Mirmar adds second Mark Andy hybrid

Spanish label converter Mirmar has installed a second Mark Andy Digital Series HD hybrid press at its Valencia headquarters, following a year in which its first DSHD handled 35 percent of the company's jobs, with the two presses now collectively processing 50 percent of jobs and delivering around 5 million linear meters of labels annually.

The second press matches the specification of the first, featuring a seven-color UV inkjet engine running CMYK plus orange, violet and white, with two flexo stations on either side for spot color, cold foil or lacquer, web turn bars for delamination and relamination and a web translator for peel and reseal work. The press runs at 1,200 DPI at 73m/min.

The hybrid investment has reduced makeready times to 20 minutes or less, allowing Mirmar to process more than twice as many jobs per hour compared with flexo-only production, while freeing capacity on its six Mark Andy Performance Series flexo presses for longer runs.

'Our Mark Andy flexo presses are very efficient and quick to make-ready, but in today's market of declining run lengths and increased numbers of SKUs, we needed to find a better way for our short to medium run work,' said Jaime Mir Pastor, CEO of Mirmar. 'The first DSHD handled 35 percent of our jobs in its first year, and that figure has risen to 50 percent with the two in full production. Although this accounts for less than 20 percent of our total volume, it frees up significant capacity on our flexo presses and makes us significantly more competitive price-wise for our customers.'

Home care and cosmetics are cited as key growth markets for hybrid presses, with high SKU counts in home care and demand for high-opacity white in cosmetics both well-suited to the DSHD platform. Future investment plans include linerless label production and further automation.

'We have enjoyed a very long and close relationship with Mirmar that has been built on trust,' noted Josep Balcells, sales manager at Mark Andy. 'This has benefitted both parties and will become even more essential going forward as price pressure and shorter delivery times demand more productivity from increasingly complex technology.'