New toner opens up a range of new opportunities for label converters

Eede, The Netherlands – Xeikon, an innovator in digital color printing technology, today announces the launch of a new toner for its digital label presses. The ICE toner will be demonstrated at Labelexpo Europe in Brussels, and will be available for customers as from Q4-2013.

Part of the Xeikon Label Suite, the new toner is ideal for heat sensitive substrates including PE facestock (polyethylene) and thermal labels. This will open up the potential for a whole range of new applications. PE has a good flexibility and pliability, making it widely used for the surface of packaging that is used on regular and irregular containers that have to be kept away from humidity and chemical solvents. Typical examples include tubes and bottles which need to be squeezable, or bags that need to be pressed.

“Until now, dry toner technology was not expected to be able to work with substrates for this type of jobs. Following requests from our user base, Xeikon specifically developed the ICE toner to be suited for heat sensitive materials. We pushed back the boundaries in toner development and digital label printing. ICE toner is undoubtedly again a real breakthrough in dry toner technology driven by Xeikon,” says Lode Deprez, Vice President Consumables & Process Group at Xeikon.

ICE toner is based on the proven Xeikon QA technology, bringing the renowned benefits including top printing quality, high lightfastness, top opaque white quality and being able to print on conventional substrates without the need of specific priming. ICE toner will run on all new and installed Xeikon 3000 Series digital presses, and has already undergone extensive tests in the field with a number of existing customers.

“The new ICE toner is tailored to the needs of our label customers. Xeikon listens to its customers, and has a team dedicated to product development in this area of the market. ICE toner has been designed to perform at the right temperature, and has been engineered to perfection for this additional demand, delivering only the very best in Xeikon quality. With ICE toner digital label production has just become even more versatile and powerful,” adds Filip Weymans, Director Segment Marketing and Business Development Labels and Packaging at Xeikon.

Label converters have a tremendous opportunity to evaluate their own PE labels printed on a Xeikon 3000 Series digital press through www.SeeTheProof.com. This website enables converters to upload their files and have them printed on several substrates including PE. The printed results can be picked up at Xeikon’s booth, 9H45, at Labelexpo Europe in Brussels, September 24 to 27, 2013.