Uteco Group and Kodak have expanded label and flexible packaging possibilities with the Sapphire EVO digital printing press and environmentally-friendly aqueous inks.
Image: Sapphire Evo digital printing press. Photo: courtesy of Eastman Kodak Company.
The companies announced the commercial availability of Sapphire EVO digital printing press, which uses Kodak Stream inkjet technology to offer new opportunities for brands and packaging service providers in the high-volume production market leveraging environmentally friendly water-based inks.
Suitable for a range of low and high-volume applications, the digital printing press can produce up to 20 million square meters per year.
With a capacity to print more than 9,000 linear meters per hour, the Sapphire Evo press delivers better print quality on several packaging films and papers.
Sapphire Evo digital press is said to use media up to 650mm in width and prints at up to 622mm. It also provides flexibility of CMYK printing, as well as options for in-line priming and varnishing.
Uteco Group CEO Aldo Peretti said: “Our customers have been asking for a digital production solution that meets their customer demand for more versions, which is driving shorter run lengths, as well as an economic long-run digital solution.
“Uteco’s rich experience in flexo and gravure printing, film handling, coating and drying, coupled with Kodak’s inkjet expertise, now allows us to deliver a device that combines the capabilities of flexo with digital.”
Kodak’s inks and pre-coating fluids used with the Sapphire Evo press meets the regulatory requirements for indirect food contact in the EU and the US.
The press uses water-based inks for printing on a variety of flexible substrates such as BOPP, PET and paper.
Kodak enterprise inkjet systems division corporate vice president and president Randy Vandagriff said: “Kodak’s 50-year inkjet heritage has delivered the quality, capabilities and cost effectiveness that the commercial print and publishing industry have enjoyed with our PROSPER Press systems.”
Uteco said that it will install the first Sapphire Evo digital printing press in June this year at the facility of an Italian flexible packaging producer for the industrial and fashion industries.
Uteco Group manufactures and supplies flexible packaging solutions, including flexographic, rotogravure, coating and laminating, as well as high-tech machines with special configurations.