Xeikon shifts into L&P gear

Wim Maes, CEO of Xeikon, explained, 'Xeikon has developed into a well-stabilized company by investing more money in R&D, around 15 percent. We will continue to play in the portion of the market that demands the highest quality, and in that sector, we want to be the most productive.'

Xeikon's investment in R&D has lead to the introduction of Trillium liquid toner, the Cheetah press launched at Labelexpo Americas 2014 capable of hitting speeds of 98 ft./min and the development of a new black dry toner for the folding carton market designed to be particularly dark. Maes continued, 'The folding carton market is really picking up; there is a big opportunity for Xeikon to compete in a market that has been so close to offset printing.'

The company reported a global installation base of 318 units dedicated to printing packaging materials at the close of 2014 with 78 units operating in the US and Canada. Xeikon's packaging market production segmentation based on installations was said to be:

• 70-80 percent self-adhesive labels
• 11 percent heat transfer labels
• 6 percent folding cartons
• 2-5 percent in-mold labels (injection molding)

It has hired extra sales and marketing people to service the labels and packaging industry around the world. The company feels that Europe holds a significantly bigger market opportunity for digital printing because of the complexity of the region.

Still, interest and adoption in digital printing is rampant in Asia where it opened an office last year with plans to open a demo center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Tokyo, Japan this year. Recent changes in the company's North America leadership has brought Patrick McCarty to manage service and operations while Todd Blumsack is the new director of sales and marketing in the region.

The company will host its Xeikon Café Packaging Innovations event in Antwerp, Belgium on March 10-12. Visitors will experience demonstrations of the various labels and packaging applications that the print technology is capable of tackling. At its last event, the supplier hosted more than 325 customers or potential buyers. Vendor partners for finishing, workflow and materials treatment will present their products and how they relate to Xeikon.

Said Filip Weymans, Xeikon director of segment marketing and business development for labels & packaging, 'Entry-level presses represent 50 percent of our overall sales. The labels and packaging market has been happy to acquire such models as it learns to adopt digital printing and harness its benefits.'

Spot colors are said to represent only two percent of what's used by Xeikon customers. The supplier has been known to advocate the possibilities of five-color process work and the gamut it offers. Weymans explained, 'Expanding the color gamut is not something that we see the market truly demanding. Instead we worked on the speed of the press, which would help reduce production costs for printers.'

Cheetah launch and success

Since Labelexpo Americas 2014, Xeikon has sold eight Cheetah machines with placements in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. The Cheetah press is designed to tackle the productivity for pressure-sensitive labels. It is available up to 13 inches and runs fifty percent faster than the 3500 Series press, which Xeikon still considers to be its most productive offering because of the wider web width. To increase speed, the supplier made a change in the printing station design to incorporate more corona treaters that maintain the stability of the material.

The toner used in the Cheetah is based on Xeikon's ICE toner technology. However with the Cheetah the toner shape has been manipulated and the particles are smaller, which help deliver consistency at speed. The new toner is cheaper to produce, providing converters savings on fixed costs.

Color matching between the Cheetah and existing Xeikon labels and packaging Series presses is not a problem. The pigments used for each set of toners are identical.

In-house track and trace labels success

Xymogen, a nutraceutical company based in Orlando, Florida, launched Labels in Motion with a Xeikon 3500 Series press with in-line finishing to produce labels for its products. By using Xeikon digital print technology, the company developed an e-pedigree track and trace system for each packaged product using QR codes. The system allows consumers to go online and verify the authenticity of any Xymogen product that they've purchased.

Explained Steve Kirchof, VP of sales at Labels in Motion, 'While it took some time to get the program started, we now have it down to a science. Every product is tracked and we know precisely which doctor is getting which product.'

Labels in Motion today services many clients outside of Xymogen in verticals with multiple SKUs like hot sauce and e-cigarette vapor, accounting for 30-40 percent of overall sales. One of its vapor products customers had been using permanent marker to write-in the expiration date. Labels in Motion prints the variable data digitally onto the label to provide more safety to buyers.

The converter offers a 1-2 day turnaround time depending on the number of orders that it has to fill for Xymogen. A second Xeikon print and finishing system will be installed in early 2015 to support ongoing growth. Said Kirchoff, 'We've gotten to the point where we'd like to have a dedicated press for the Xymogen business. And we have a lot of customers in California and Colorado and we're trying to figure out how to get those labels to them more quickly.'