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National hot foil stamping and embossing business Avon Graphics is offering packaging converters a new option, with Alumma tool-free foiling and dent-free embossing. Wayne Robinson reports.

Embellishing packaging has long been recognised as a proven method of attracting attention, generating sales, and positioning a product positively in the perception of the consumer.

One of the issues with conventional hot foil embellishing, though, has been run lengths; the cost of setting up hot foil stamping, with its dies, has meant for shorter run work the numbers often don’t add up. And for embossing the loss of the reverse side can be an issue, depending on the type of packaging.

Avon Graphics, the biggest trade embellishing house in the country, offers converters a range of foiling and embossing options, along with a wide range of other trade services, including in-house diemaking. Its production systems means it is positioned to handle any size run, and sees it produce much of the long run work generated within Australia.

Tate Hone, managing director of the business says, “We have an extensive fleet, with 14 presses, mainly Bobst flatbeds. We hot foil, we emboss, and we have a host of other products as well.”

Those other products include holograms, 3D effects, Ecolux linerless silver laminates which are fully recyclable, and a new sterile laminate. The latter is especially useful in the current climate, so for instance a toy box that is picked up and put down by multiple people in a store before it is finally purchased will not transfer any germs from one person to the next – it is anti-bacterial.

Known for its commitment to innovation over the 45 years it has been in the hands of the Hone family, Avon Graphics is now launching a radical new hot-foil solution, Alumma, which includes a foiling solution and also an embossed foil solution, that it says reduce the entry costs, enabling converters to offer it on short run work.

The brand new Alumma embellishing process will lay down foil without the need to create dies first, which is why the minimum run length numbers are reduced, and an emboss can be created by laying down raised foil, but without denting out the substrate (as the PKN front cover shows), which means the real estate on the reverse is freed up. In these days of versioning and multiple SKUs, having an embellishing system that makes short-run work cost effective is a major breakthrough.

BUILDING BLOCKS

It has taken Avon Graphics four years of development including building several prototype machines, to launch its new Alumma systems. The first new two machines are in and running in the Melbourne and Sydney factories, with Brisbane likely to get one in the near future.

Hone says, “We believe in the future of embellishment. It offers brands, agencies, retailers and packaging operations the means to present their product in an attention-grabbing way, providing an aspirational look and feel to the product.

“We are proud of Alumma. It offers dieless operation, and produces really high quality, with everything from fine detail to solids looking great. It will give printers more to offer to their clients.”

One of the benefits of Alumma is its turnaround time. Typically, a full sheet of packaging dies will take around two days to prepare, with makeready often taking many hours on top. Alumma requires minimal makeready time.

It also opens up hot foiling for short run and on-demand work – the process is cost effective whether you’re running 100 sheets or 10,000 sheets.

For printers’ customers this means foiling and embossing is now available quickly and efficiently at a reasonable cost whatever the run length.

Embossing without denting out the reverse side of the substrate will also be welcomed, as it frees up valuable real estate, for instance on the reverse side of a chocolate or cosmetic box lid. Hone says, “Because the foil is raised but not embossed the reverse side is still perfectly flat, so that space no longer needs to be sacrificed.”

The system works with the machine laying down a transparent film with the layout to be foiled and raised on the printed sheet, with the hot foil then applied on top. The chemical make-up of the transparent film that the foil adheres to has been one of the key developments in the whole process. The application unit is enclosed, which prevents any dust entering into the process. Hone says, “It has been through extensive testing – we have printed reams of solids, there is no dust in there.”

“We can lay it down to any level,” he says. “We can build up with different colours or the same colour, and we can build it to be quite thick.”

It is a mechanical engineering process – there are no electro piezo print heads involved. Hone says being a pure mechanical process means the reliability is easier to achieve. It can lay down gold, silver and many different colours at once. Avon is soon to release swatch books for what will be available through Alumma.

Hone says, “We feel it is a huge step in the Australian market. Especially at a time when we are seeing a lot of manufacturing coming back from China, as companies deal with the uncertain trade relationship and the current difficulties in shipping with supply and surging costs.

“Supply is key – you can’t sell it if you don’t have it. We are seeing a big increase in businesses looking to move manufacturing of all kinds back onshore. Alumma is here at just the right time.

“The process is cost-effective, it is fast, and it produces quality of the highest level,” he adds.

“We looked at other ways of doing it but came to the conclusion that the system we have developed has the combination of speed, quality, cost of equipment and consumables that will enable print businesses of all sizes to be able to go to the market with confidence.”

Alumma is not limited to paper or board, it can be applied to a wide range of substrates including wrapping papers, plastics and laminates. Avon Graphics is also releasing a holographic Alumma range which Hone says will be “special”.

Tate Hone (left) CEO, Avon Graphics, with production manager Warren Tee, and an Alumma sheet.
Tate Hone (left) CEO, Avon Graphics, with production manager Warren Tee, and an Alumma sheet.

“In this digital age speed is important, especially for printers,” he says. “Alumma will enable those printers to give their customers the benefits of foil and emboss but without the drawbacks of too much added time – it will dramatically improve turnaround times. It is an exciting step. It will really knock peoples’ socks off – no one will have seen anything like it before.”

Hone says the release of Alumma will be “a positive” for the whole industry.

“At Avon, we feel we have a responsibility for the whole industry as the leading trade embellishing house in the country. We are committed to giving our customers more – we are not standing still. Print has unrivalled benefits, but we need to keep building on those benefits, and that is what Avon is doing with the new Alumma solution.”

This article has been published in the September-October print issue of PKN Packaging News, on page 36.

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