UV litho 'Xpannds' in labels

3 August 2006



Gidue makes the move into UV litho. Pauline Covell asks managing director Federico d’Annunzio what the new press has to offer


Italian flexo press manufacturer Gidue has teamed up with Nuova Castagnoli to build the servo driven Xpannd – a new press concept with UV offset printing heads. The 370mm wide eight colour version attracted plenty of interest from 200 visitors, including Converting Today staff, who travelled to the company showroom in Turate during the Converflex exhibition to see the launch.

Why had the company decided to include UV litho in the press? “The major advantage of litho is that it represents an easier path to excellence than flexo,” explained managing director Federico d’Annunzio. “It is a process that is standardized over the industry. Offset prepress houses are all over the world. You get a file and you make the plate. Other processes have to be converted. It’s quick and painless. What’s more, all designers think in litho,” he added. “Brand owners also want quick response worldwide – the ability to standardize quality at multi national sites. We always talk to them.”

Second reason to take a good look at litho, he extols, is the economics. “Ink costs about a third and the plates about one tenth that of flexo.”

And he sees much more affinity between digital and offset. “As runs get shorter you will see a switch to digital or offset; you will see a change in perception. My job is to anticipate that change.

“Until now UV offset has been relatively a niche market. This press is our vision of a new standard for the label industry. By developing not just offset, but new offset technology with all its inherent advantages and most of the performance of flexo we are giving printers a dedicated press for the label market. It is a press designed for frequent job changes and short runs,” he boasted.

Does he see the technology as complementary to flexo at the moment? “You can see better use of the existing equipment at a label converter. All the tough jobs could be put on the offset, whilst you use flexo for the high speeds, solids and text. It will actually enable the sales people to say ‘no job is too difficult’. There will be freedom to accept work without fear!”

The Xpannd on the showroom floor was configured with two UV flexo, four UV offset and two UV flexo printing units and complemented by a new, pneumatically operated slide-in slide-out cassette system on guide rails that makes changing the printing heads a simple operation.

The press also featured the new Gidue Intelligent Register system for automatic register of the printing units and PC press interface for interactive print management and job tracking.

Federico d’Annunzio said: “In addition to the significantly lower costs for plate origination offered by the offset process, further significant savings can be achieved because the press is optimized to idle down to 12m/min during job set-up to limit waste.”

He claims the press makes life easy for the printer - whether skilled or unskilled - because all job and printing parameters, including ink wash-up and ink/water dampening on the offset print units, are automatically controlled.

“We already have one press in the field printing high quality process and vignettes for the wine and olive oil industries, where the press operator has no previous experience of label printing at all,” he said.

Xpannd is also available in 430mm and 530mm widths with a wide range of converting options and can be specified to include any combination of flexo, offset and screen printing processes.

A further advantage of the process is improved ink lay-down for high density print coverage at speeds up to 150m/min.

What are the plans for Gidue this year? “The time has come to take the return on the brand investment,” announced Federico d’Annunzio. “We will be more and more aggressive. For example, this year we plan to double our sales force.

“We are buying back the bank quota in the company. And at the moment we are looking to acquire companies rather than to sell.”



Contact

Gidue
Tel: +39 02 966 8181





External weblinks
Converting Today is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Gidue

Printheads are easily changed with a cassette system Printheads are easily changed with a cassette system


Privacy Policy
We have updated our privacy policy. In the latest update it explains what cookies are and how we use them on our site. To learn more about cookies and their benefits, please view our privacy policy. Please be aware that parts of this site will not function correctly if you disable cookies. By continuing to use this site, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with our privacy policy unless you have disabled them.