Mark Andy proves hybrid productivity

Mark Andy has demonstrated its Digital Series HD HighSpeed 1200 completing 10 jobs covering 25 SKUs and 873,000 finished labels in a single eight-hour shift with one operator, cutting total production time by 83 percent compared with conventional flexo.

Mark Andy says makeready time fell by 91 percent and material waste by 88 percent, which brought a 28 percent reduction in production costs. It ran a seven-color version of the hybrid press at 480ft/min and 1,200 DPI. Two flexo units before the digital engine printed white, while the digital engine applied the four process colors plus orange and violet (CMYKOV). Embellishment and further converting were done in the same pass.

'Converters aren't simply looking for faster presses. They're looking for ways to produce more jobs, manage increasing SKU complexity and reduce the time and resources required. By combining digital flexibility with flexographic printing and in-line converting, we're able to reduce the steps required to complete a job and significantly improve overall production efficiency,' said Ben Luly, product manager at Mark Andy.

The company says the results show that productivity goes beyond maximum print speed, because job preparation, changeovers, workflow efficiency and single-pass processing all affect how much finished work a converter can produce in a shift. Label markets are seeing more SKUs and shorter runs with frequent artwork changes. Flexo remains well suited to longer runs, while digital suits short runs, and a hybrid press lets converters choose how to produce each order.

With the HighSpeed 1200, converters can use flexo for selected colors or coatings and digital for variable artwork, extended gamut colors and versioned production. Mark Andy says the speed and resolution also widen the range of mid-run and longer-run work that can be produced economically with digital, while conventional flexo stays in use where it is most efficient.