Boxmeer, Netherlands - SPGPrints has introduced quality and productivity enhancements to its flagship direct laser engraver for digitally imaging narrow-web rotary screens. Debuting at Labelexpo Americas 2016, the new version of the rotaLEN features an improved laser that images to high-definition (HD) standards, and an extended engraving width that accommodates wider screens and - in some cases - two meshes simultaneously. 

Featuring a sealed CO₂ laser that ablates the printed areas without film, chemicals or water, rotaLEN images SPGPrints’ non-woven nickel re-engravable RotaMesh® and reusable RotaPlate® screens with resolutions of up to 4000dpi in a single, fully digital step. 

Arno Bouwmeester, managing director, SPGPrints Austria, comments: “With its fully automated, simplified workflow, the rotaLEN engraver has been adopted as the standard rotary screen imaging process by several of the world’s leading label converters.  It has proven capable of delivering repeatable quality consistency, significantly increased throughput and reductions in costs and emissions.”

The enhanced laser system was developed in response to demand from personal care brand owners and their suppliers seeking solutions for providing more information on a label, often in multiple languages, with optimum clarity.  The laser meets this requirement by engraving screens to HD quality standards and facilitating precise reproduction of fine characters, including oriental text, where accuracy is vital to legibility.

The enhanced rotaLEN engraver accommodates RotaMesh screens up to 660mm (26in.) in length, and a wider drum that allows two RotaPlate engraving jobs to be completed in a single engraving cycle, thereby reducing handling times and improving the efficiency of the pre-press stage.  

rotaLEN is compatible with the complete rotary screen range, from the finest meshes available, such as SPGPrints’ RotaMesh 405 and RotaPlate 355F screens, to RotaMesh 75 for 250 micron-thick Braille dot reproduction. 

Furthermore, files processed by rotaLEN can be prepared with SPGPrints’ software, providing optimum control when creating fine positive and negative images.   

Arno Bouwmeester concludes: “Rotary screen printing is recognised as an essential means of productively achieving high-value packaging effects, including tactile varnishes, metallic finishes and striking opaque graphics that communicate the promise of quality and generate retail sales. The introduction of the enhanced rotaLEN engraver, complementing SPGPrints’ integration modules and screen programme, brings further advances in process efficiency, simplification and quality control in the rotary screen workflow.”