Design Tech Products: Prototyping Technologies and Services

Laminated Pouch and Bag Comps
www.bridgepremedia.com
Bridge Premedia’s digitally printed comps for thermo-sealed bags and stand-up pouches are constructed with multi-layer laminates, including high barrier foil, metallized polyester, white poly, and clear films. They stock a variety of Velcro, zipper and slide closures, and add perf-and-tear notches for a more functional presentation.

Bottle, Can Printer
www.inxinternational.com
The CP100 UV printer images four-color graphics in resolutions up to 300 dpi directly onto bottles and cans. This enables design agencies and brand owners to print fully customized beverage packages in quantities as low as one, in-house and on demand.

Digital Production Printer
www.okidata.com
The C900 Series of full-color digital production printers from OKI Data Americas handles a range of media types and sizes. The five-station C941dn offers the integration of white and/or clear toner and produces comps and prototypes with short-run capabilities.

Corrugated Press
hp.com
HP offers a portfolio of package printing solutions, including the HP Scitex 15000 Corrugated Press. The press simplifies large-format corrugated printing and supports fast-cycle prototyping of corrugated displays and packaging. The press enables users to print directly to corrugated and add short-run and versioning capabilities.

Food-safe Test Samples
www.thinkkaleidoscope.com
Using what the firm calls “a proprietary method for producing short-run food-safe packaging,” Kaleidoscope can produce retail test market samples in quantities from one to 10,000.

Food Packaging Prototypes
www.printsure.com
Yoghund, a purveyor of specialty probiotic dog treats, approached PrintSure to supply them with on-demand, stand up pouch prototypes. PrintSure’s production team developed a marriage of print medium to a clear poly substrate that would simultaneously act as both a stiffener and as a window patch. This project serves as an example of the food packaging prototype capabilities made possible by PrintSure.

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In-house Printing on Demand
www.isys-label.com
The Edge 850 is a low-cost solution for in-house printing on demand. Combining this short-run digital label printer with the Edge2Print software, iSys claims users can print their custom design on die-cut substrates and have the labels ready for immediate application in one day.

Windowed Carton with Digital Metallic Ink
www.apex360.com
Cartons and labels can be digitally printed with metallic ink plus gloss and matte spot varnishes. Several metallic color options are available as is a variety of substrates including paperboard, flexible film and label stocks. Raised embossing can be added for a premium effect. This windowed carton features multi-color metallic digital printing on white paperboard.

Wide-format Inkjet Printer
www.agfapitman.com
The new 126-in. Jeti Titan S and HS flatbed printers from Agfa Graphics can print prototypes for packaging and point-of-purchase materials. The Jeti Titan S has one row of 1,280-nozzle Ricoh Gen five print heads (field-upgradeable to two), while the HS has two rows of print heads.

Packaging Prototypes
www.sgkinc.com
Schawk’s brand deployment packaging prototype services range from providing comps for “live” local market tests in store, to production comps used to sell new products at retail, to hero comps suitable for media exposure and PR opportunities. Schawk produces a range of package prototypes, comps and sales samples, particularly for the food, beverage, health and drug industries, including both rigid and flexible packaging, which can be produced using clear, white and metallized substrates, along with heat shrinkable films. Service offerings include carton prototyping, pouch prototyping and shrink label prototyping.

Printer/Cutter
www.mimakiusa.com
The Mimaki CJV30 Series integrated inkjet printer/cutters offers easy print-and-cut production of labels, decals or lightweight media for packaging prototyping in 24-, 40-, 53- and 63-in. widths. Two formulations of eco-solvent inks are available: fast-drying SS21 inkset includes C, M, Y, K, Lc, Lm and white; ES3 inkset adds silver.

Finishing Table
www.esko.com
The Kongsberg V cutting table for packaging offers value, durability, reliability and precision, according to Esko. It’s configured for sample making, with accurate, powerful cutting on flexible and thin materials such as paper, folding carton and vinyl. Its wide tool selection offers cutting, creasing and plotting.

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Packaging Prototype and Mock-up Creation
www.kodak.com
Kodak Approval System services packaging prototype and mock-up creation where small quantities with highly accurate color reproduction are required. Designed to mimic real production printing processes and capable of utilizing actual packaging substrates, from papers to films, and even metal, the Approval System can be used to create labels, cartons, bags, shrink sleeves, pouches or flow wraps.

High-speed, Wide-format Inkjet
www.xante.com
Xante Excelagraphix 4200 high speed wide-format inkjet print system features Memjet Waterfall Printhead Technology that delivers print speeds up to 12-in. per second. It prints on a wide variety of heavy board stocks (up to 42-in. wide x 8-ft. long x 0.625-in. thick) and is driven by the iQueue Prepress Workflow.

Digital Label Production System
www.allendatagraph.com
Allen Datagraph’s iTech Talon Digital Label System is a complete, affordable digital label production solution. It prints 4.5-8.5-in. wide, while the finisher laminates inline, die-less cuts, slits and rewinds to finished rolls of labels. The complete system is small enough to fit on a tabletop, yet handles high-production.

Digital Presses
www.xeikon.com
The Xeikon 3000 Series of label and packaging presses consists of five press models. All five models are based on full rotary printing technology, with variable repeat length, to ensure that the press speeds are not affected by the label size and/or the number of colors used. In addition, all five models deliver 1,200 dpi imaging quality. They are divided into two maximum web widths (20.3-in. and 13-in.) and three top running speeds (63, 49.2 and 31.5 ft. per min). Entry-level versions are designed to be field-upgraded to the wider and/or faster specifications as the user’s business grows.

Wide-format Printer
w3.efi.com
The 65-in. EFI H1625 LED printer produces fast-turn, four-color plus white prototypes using eight-level, variable drop grayscale heads, according to EFI. Its green, no-VOC “cool cure” LED platform reduces energy costs and enables printing on a broad range of roll media, carton stock and corrugated board up to 2-in. thick.

Digital High-speed UV Inkjet Press
www.fujifilm.com
Adding to its line-up of UV Inkjet presses, Fujifilm North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division, along with U.K. -based FFEI Ltd., introduce Graphium, a digital high speed UV inkjet press with a 16-in. print width that can produce labels, packaging and more.

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High-performance Cutting/Routing Tool
www.zund.com
Zünd recently expanded its selection of high-performance cutting/routing tools with the EOT250. Zünd states the tool is an ultra-fast, high-capacity electric oscillating device capable of full-speed cutting of thick corrugated/honeycomb board and other tough materials.

UV-LED Hybrid Printer
www.mutoh.com
The new ValueJet 1626UH hybrid printer allows users to print white ink and varnish with the ability to produce multiple layers for an embossed effect. Choose rigid substrates or roll media and save floor space.

Solvent Inkjet Printer
www.epson.com
The SureColor S70670 utilizes Epson’s dual-array MicroPiezo TFP print head to deliver small droplet sizes and fast print speeds. The 64-in. solvent printer uses Epson UltraChrome GSX ink–available in 10 colors, including an optional white and silver metallic, which can be used on clear or colored media.