SUN CHEMICAL ANNOUNCES BETA PARTNER FOR FASTJET® PRESS
FASTJET MEDIA VISIT: THURSDAY 5 JUNE @ 10.00am – 1.00pm
To attend, please contact Colin Harding - +44 7730 435400 or Gary Gaskarth - +44 7713 252144
DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY- May 30, 2008 - Sun Chemical has announced IMG Digipack GmbH, based in Remscheid, Germany, as its first beta partner for FastJet®, the world’s fastest inkjet printing press for corrugated packaging.
Stefan Slembrouck, business manager for Sun Chemical’s Digital Print Solutions division said: “It seems a long time since we demonstrated the first concept machine at drupa 2004 together with our partner Inca Digital Printers, but we have made a lot of positive progress since. In order to validate that the initial technology was stable in a realistic corrugated environment with dust, temperature changes and humidity, we built an alpha press with a full print width of 1,040mm. This prototype was installed in the UK in 2006 and has since been demonstrated to dozens of corrugated packaging printers.
“Over the last two years, we have used the crucial feedback from these demonstrations to develop a beta press which can be used as a full production machine and meet the market’s requirements for high print quality and productivity. We are delighted to announce our partnership with IMG Digipack, a company which is ideally positioned to offer added value corrugated printing to sheet converters and end users and validate the technology.”
IMG Digipack managing director, Detlef Hulverscheidt, added: “IMG Digipack mainly serves a special sheet plant customer group (IMG partner plants) of our corrugated machinery company, IMG Klett GmbH. By using FastJet, we can now help them to enhance further their offering of small and medium order sizes for the multicolour printed boxes for the shelf ready packaging market. In conjunction with our leading boxmakers, BoxKing GT and BoxKing Fusion, the future-oriented sheet plant is able to print and convert tool-less within hours.”
FastJet was developed five years ago by Sun Chemical and Inca Digital Printers. The core technology is based on fixed colour arrays, with nearly 500 print heads that allow full colour printing at less than one second per square meter.
The press uses UV inkjet inks that have been designed specifically for FastJet. The inks, produced by SunJet®, are extremely stable, produce vibrant, glossy colours and are virtually odour free.
FastJet was developed for printing corrugated sheets, particularly within the fast growing market for multi-colour, shelf-ready packaging and display applications. It is capable of printing thousands of square meters per hour in full colour, and economically serves the packaging market with short and medium run orders. It enables corrugated printers to better respond to the ever increasing demand for smaller, just-in-time jobs, as well as opening up new markets for customised packaging and display materials.
Bill Baxter, managing director of Inca Digital said: “It is a milestone for our company to see the first FastJet production press commissioned at a customer site. But now it has printed the first 10,000 sheets, even we are pleased with how consistently the press prints at high speed without nozzle loss.”
Visitors to drupa will have an opportunity throughout the show to visit the FastJet installation for a full demonstration. For further information, contact stefan.slembrouck@sunchemical.com .
A second FastJet press is currently being commissioned in the United Kingdom and a third will go to the United States later in 2008.
About Sun Chemical
Sun Chemical, a member of the DIC group, is the world's largest producer of printing inks and pigments and a leading provider of materials to packaging, publication, coatings, plastics, cosmetics, and other industrial markets. With annual sales over $4 billion, Sun Chemical has 12,000 employees supporting customers around the world. The Sun Chemical Group of companies includes such established names as Coates, Hartmann, Kohl & Madden, and US Ink.
Sun Chemical Corporation is a subsidiary of Sun Chemical Group B.V., the Netherlands, and is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, U.S.A. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.sunchemical.com.
About IMG Digipack GmbH
IMG Digipack GmbH is a newly founded sister company of IMG Klett, one of the leading companies for machinery equipment for the corrugated converters industry with more than 70 years of experience. IMG Klett delivers innovative and economic solutions to corrugated converters through 5 sites in Europe and US. Each day more than 6.5 million boxes are produced on 2.400 Klett machines all over the world.
www.img-klett.com
About Inca Digital
Inca Digital is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of inkjet printing technology, today employing more than 170 people at its HQ in Cambridge, England. Highly innovative, the company developed the world’s first large format flatbed inkjet printer in 2000 and is known for its market-leading Spyder, Turbo and more recently high speed Onset printers; the world’s fastest flatbed printer, launched in 2007. www.incadigital.com
As well as revolutionising the printing and packaging industry, inkjet technology has immense potential for cost effective product decoration for a wide range of applications, such as ceramic tiles, interior decoration, architecture, automotive, furniture design, sports equipment, etc. See some of these high impact industrial applications in more detail on www.whynotinkjet.com
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