Screen GP Australia, through dealer Jet Technologies, has experienced excellent sales of its Truepress Jet L350UV digital label press throughout the pandemic era. Here are the reasons why.
Screen GP entered the digital label press market in 2014 , with the first Australian installation at Sydney’s DS Labels in 2015. After six years of reliable use, proprietor Deane Sproule has upgraded to the latest Truepress Jet L350UV SAI – again through Jet Technologies. The reliability of Screen’s equipment is demonstrated by the fact that DS Labels’ old L350 has been on-sold and will continue in production at another Sydney printer. The new SAI model delivers greater speed and extra colours, plus other refinements.
“The L350 series has been a great success for us and Jet Technologies,” says local managing director Peter Scott. “We now have a good number of installations installed, with another three on the way. Globally, there are over 200 L350s installed and the original ones are still in production. One UK printer, Springfield Solutions, now operates five L350s because their business just kept growing and growing – and they are all-digital with no flexo.”
Screen’s L350 series hit the sweet spot in label production for a number or reasons. First, the high-integrity engineering that built Screen’s reputation in prepress, digital web inkjet and silicon wafer manufacturing technology, was not compromised. Secondly, Screen bypassed the slower ‘benchtop’ crowded market and went straight to production label printing, just a notch below flexo speeds. This meant that serious label printers with the ability to transfer short run flexo jobs to digital and add variable data, could appreciate the benefits immediately.
Screen chose a 350mm web width – the narrow web industry’s most popular size. Also, with inkjet as the digital ink lay-down method, much higher speeds and versatility were achieved over toner machines. Above all, Screen’s reliability, service and uptime convinced busy printers that it was a wise investment.
“Within Australia is an L350UV with one of the highest ink usage of any in the world,” says Scott. “What this means is that it prints high-quality labels, day-in and day-out over multiple shifts and does not break down. In the digital print world this is quite an achievement.
As the L350 series progressed, Screen introduced a low-migration ink version targeting the non-contact food sector.
“The L350UV LM+ has proved popular with food labellers overseas but we have yet to install one in Australia,” notes Scott.
What has taken off like a rocket, despite the pandemic, is the latest model, the L350UV SAI. The main reason, apart from its 60 metres-per-minute increased speed, is the sheer colour quality and high Pantone matchability. By adding orange and blue to the CMYK+W inkset, colour vibrancy not possible on other digital presses is achieved. This is helped by a collaboration with colour management gurus CGS-Oris of Germany.
Several orders are in the pipeline and even Jet Technologies’ showroom machine was sold to an insistent customer – they have reordered three times and each time it has been diverted to a client before reaching the showroom.
Pictured: Labels demonstrating the impact of the extra orange and blue colours.
This article has been published in the September-October print issue of PKN Packaging News, on page 52.
