Silicon Valley printing technology company Electronics For Imaging, Inc. and Australian packaging innovator Orora Limited today announced an expanded global partnership that will bring additional, state-of-the art EFI production technologies to key Orora operations.
The agreement includes Orora’s purchase of two EFI Nozomi C18000 single-pass LED inkjet corrugated packaging presses. The new presses are scheduled to be installed at Orora facilities in Melbourne, Australia and in Los Angeles, California, in May, 2018.
“The new EFI Nozomi C18000 digital printers are genuine game changers for our corrugated packaging customers, delivering magazine quality imagery directly onto corrugated board at ultra-high-speed,” says Nigel Garrard, Orora’s Managing Director and CEO.
“We are the first company to purchase and install the Nozomi printer in Australia and one of the first to use this print technology in North America. Our investment in these state-of-the-art printers demonstrates Orora’s commitment to keeping our business and customers at the forefront of the market,” Garrard says.
“Orora is an excellent example of an innovative, large, multinational business that takes a savvy, proactive approach to enhanced customer service and best-in-class production for the corrugated packaging space,” says Frank Mallozzi, senior vice president, worldwide sales and marketing, EFI. “We are excited to partner with Orora to help the company grow its competitive edge with the Nozomi presses.”
The Nozomi C18000 presses Orora is installing are breakthrough production products that enable full-scale digital production of short to medium run corrugated packaging jobs. They eliminate many of the challenges associated with digital corrugated board production by offering fast production speeds up to 75 linear meters per minute.
Key features on Orora’s Nozomi presses include:
Extended-gamut printing for accurate brand color reproduction with six-color imaging plus white;
High-quality, accurate output in resolutions up to 360×720 dots per inch with four-level greyscale imaging;
A fully integrated, programmable top- and bottom-feed system that also handles media separation, lift, transport and alignment at full press speeds;
A 100% in-line image quality inspection system that actively compensates for inkjet nozzle, alignment and uniformity errors for the highest possible imaging quality; and
High productivity with a permanent head architecture that eliminates the downtime associated with replacing consumable printheads.
Output from the presses are unique in having certification for OCC recyclability and repulpability from the Western Michigan University Recycling, Paper and Coating Pilot Plant – a leading certification organization for corrugated recycling.
Advanced workflows with the complete EFI ecosystem for corrugated
Next-generation, ultra-fast and scalable EFI Fiery NZ-1000 digital front ends (DFEs) installed with the presses will give Orora the processing power needed to develop a broader range of production applications, including multi-SKU and versioned jobs where digital offers distinct economic advantages over analogue production.
Fueling digital print success with leading-edge EFI technologies
EFI’s partnership with Orora also extends into the production workflow space, with Orora collaborating with EFI on workflow innovations, including technologies used in the EFI Corrugated Packaging Suite manufacturing execution system. The overall partnership for packaging production technologies is the next major step EFI and Orora have taken together after the recent EFI VUTEk superwide-format printer purchases Orora completed for its U.S. point-of-purchase and visual communications business, Orora Visual.
Orora launched Orora Visual in March 2017, following the acquisition and consolidation of four separate point-of-purchase businesses under the one brand. Orora Visual is now able to serve the market locally from its national footprint of integrated production and fulfillment hubs, significantly improving speed to market and reducing freight costs for customers. To enhance its market leadership, Orora Visual is currently in the process of installing four 3.2m-wide EFI VUTEk HS125 Pro hybrid roll/flatbed inkjet presses at its Mesquite, Texas, Orange County, California, Los Angeles and Chicago facilities to meet growing demand for high-end point-of-purchase graphics and freestanding rigid substrate displays.
The new VUTEk installations join several other VUTEk printers used at Orora Visual facilities. Orora Visual also uses EFI Fiery DFEs to drive its superwide-format production and proofing printers. Plus, the business uses EFI Monarch ERP workflow software and is in the process of upgrading to a complete EFI Enterprise Commercial Print Suite offering new features for inventory and purchasing management, stronger customer relationship management and improved reporting.
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