EFI says its drupa stand has highlighted its dna in single-pass printing solutions for printing excellence in the packaging, display graphics, and textile markets.
Visitors to EFI’s stand saw some of the company’s latest single-pass innovations live, including the Packsize EFI X5 Nozomi. EFI calls it the world’s first full-colour, on-demand, right-sized box system that prints, cuts, creases, glues, and erects customised boxes at the rate of up to one box every six seconds. The company also showed the EFI Nozomi 14000 SD single pass printer for sign and display.
EFI displayed an array of applications produced on the Nozomi 14000 AQ true water-based, single pass printer for corrugated packaging and displays; the Nozomi 12000 MP single-pass technology for direct-to-metal package printing; as well as the next generation EFI Reggiani Bolt XS single-pass textile printer.
Focus on single-pass
Evandro Matteucci, vice president and general manager for inkjet packaging and building materials at Efi, says, “Since 2012, when we acquired Cretaprint for single-pass inkjet printing of ceramics, and drupa 2016, where we first unveiled Nozomi, we have not only been focused on leveraging single-pass technology across multiple markets, but also continuing to improve the speed, quality, efficiency, and more for this disruptive printing technology.
“The entire global EFI team continues to participate in these developments, pulling technologies and expertise together in a way no other company can. The initial proof case of this capability was bringing the original Nozomi to market in less than two years, an incredible achievement that has resulted in the installation of more than 60 units around the world.”
EFI says the Nozomi printers represent the industry’s best single-pass inkjet corrugated technology in terms of power consumption efficiency, certified by the Fogra Research Institute for Media Technologies against the ISO 20690 energy standard. The company adds that EFI Nozomi printers are the only single-pass inkjet offering in the industry to have their output certified for OCC recyclability and repulpability by the Western Michigan University Recycling, Paper and Coating Pilot Plant – a leading certification organisation for corrugated recycling.
Matteucci, says, “We see single-pass printing as the future of production printing in the markets we serve. With an increased focus on sustainability around the globe, this technology stands to be able to accelerate the migration of an increasing volume from less sustainable analogue printing technologies while at the same time opening up new business opportunities for the print providers that adopt this technology.
“With quality no longer being an issue, and the speed at which these single-pass printers can operate, print providers also have the opportunity to distinguish themselves in the marketplace with both the speed to market they can deliver for their customers, and the ability to eliminate minimum order quantities, which reduces waste and inventory risk.”
New software
EFI has introduced two new software solutions.
The company says that EFInsight, cloud-based intelligence optimises the operational efficiency and TCO of EFI packaging, display graphics, or textile digital inkjet printing systems. It uses cloud-based data collection, analytics, reporting, proactive maintenance, and process control tools. EFI says this delivers the insights needed to understand the economics of production and the tools to maximise inkjet printer investments. It is currently available for EFI Nozomi single-pass printers for packaging.
EFI’s Life Cycle Assessment tool for Nozomi printers documents Nozomi’s environmental footprint, developed in partnership with Clean Agency. This tool, which EFI customers and their customers can use, analyses their CO2 emissions as part of their overall packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), and has proven that printing corrugated materials on the EFI Nozomi digital press reduces Global Warming Potential (GWP) by over 50 per cent when compared to analogue printing technologies.
Matteucci adds, “Across the entire spectrum of our inkjet printers, EFI offers the widest array of solutions, using Genuine EFI inks and many of them powered by Fiery technology.
“We believe single pass is the future of high-volume production inkjet printing across the markets we serve today and new markets in the future.”
