Inkjet investment to complete Limpet’s offering

At its manufacturing facility in Wrexham, Wales, Limpet Labels has made a major investment in the UK label printing market by installing and commissioning a Screen Truepress L350UV inkjet press. As one of the first to do so in the UK, Limpet Labels is looking to capitalize on the 50m/min printing speed of Screen’s technology, and to maximize the potential of specific print technologies to offer its customers the best option for their label printing requirements – whether flexo, digital dry toner or, as of earlier this year, high-speed UV inkjet digital printing. Offering a resolution of 600 x 600dpi, Limpet Labels’ Truepress L350UV is installed with CMYK + white, which gives it the option to print on transparent film. For Limpet Labels, which specializes in producing self-adhesive labels and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, this provides the opportunity to more easily achieve the ‘no-label look’ which is increasingly prevalent in the retail environment and requested by customers.

Market dynamics
Limpet Labels was founded in 1992 and initially offered flexo and screen printing to customers, although a declining volume of screen printing work and changing dynamics in the label printing market – shorter runs and quick turnaround times – led it to look at new technology options.

Already working with digital after investing in a Xeikon 3000 Series dry toner press in 2009, which has since been upgraded, digital is a firmly established element of Limpet Labels’ offering. This has now been strengthened with the addition of high-speed UV inkjet.

‘When we first considered investing in digital, we looked at inkjet options but the capabilities weren’t up to what we required,’ says Jon Dudley, sales director at Limpet Labels. ‘At that time we made the decision to bring dry toner digital printing technology into the company, but when we were looking to extend out digital capabilities, we didn’t want to reinvest in the same technology and were pleasantly surprised by the advances that had been made by inkjet in the intervening years.’