Gallus, a subsidiary of Heidelberg, is aiming to transform the narrow-web print landscape with its latest research – Gallus MatteJet technology.

Announced at Labelexpo Americas 2024, the company said the innovation represents an important advancement in inkjet printing, unlocking a premium matte finish previously unachievable with digital inkjet, bringing the possibilities of inkjet technology to the wine label market for the very first time.

Exemplifying Heidelberg’s position as a total solution provider for all modern printing processes – offering the entire spectrum from toner to inkjet, offset printing to flexo and all controlled from a common Prinect workflow – MatteJet was developed in-house at Gallus’ innovation hub in St. Gallen, the Gallus Experience Center.

At Labelexpo Americas 2024, Gallus exhibited alongside Heidelberg, where it explained how this innovation addresses one of the key challenges that has historically restricted the growth of digital inkjet technology.

Importantly, visitors at the show also learnt how MatteJet transforms the market segment for wine and spirit labels and provided converters with the key to a profitable new area of business growth.

The glossy finish inherent to digital inkjet technology has been one of the foremost barriers to its widespread adoption across labels and packaging – specifically in premium segments such as wine and spirit labels where brands traditionally expect a sophisticated matte finish.

Until today, this was only achievable through conventional printing, or the addition of post-processing equipment to utilise matt varnishes, adding time, complexity and cost.

Now, Gallus MatteJet technology delivers fast, cost-effective, and high-quality matte finishing capabilities, integrated directly into the digital inkjet process.

This will allow converters to achieve a high-end matte finish at the touch of a button, without changing inks or adding overprint varnish, eliminating the need for external finishing processes or separate conventional machines.

MatteJet will also enable more converters and brands to enjoy the benefits of digital printing, such as more profitable short runs, personalisation, and on-demand printing.

Designed to integrate with Gallus’ Digital Printing Unit, the new MatteJet technology also represents further expansion of Gallus’ System to Compose concept. Under the System to Compose, converters can add, adjust and remove units to their Gallus One as their business needs evolve – now further expanded to comprise workflow and service options as well as equipment.

The latest iteration of the Gallus One also made its global tradeshow debut at this Labelexpo, in the newly expanded 430mm web width.

Visitors to the stand saw first-hand the possibilities achievable with its recently extended colour gamut, with the integration of orange and violet Saphira inks developed jointly in-house with Heidelberg.

Existing equipment can be effortlessly retrofitted or modified, and entirely new configurations can be customised by integrating all proven Gallus Labelmaster modules, up- and downstream, allowing print service providers to “compose your print masterpiece” with the Gallus One.

The Gallus one facilitates not just game-changing levels of adaptability, but market-leading levels of speed and quality – boosting profitability, by design.

The fully hybrid solution also has the capability to not only print in four colours but also in orange and violet with the gamut extended.

“This hybrid solution allows us to combine our system to compose directly with all the configurations. At the front of the system, we can add some flexo printing units from the Labelmaster. Downstream we can add other functionalities like embellishing and die-cutting,” Heidelberg head of sales Thomas Schweizer said.

“What’s also new is that with regular inkjet, labels are glossy. But now, we have new technology that allows matt labels to be printed. With just a push of a button, we can change the behaviour of the ink from glossy to matt. This is totally revolutionary.”

Watch the video of Thomas Schweizer discussing the Gallus One technology in the video below: