PrintCo360 adds Mark Andy Digital Series iQ

PrintCo360, a Rainsville, Alabama label converter, has installed a Mark Andy Digital Series iQ UV inkjet hybrid press, choosing the in-line converting platform over standalone digital alternatives after concluding that separating printing from die-cutting and slitting would create unnecessary production bottlenecks.

The Digital Series iQ is configured with two flexo stations, one before and one after the digital engine, with in-line die-cutting, allowing PrintCo360 to combine digital printing with flexographic coatings and spot colors without transferring the roll to additional equipment. The company operates four Mark Andy presses in total and began adding digital capacity around a decade ago.

Owner Joey Hicks said the decision reflected the production logic the company had applied to flexo for years. 'We went to see roll-to-roll digital standalone machines, and I kept thinking, this doesn't make sense to me,' said Hicks. 'You're asking for a bottleneck when you have to print it, move it to a die cutter, and then move it somewhere else to slit it. We had been printing and converting inline on flexo presses for years. Why would we stop doing that when we went digital?'

The press has become a platform for the company's growing multi-SKU label work across food and beverage, craft beer, spices and consumer products, where brands regularly introduce new varieties requiring short runs across multiple versions.

'If a customer has a couple thousand labels across ten different SKUs, we can set them all up in prepress and run them through. The press never stops. In flexo, that would have taken hours upon hours,' Hicks added.

PrintCo360 ships throughout the US and into Canada, with approximately 40 percent of its work produced for customers outside its immediate regional market. The company is run across three generations of the Hicks family, with Joey's son Silas overseeing production, quoting, scheduling and sales coordination.