Printing press manufacturer Xeikon and its parent company, ink manufacturer Flint Group, are launching Idera, a digital platform for corrugated packaging converters.
This new solution would, according to Xeikon, offer a higher print quality than flexography while retaining the advantages of digital printing, i.e. on-demand printing for versioning and personalisation and low paper waste.
Based on a single pass inkjet printing press with post-printing, Idera handles coated and uncoated corrugated sheets up to 1.6 metres wide and 2.8 metres long and reaches a printing speed of 150 m/min. Idera is driven by the Xeikon X-800 stream.
Idera uses aqueous inks of certified food grade quality. "Water-based inks have major advantages over UV and hybrid inks in terms of food safety and sustainability, but also in terms of cost, allowing higher volumes and a higher break-even point for this new market" says Lode Deprez, Vice President of Technology at Xeikon.
One of the other advantages of this solution put forward by its manufacturer is its open ecosystem, which allows Idera to integrate different complementary equipment from different brands such as output peripherals, workflow, camera inspection and more.
This new solution will be demonstrated from September at Xeikon's Global Innovation Center in Lier, Belgium.
