Labelexpo Europe 2015

Labelexpo (Brussels, 29 September-2 October) is the biggest annual event for the label and packaging printing industry and alternates between Brussels and Chicago. The event showcases everything to do with the label industry, and offers a unique opportunity for promoting a range of label printing machinery and technology. In particular this year there was a real excitement and buzz around the show for digital and in particular hybrid label printing technology.

The global launch of our new versatile Xaar Print Bar System at the show created a huge amount of interest from OEMs, integrators and end user label convertors who were all keen to realise the benefits that a single colour inkjet print bar could bring through adding wide range of inks and fluids, including spot colours (K or CMY), protective lacquers, high-build spot varnish, heavily pigmented high-opacity under-surface whites, cold foil adhesives, metallics, etc.

The current trend for hybrid printing, getting the best of both analogue and digital combined, shows our print bar solution has come along at the right time to address the market need. Shown as both a stand-alone unit and integrated into the Graphium hybrid press, the Xaar Print Bar System is the ideal solution for those wanting to add inline digital capability to their analogue web and sheet-fed label presses.

Labelexpo was also a superb showcase for the Xaar 1002 printhead with our patented TF Technology(tm) as Dantex, Durst, EFI, Edale/FFEI, INX, and SPG Prints all showed innovative Xaar-enabled digital label presses. This marks the start of a new era as converters accelerate their investment in digital, either for the first time or by expanding their digital facilities with new-generation presses and look to add digital functionality to their existing analogue equipment.

There was a significant increase in digital and in particular inkjet exhibitors at the show, with major machinery manufacturers displaying hybrid technologies for the first time, enabling the incorporation of digital inkjet and other processes such as flexo, block foil and die cutting onto a single in-line press.

Overall, Labelexpo Europe was an overwhelming success for Xaar and clearly bought to the fore the global growth in the importance of inkjet as the accepted technology for the future of the label industry.  Media interest was high with a large number of press briefings and interviews taking place across the four-days, confirming the time is right for the launch of the Xaar Print Bar System.

Mark Alexander, Director of Business Development at Xaar