Eede, Netherlands – Xeikon, an innovative supplier of digital color printing technology, is generating massive market interest following the official launch of the new Xeikon CX3 at Labelexpo Europe. Label company Ulrich Etiketten, an Austrian market leader, is among the first to invest in the Xeikon CX3 in order to take advantage of its innovative technology advancements for a more productive operation. The Xeikon CX3 is the latest digital printing system for labels. Based on Xeikon Cheetah technology first presented last year, it represents a quantum leap in output quality with a printing speed ranging to 30 meters per minute.

Ulrich Etiketten is adding the new Xeikon CX3 to its existing machine fleet, expanding its digital printing capacity in order to react even more quickly to market requirements. "This expansion of capacity shifts our break-even in digital printing to longer print runs,” says Rainer Ulrich, who is running the company together with his cousin graduate Florian Ulrich as CEO of Vienna-based Ulrich Etiketten. “Before, the profitability threshold for digital was about 100,000 labels, but now we can cost-effectively produce between 200,000 and 300,000 labels with digital printing, depending on size. This means we can offer our customers the advantages of digital printing – no printing plates, short lead times and faster delivery times – for a much wider range of products." In addition to its conventional fleet of 16 modern high-performance UV rotary presses, Ulrich Etiketten’s digital printing department now operates three digital presses, two of which come from Xeikon.

Profitability analysis clinched decision

With the new Xeikon CX3, Ulrich Etiketten is even better positioned to address small print runs of customized and serialized labels. "We are seeing customers increasingly demanding short response times and smaller runs,” Ulrich adds. “So for us, digital printing is the technology of the future. The overall cost ratio combined with the extremely high printing speed of the Xeikon CX3 encouraged us to invest in the new Xeikon system.” Since nearly all printing firms face mounting cost and time pressures, digital printing is becoming an ever more important means of producing printing products cost-effectively and delivering them quickly.

Other factors that influenced the choice of the Xeikon CX3 were the range of toners, including the Cheetah toner for temperature-sensitive PE and thermal labels, with a fusing temperature of up to 15 degrees Celsius lower than other toners. The toners are also food-safe, important since more than half of the orders handled by Ulrich Etiketten come from the food industry. With the dry toners used in Xeikon printing presses, there is no need to apply a primer. In other words, the printed packaging or label can be used for direct contact with (dry) foods as well as indirect food contact, without the need for further processing.

Because the new Xeikon CX3 is based on the tried-and-tested design of previous Xeikon digital printing systems, Ulrich Etiketten believes that its machine operators will quickly get up to speed with the new system. "The fact that the Xeikon system is easy to use was another reason we opted for this new investment," Ulrich says. To make optimum use of the high speed of the Xeikon CX3, the company plans to use it primarily for the most popular label materials such as coated paper and glossy polypropylene film. Unlike other high-speed solutions on the market, no pre-treatment is required, further reducing time and cost of production. This means that Ulrich Etiketten is better positioned to satisfy specific material-related customer requirements and to offer customers a wider range of substrate choices.