Barthel adds three HP Indigo digital presses

This step is in line with current market developments in label production and will enable the company to increase its digital printing capacity significantly. It will further allow it to continue to shift print runs from offset to digital.

Barthel Group is described as one of the largest label printing houses in Germany, with around 270,000sqm of labels produced every day at four locations in Germany and the Netherlands. Those labels are then delivered within Europe. The company started its business with the production of labels for fresh products but now covers all industries offering tailor-made printing and finishing options from a single source.

The group’s first HP Indigo digital press was installed more than 10 years ago. It now operates a total of nine HP Indigo digital presses across the group.

Mischa Barthel, managing director of Barthel Group, explained: ‘The amount of digitally printed labels and the number of orders that leave our company every day are steadily growing. We rely 100 percent on digital printing to handle orders consisting of numerous language versions. Our benefits are two-fold: we save time because we don’t have to change plates, and we can take full advantage of the width of the HP Indigo 20000 (762mm) as we cut the web in half and finish immediately. This enables us to achieve almost offset speed at two times 32m/min’

This increased productivity and the register accuracy of the HP Indigo digital presses when printing heat-sensitive PE films played an important role in the latest purchase decision. Another advantage identified was the quality of the white ink compared to other inkjet printing options.