SMART DESIGN

LABELS&LABELING |19
OKI press fits
digital gap
LAUNCHED LAST YEAR, OKI’s proColor pro510DW
digital press has found a niche between the entry
level and bigger industrial digital label presses.
Danielle Jerschefske reports on an early installation
OKI Data Americas has reported the first installations of its
proColor pro510DW roll-fed digital label press – part of
the proColor Series of digital printers – launched in
mid-2011.
Electrophotography is the core foundation of OKI
Data digital print technologies, as it is with both HP
Indigo and Xeikon. The press uses a drum and toner
model with LED imaging for smaller dot production and
print clarity. Its consumables are based on OKI dry toner that
adheres to a drum roll where the image area charge is neutralized
by small LED printheads. The image is then transferred from the
drum to the media. The company’s Microfine Spherical Toner
chemistry is claimed to deliver a high gloss and smooth tonal
gradations.
The OKI pro510DW digital web press has four color stations and
a print width up to 12.9 inches. It runs up to 30 ft/min (10 m/min)
with fully variable data where required. A three inch core holds up
to 300 feet of material.
The press is equipped with auto insertion hardware and software
that allows converters to ‘cut-on-the-fly’, so when multiple jobs are
run on a single roll, each can be cut and cored while the material
is automatically held and set for the next run. This frees up the
operator from manual intervention.
Currently machines are delivered with a Compose front end
based around a Harlequin RIP, which handles color management,
workflow, media type and cost estimates. It can print
pre-converted labels or labels can be finished on a wide range of
off-line cutting systems.
‘With a small footprint and low investment cost, this OKI system
can bring great value to a small converting business,’ says Rich
Egert, GM of strategic technology partnerships (STP), part of the
new business development group that leads the graphic arts and
production division of OKI Data Americas. ‘The pro510DW is ideal
for promotional runs within a full service flexo house giving the
capability to complete short run, profitable, high quality solutions
for less than 15,000 labels.’
PROFITABLE ROI
Tim Newton is the manufacturing director for Thomco Specialty
Products & Converting in Suwanee, Georgia, a company that
distributes a wide variety of materials for industrial markets
like automotive, aerospace, offset printing, signs and graphics
and metal shops. The company also creates complex custom
converting solutions for applications including testing, design,
prototypes, and manufactured parts.
Thomco currently uses Roland UV and solvent inkjet technology
to print small quantities of decals on vinyl substrates, mostly
for prototype and testing work, using tool-less dies to cut the
materials. This business has expanded exponentially for Thomco
over the last five years, and led the company to expand its digital
offering with an OKI Data pro510DW digital web press to support
its flexographic label production.
Most of the work coming off the OKI press is sheeted, with
cutting done off-line using a tool-less die flatbed plotter. The
converter estimates that it must be printing 700-1,000 feet of
labels to justify the cost of finishing labels in rolls.
Explaining the thinking behind his digital investment,
Newton says, ‘We had to be able to justify the spend on the
equipment. The OKI system and its technology are appropriate
for our current needs and the investment cost fair for the
expected ROI.’
Thomco ran an assessment between a Xeikon system and
the OKI platform using the same image before a decision was
made. ‘When we reviewed the two runs, we felt the quality was
eighty percent of a Xeikon, while the cost of the OKI system is
only 10 percent of the price of a Xeikon. And while the OKI press
isn’t high speed – it’s a similar speed to entry level competitive
systems and about half the speed of higher end models in the
marketplace – we don’t really care about that right now.’
The pro510DW is producing runs at Thomco up to 5,000 feet,
in three- and four-color process work with multiple SKUs that
are simply too costly to take-on with flexo. The converter has
been able to call on small accounts where it previously could
not compete - for example producing 250 labels for a chemical
spray, with three flavors that required three-color work. Thomco
has validated and standardized substrates into five general
groups: board eight to 13pt, matte paper, gloss poly, matte poly
and matte vinyl.
Newton concludes that the OKI system does a very good job,
and is likely to pay for itself within six to 12 months of operation,
given current workload and usage.
JULY 2012 | L&L
OKI pro510DW digital web press for labels