The August-September issue of Australia's and New Zealand's leading label and packaging magazine, Labels Plus - at 92 pages the largest pagination of any current graphic arts print publication- is out now online and on the way in print. It was to have previewed the Label & Packaging Expo in conjunction with PacPrint, but the shows were postponed until June 2022. Nevertheless, it's packed with news on narrow web, both digital and conventional.
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| The cover story is about Auckland family-run label firm PhilStic installing a new Gallus Labelfire Hybrid press |
Edited by the Publisher of Wide format online, Andy McCourt, Labels Plus is a quarterly trade magazine aimed squarely at the Label and Flexible packaging sectors. Like so many other areas, inkjet and toner digital is making huge inroads, either as stand-alone digital presses or hybridised together with flexographic units, foiling, die-cutting.
The cover story is of one man's vision - Phil Fewings - and the family business he passed on to his children. The latest addition combines piezo inkjet with flexo, foiling and advanced converting with the Gallus Labelfire 340, sold through Gallus owner Heidelberg.
Inkjet is also represented by news that Screen, through dealer Jet Technologies, has installed the first Truepress Jet L350UV SAI to Sydney printer DS Labels. This is their second Screen label press - they were the first to install a Truepress L350 six years ago and this was traded in - and immediately on-sold to PDQ Labels after a good service and new printheads.
Other inkjet label success stories include Durst, Epson, Canon, PicoColour, Label Power while toner (electrophotographic) technology is still strong with HP Indigo, Xeikon and Konica Miniolta, not forgetting a 'mini marvel' LED desktop label device from OKI, which includes white with the CMYK.
Many wide format printers offer labels and stickers via print & cut machines but these are quite slow and the resulting rolls need to be manually applied. If you want to take a look at the more high-productivity side of labels and change up a gear or two in the burgeoning self-adhesive label market, take a look inside the latest Labels Plus magazine online - it's free - or ask to be added to the printed magazine's mailing list - contact via www.visualconnections.org.au
