US printer boosts quality with digital-flexo hybrid

The DICE GT3000, from DICE Graphic Technologies, has been installed at the Horizon Label facility in West Berlin, New Jersey, and has been added onto a Mark Andy flexo press.

It was installed in March this year and began service in April.

Paul Falkowski, president of Horizon Label, said: ‘When I entered the manufacturing side of the printing business I brought in a background as a broker and reseller. I knew that I wanted our company’s focus to be on growing our current accounts by exceeding quality expectations and staying on top of ways to expand our customer base.

‘Many of our newer customers are small business owners and entrepreneurs who utilize our express digital printing services. With this new technology, we can offer faster turnaround, lower prices, and continue to maintain a beautiful product.’

Falkowski added that the combination of flexo and inkjet has allowed Horizon Label to target new business, and said: ‘Integrating the DICE GT digital printer into our Mark Andy press has allowed us to enter a segment of the market that wasn’t effectively being served. It has also helped us to dramatically grow our sales and account base in the food industry, which is now our largest market.

‘This system allows us to easily produce high-quality process color printing and in perfect CMYK registration without producing plates, make-ready or wash-ups. There are now encoders mounted to the flexo press that enable us to combine flexo printing with the DICE inkjet printing in one pass with perfect registration, including perforating and die-cutting.’

He concluded: ‘After experiencing how effective the DICE GT integrated digital-flexo hybrid approach has been, I can’t see why anyone would accept the limitations and higher costs of standalone narrow web digital inkjet printing systems.’