Fotos: Finat Die Entwicklung der Etiketten geht auf eine 400-jährige Geschichte zurück. The development of the labels goes back to a 400-year history. retail outlets across Europe. At this time bar coded labels for labelling fresh produce in store and at pre-packers was being undertaken with heat- sensitive label stocks. It was not until the 1980s that thermal direct and then thermal transfer printing of bar coded price-weigh labels using self-adhesive materials began to take place and grow rapidly by the later part of the decade. At about the same time the use of new types of polypropy-lene and polystyrene (later polyethylene) film ma-terials for more demanding label applications were being introduced. High quality printing of filmic materials used for labelling shampoos, toiletries, industrial products, etc, were now required by the leading brand owners. This presented more de-manding label printing and converting challenges for press manufacturers and converters. To meet changing label printing requirements over the past 30 years the dominant label printing technology of the time has undergone several changes: in the 1980s it was rotary letterpress that dominated new press sales. Then came growth in the flexo process during the 1990s. Much of the early part of the 21st century has seen UV flexo as the dominant technology for new label press sales. Since the mid-2000s, digital printing has also begun to evolve quite rapidly, initially with electro-photographic liquid and dry toner technologies and, most recently, with new generations of UV and water-based inkjet. In the pipeline for launch in 2014 is the newly developed Landa nanographic printing process, an offset inkjet process that has already created significant market interest amongst label, folding carton and flexible packaging printers. Without unduly wishing to worry the label conver-ter, there is also considerable development work being undertaken at the present time with the longer-term aim of eventually using inkjet technol-ogy to print direct onto glass or plastic bottles or onto a variety of can shapes and sizes. Maybe not a concern for today, but possibly a more real threat for the future. erheblich voneinander ab. Wie wich-tig ist die Geschwindigkeit bei den häufigen Umrüstungen zwischen kleinauflagigen Aufträgen? Beim Umstieg auf den Digital-druck muss der Verarbeiter auch entscheiden, ob er in Inline- oder Offline-Finishing investiert. Beim Inline-Verfah-ren kann jeder Auftragswech-sel bedeuten, dass man die Druckmaschine anhalten und die Stanzwerkzeuge austau-schen muss. Sind dann mehrere kleine Aufträge zu produzieren, können diese Werkzeugwechsel bereits einen erheblichen Zeitaufwand bedeuten und die eigentliche Laufzeit der Druckmaschine unnötig verringern. Das bedeu-tet eine niedrigere Ausgabeleistung und eine poten-ziell schlechtere Rentabilität. Offline-Finishing heißt unter Umständen, dass eine Finishing-Linie die Aus-gaben mehrerer Digitaldruckmaschinen verarbeiten kann, so dass die Produktionszeit maximal ausge-nutzt wird. Eine weitere Überlegung wäre die Anschaffung ei-nes Systems zum Laserstanzen, das allerdings mit höheren Anschaffungskosten verbunden ist. Doch ist diese Investition von erheblichem Nutzen, wenn jeden Tag mehrere kleinauflagige Aufträge produ-ziert werden müssen. Das Laserstanzen bietet in Kombination mit der Inkjet- (oder Xeikon-) Techno-logie, die ohne feste Rapportlängen auskommt, den faszinierenden Vorzug, dass man die Stapelverarbei-tung von Aufträgen quer oder entlang zur Bahn ein-richten kann. Damit ist es möglich, die Wirtschaft-lichkeit und Leistung zu maximieren. Rückblickend scheint es, als ob in den vergangenen 50 Jahren, vor allem bei Selbstklebeetiketten, mehr Änderungen in der Drucktechnologie eingetreten sind, als in den ganzen 400 Jahren davor. Und die Etikettendruck- und Verarbeitungstechnologie ent-wickelt sich jeden Tag weiter. Mike Fairley, Grün-der von Labels & Labeling und Direktor der strategischen Entwicklung der Tarsus Label and Packaging Group (www.finat.com) F Continued from page 14 screw mechanism. It was a further two hundred years before much began to change. Yes, the hand presses were now being made of iron with a lever system to apply pressure, but the paper was still made by hand. However, by the early 19th century the industrial revolution was bringing significant changes to the world of prin-ting – the first cylinder printing presses (powered by steam), the offset printing process, continuous papermaking machines. The 1800s also brought coated paper, the halftone process, colour printing – and a whole host of new label market application requirements that were to see the early beginnings of what we now call the label industry. These new 19th century applications included auto-matic volume production of standard-sized glass bottles and bottle filling lines, the first canning factories, the rapid growth of pharmacy products, labels on boxes, labels on luggage, labels on cigar boxes and bands, matchbox labels and all at this time now being printed on sheet-fed offset or letterpress presses. Labels in the 20th century The first part of the 20th century saw the introduc-tion of the first narrow-web presses for printing gummed and self-adhesive tape. The key inno-vations for the narrow-web printer were developments by Stan Avery that enabled self-adhesive materials to have a backing carrier and be cut to shape on the press. It was die-cutting mate-rials on a liner that now enabled sticky labels to be produced on a roll. It was not long before press manufacturers such as Gallus, Nilpeter, and Mark Andy were producing the early dedicated roll-label letterpress and flexo presses. Later came narrow-web screen, hot-foil and combination process presses, UV-curing inks and more advanced plate-making technology. By the late 1970s self-adhesive labels had already attained a 7% share of the European label market – with all printing processes being used. Today, self-adhesive labels make up around 40% of label usage, fuelled by a whole host of technology and press inno-vations over the last thirty years that have enabled labels to be printed faster, on wider webs, using rotary and wrap-around tooling, servo-drive presses, and press controls that include web inspection, register control, colour management, and much more. Unbelievably, it was not until 1978 that the first retail bar codes were being produced for the Fine Fare Supermarket’s own label products, and the very first time that a velocity code was incorporated on the film masters for the production of the dark vertical bars on the codes. Today, bar codes are an essential element of every label sold through 16 2013 WEIGHING & LABELLING WIEGEN & AUSZEICHNEN
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