Xeikon, a division of the Flint Group, will be taking to the upcoming Labelexpo Americas tradeshow to showcase a range of its latest solutions and applications including its hybrid printing machines, Cheetah 2.0 portfolio and Panther 2.0 technology.

Xeikon global marketing vice-president Filip Weymans said the company’s hybrid printing solutions enable businesses to be converted from conventional printing to digital printing as these machines will allow them to offer their clients a combination of products in both conventional and digital.

“Think about very long runs of various SKUs where the die cut shape is the same. Rather than doing it in two different steps, being printing and then converting, the hybrid solution combines conventional and digital,” he said.

“Another application is in the cosmetics, health and beauty and wine and spirits industries where you have certain brand elements that are repeated and consistent. Xeikon’s hybrid printing solutions allow you to reprint products with conventional printing and the variable component can be done by digital.

“Hybrid solutions give you cost savings and better efficiencies. But on top of that, Xeikon’s hybrid machines have one workflow that drives the solution. This plays to making it customisable for the customer, addressing the needs that they have.”

Xeikon will also have on display its Cheetah 2.0 technology which was introduced in 2020.

Xeikon Cheetah 2.0 dry toner technologyis now cloud-connected with man/machine and machine/machine interfaces where the machines are in constant communication with each other, driving and monitoring print jobs with full automation.

Earlier last year, Xeikon introduced two new models: the CX30 and the CX50 entry level dry-toner presses. With each cloud-connected solution, operators can monitor print manufacturing from anywhere on the shop floor by viewing the interfaces/dashboards 24/7 on a smartphone or any other device.

At Labelexpo Americas, Xeikon will be introducing new application capabilities for Cheetah 2.0, including gold and silver toners.

“We will be showing these gold and silver capabilities live at our booth in Labelexpo Americas. It is the first time that we will be demonstrating gold and silver printing at a show in the labels industry. This application lets you do some elements of embellishing on the press in one single-pass, rather than doing embellishing on the second-pass,” Weymans said.

“The quality produced is comparable to what you’ll achieve in flexo printing. I expect this will be widely taken up by the wine and spirits industry.”

Xeikon will also be at the event to provide more information about its Titon toner technology. This will not be on demonstration. Xeikon’s Titon technology is a new heat-resistant, food-safe and dry-toner formulation offering all the benefits of UV inks without the disadvantages. It aims to meet industry needs for sustainable printing methods and environmentally friendly paper-based flexible packaging production.

The other technology that will be on display is Xeikon’s Panther 2.0 technology for UV inkjet, which is the targeted at durable and health and beauty labels.

“At Labelexpo Americas, we will be introducing a new series of LED-cure ink for the Panther 2.0 range. Some of the benefits include a wider application range as it adheres to a broader substrate range and has a broader colour gamut, is sustainable, improves the overall equipment efficiency, reduces energy consumption, and reduces ink consumption by an average of 30 per cent,” Weymans said.

The Flint Group/Xeikon team can be found at Labelexpo Americas at booth #5703.