to household products.

Yupo's synthetic substrates are extruded from polypropylene pellets at the company's manufacturing plant in Chesapeake, VA. These durable and versatile papers are super-smooth, enabling consistent and effortless printing, and holding inks with a high level of precision. Available in translucent and super-white grades, Yupo's synthetic paper substrates are 100 percent recyclable, and designed to stand up to the most demanding environments. In addition, the Yupo synthetic substrates are pulp-free, which enhances the shelf life of printed pieces.

"We're very happy to welcome Yupo synthetic substrates into our growing family of label and packaging substrates," said Filip Weymans, Business Development Manager, labels and packaging, Xeikon. "We are continuously expanding the substrate range for the Xeikon 3000 Series in an effort to provide more production flexibility to our users."

"We're seeing incredible growth in digitally produced label and packaging applications, and converters need increasingly more substrate flexibility to capitalize on this opportunity," said Troy Olson, Label Product Group Manager of Yupo Corporation of America. These new qualified substrates will offer exceptional print quality for converters on the Xeikon 3000 Series of digital label presses."

The Xeikon 3000 Series allows label printers and converters to take advantage of the right speed points, productivity and printing widths to optimize their production environments. All presses of the Xeikon 3000 Series deliver the same print quality, featuring true 1200 dpi resolution, and are divided into two maximum web widths: 330 mm (13") and 516 mm (20.3"). The presses run on the industry's first dedicated toner for label printing, called the Xeikon QA-I toner. The QA-I toner is an FDA-compliant food-safe toner that can be used for direct or indirect contact with dry food products.

All four Xeikon 3000 Series presses can print on an unrivalled range of substrates, including conventional Flexo substrates, without the need for any pre-coating or treatment, and include various self-adhesive materials such as co-extruded films, Bopp, PVC and PET, paperboards, paper as well as transparent and opaque foils.