Pad Print Machinery of Vermont announces XD-400-R

Julian Joffe, president and founder of Pad Print Machinery of Vermont, has announced another development in the East Dorset, UK-based company’s new XD-400 Digital-Direct-to-Print Series of pad-less product decorating machinery.

Wearing the designation XD-400-R, the new machine is capable of extremely high definition printing on bottles and other cylindrical objects. The machine was unveiled at last month’s glasstec 2006 in Dsseldorf, Germany, an International Glass Technologies exposition that took place October 24-28.

’We’re continuing to innovate and evolve the XD Series,’ said Joffe. ’We see this technology making strong inroads on more traditional methods of decorating products, especially screen printing.’

Joffe explained that the XD-400-R is an ideal piece of equipment for many industries including promotional products, cosmetics, food & beverage, sports bottles, etc. ’With this machine, changing from one piece of artwork to another on a same size bottle is instant – a click of a mouse. There are no screens or clichs to design and construct. The XD-400-R decorates a bottle in :05-:06 seconds, he said.

’Digital-Direct-to-Print is definitely leading edge technology,’ added Jon Hale, Pad Print Machinery of Vermont’s COO. The XD-400-R will allow companies large and small to produce short-run batches of finished product without the downtime associated with screen production and changeover. ’We’re talking about the difference between an IBM Selectric typewriter and a PC – that’s how great a leap forward the XD-400 series is,’ he said.

The XD-400-R is a versatile machine that doubles as a flat screen printing device with a fifteen minute changeover from rotary to flat. Besides the original XD-400-1 Digital-Direct-to-Print machine that debuted at the NPE International Plastics Show in Chicago this June, Joffe and the Pad Print Machinery of Vermont engineering team have also added a 6-color machine, the XD-400-6.