New Oxford, PA – Yazoo Mills, Inc., America’s largest family-owned and operated manufacturers of paper tubes and cores, is proud to reach its historical mark of 120 years in business and continued growth.

What began as a yarn and textile mill in Yazoo City, Mississippi in 1902, the company has grown to become the largest privately owned paper tube and core manufacturer in the country. In its early years, Yazoo produced its own cores to wind rope and twine. After a move to New York in 1928, Hanover in 1936, and a change to ownership in 1961, Yazoo dedicated all manufacturing to the paper tube and core industry. To this day, Yazoo continues to manufacture 100% recycled products and is the supplier of choice for a wide range of industries, ranging from tapes, labels and flexible packaging, to plastics, papers, films, foams, wires, reels, and more.

In its 120th year, the company continues to grow with the latest expansion of its 2nd plant in Hanover, PA. Completed in spring of 2022, the 60,000 SF of additional manufacturing and warehouse space in response to the growing demand for the company’s products and services. Yazoo Mills now operates two state-of-the-art facilities totaling 300,000 square feet. In addition, the company has begun to expand its production capacity with the installation of several automated machines and increased its workforce to more than 200 employees.

Yazoo Mills is exceptionally proud to have reached this momentous milestone, and they’ve dedicated this success to their customers, partners, and all employees—past and present. Over the course of the year, they are paying homage to this unyielding support and years in business through a company hardback history book, commemorative logos, updated facility signage, events and tradeshows, and employee appreciation activities throughout the year. Yazoo Mills looks forward to continued success and many more years of offering a quality product made in the USA.

About Yazoo Mills
Established in 1902, Yazoo Mills is America’s largest family-owned manufacturers of 100% recycled paper tubes and cores for 120 years. Serving a variety of industries in the United States, Yazoo has a reputation for excellence in short runs and recutting with manufacturing only premium quality paper tubes and cores, made to each customer’s specifications. On average, the company produces over 4 million inches of tuber per day. Companies that require quality, consistency, and ongoing reliability contact Yazoo Mills for all of their needs.

For additional information on Yazoo Mills and their products, visit the website www.yazoomills.com.

Flint Group Packaging, one of the largest consumables suppliers to the global print and packaging industry, has lent its support to the CEFLEX Quality Recycling Project (QRP), co-developing and trialing duplex laminated flexible packaging comprising Polypropylene (PP) recyclate (rPP).

Working alongside some of the most established global names in print and packaging, the main goal of the QRP is to create a PP recyclate structure that does not inhibit the printing and converting process of today’s supply chain. In doing so, the project aims to ultimately recycle a higher percentage of PP in non-food contact film applications.

The project takes direct aim at the significant issue of low recycling rates in consumer households across Europe. Representing a large-scale collaboration between more than 180 organisations, associations and stakeholders across Europe, the CEFLEX project has made positive progress in showcasing the potential of a recycle-ready mono-material substrate.

Following a series of five semi-industrial trials to test the viability of printing on films made using rPP resin, results showed that the use of post-consumer recyclate in the packaging structure did not inhibit the printing or converting process of a monopolymer PP duplex laminated barrier pouch in non-food applications.

Matthew Rowland-Jones, Sustainability Officer at Flint Group, explains the significance: “Our team was delighted to provide the water-based inks and to add its expertise to the number of businesses supporting this important CEFLEX project. One of the biggest challenges in sustaining long-term growth for the packaging sector is that still to this day, a large proportion of flexible packaging cannot be easily recycled. If we want to secure the future of the sector, we need to put circularity at the front and centre of our focus and continue to close the plastic loop.

“By co-developing and trialing an rPP substrate that is easy for printers and converters to work with, we are opening a more robust path for long-term growth. At the core, it’s about expanding the boundaries of what PP recyclate can achieve to prove that it’s compatible with today’s presses, converting technologies and quality demands. It’s a great move forward for the wider print and packaging industry. With collaboration and innovative thinking, a greater proportion of flexible packaging waste can be processed in recycling streams. We are another step further from the linear waste streams that hold the packaging industry back, and that’s something to celebrate.”

The next stage of the project will see the creation of an industrial scale QRP waste processing plant, which is anticipated to be in active commercial use by 2023.

Mr. Rowland-Jones added: “One of the biggest roadblocks to the adoption of rPP in flexible packaging applications has been that it’s perceived as challenging to work with on press. The CEFLEX project is helping to break down this wall by showing that sustainability and performance are not mutually exclusive – and we’re extremely proud to be part of driving that change.”

To learn more about the CEFLEX initiative and its work in flexible packaging circularity, please visit https://ceflex.eu

For more information on water-based inks for film developed by Flint Group or the company’s activities related to sustainability, please email Deanna.klemesrud@flintgrp.com.  

About Flint Group
Flint Group is dedicated to serving the needs of the global Flexible Packaging, Paper & Board, Narrow Web and Publication industries, both conventional and digitally printed. The company develops, manufactures and markets an extensive portfolio of printing consumables and equipment, including: a vast range of conventional and energy curable inks, coatings and additives for Flexographic, Gravure & Offset applications; pressroom chemicals and printing blankets. Furthermore, Flint Group designs and manufacturers digital printing presses for labels, corrugated packaging, document and commercial applications. The company is a leader in colour management solutions which are supported by a Global Colour Centre to ensure colour consistency and standardisation. Flint Group strives to support its customers through a relentless focus on developing: innovative products, exceptional levels of service and the security of supply. Headquartered in Luxembourg, Flint Group employs some 5,600 people. Revenues for 2020 were €1.5 billion. On a worldwide basis, the company is the number one or number two supplier in every major market segment it serves.

For more information, please visit www.flintgrp.com

The companies and individuals nominated for this year’s Global Label Awards have been announced in the categories for Rising Star, Environmental Sustainability and Innovation.

The winners of each category will be announced at the Global Label Reunion Party on the evening of day one at Labelexpo Americas 2022 in Chicago.

The nominees were chosen by the Global Awards judging panel, consisting of Lori Campbell, chairman of TLMI, Linnea Keen, president of TLMI, Philippe Voet, Finat president, Greg Hrinya, editor of Label & Narrow Web, James Quirk, content director at Labels & Labeling, and Jean Poncet, editor-in-chief at Etiq+Pack.

Nominees for the Rising Star Award are, in alphabetical order, Stijn Billiet, Virginia (Ginnie) Gandy, and Tom Schouten. 

The criteria for this award were that the individual has worked a maximum of five years in the label industry with a record that reflects ongoing, exceptional and growing contributions to the industry as well as increased levels of leadership and responsibility. The successful candidate’s track record should reflect a strong potential for appointment at the highest levels of the profession.

The nominees for the Environmental Sustainability category are Avery Dennison, Flint Group and S-OneLP. 

The judges were looking for a company that has introduced a specific product or process or demonstrated sustainable and environmentally acceptable working practices in their purchasing and manufacturing operations and could demonstrate key materials, production and performance or consumer benefits. 

The nominees for the Innovation Award for companies with under 300 employees are Packlock and S-OneLP. In the Innovation for companies over 300 employees category there were 16 entries, with Actega Signite and Actega Ecoleaf being shortlisted. 

For this award, the judging panel looked at the degree of innovation, the practical impact on the innovator and their clients, the economic aspects (cost, time, process), environmental aspects and the overall concept. 

Andy Thomas-Emans, chair of the judging panel, commented, ‘I would like to thank the members of the judging panel for their seriousness and application in sifting through the large number of nominations received. The panel was particularly impressed by the quality of entries for the Rising Star award, which clearly demonstrates the wealth of young talent now entering and transforming our industry. We very much look forward to unveiling the hugely deserving winners of each category on the first evening of Labelexpo Americas 2022.’

Bean Station, TN – FILMtech Inc., a metallized and clear barrier film leader, has begun another expansion to its facility on their 18-acre campus near Knoxville, TN. The excavation phase of the project has been completed and the ground ready for commencement of a new 30,000 square-foot structure.

The building will increase FILMtech’s manufacturing facility to 150,000 square feet. It will accommodate a new 130” metallizing machine in 2023 and will increase warehousing capabilities along with shipping and receiving areas. Completion of the building is scheduled for the end of this year.

“We have been able to grow beyond our traditional converting markets and this expansion will support the new customers and equipment we have added in the last few years,” said Joey Barnard, FILMtech’s VP of Operations.

FILMtech provides products and services for the flexible packaging and barrier industries including food and pet food packaging, construction, agricultural, aerospace, printing, labeling and industrial tapes markets. It is the exclusive North American licensee of CeramAlox® clear barrier products. Since its formation in 2002, the company has grown to more than 80 employees and continues to be poised for growth and global expansion.

For additional information, visit www.filmtechinc.com.

Tower Products, Inc., the leading manufacturer of environmentally sensitive pressroom chemistry for the graphic arts industry, will be exhibiting its full line of pressroom products for the flexographic and offset industry at LabelExpo Americas 2022. Tower will be located in Hall A – Booth 555.

According to Mark Principato, Director of Flexographic Product Sales, this is the fourth time that Tower Products has exhibited at LabelExpo Americas, and we are looking forward to greeting our USA and International customers. The company will be featuring its SmartFlex line, a series of specialty chemicals tailored to fit any flexographic and packaging pressroom, as well as offset pressroom chemistry. Tower will be highlighting its innovative and unique technology for LED/UV applications which include cleaning products for anilox rollers and flexographic plates as well as fountain solution and alcohol replacements.

For more information, please contact Mark Principato at 800-527-8626 or mark.principato@towerproducts.com or visit our websites at www.towerflexo.com and www.towerproducts.com.

Mark Andy Digital Hybrid Solution featured at US and Europe Open House Events, New Product Additions, and Attendance at Labelexpo Chicago

Chesterfield, MO – June 22 & 23, Mark Andy USA invited its label customers from the American market to Digital Days 2022. The two day event included live demonstrations on three digital hybrid presses with inline finishing solutions available with the Mark Andy product portfolio: Digital Series HD, Digital Series iQ and Digital Pro 3. Several different jobs, prepared by Mark Andy, were printed on all three presses to allow customers an in-person comparison on the presented equipment in terms of printing quality with embellishments and finishing capabilities.

The digital hybrid presentations were started with the toner based, Digital Pro 3, and presented by Stu Gallop, Mark Andy Vice President Digital Sales Development. He described the Digital Pro 3 as an entry-level press, devoted to companies beginning their “journey” with digital label printing. Two “True Hybrid” production presses were demonstrated by David Medlar, Mark Andy Vice President Engineering & Operations. A flagship Digital Series HD model, designed on the Performance Series 7 platform, was named the most efficient label hybrid press on the market. The company took this opportunity to highlight its 2021 addition to the hybrid family – Digital Series iQ, designed on the Evolution Series platform and built in a co-operation with Domino digital N610i.

The two-day live event also included a tour of Mark Andy Print Products – a vendor of consumables and spare parts for Mark Andy’s users. The live demonstrations were followed by workshops devoted to Mark Andy’s software. The company presented DFE driving modules and sMArt Link, a recently launched system increasing automation of label printing. The next part of Digital Days was dedicated to a prepress area: flexo platemaking and on-press mounting. Throughout the two-day open house, Mark Andy’s operators and technical specialists answered numerous questions from the participants.

“The second quarter of 2022 was full of events devoted to our current and prospective customers, as well as Mark Andy’s business partners and students of printing faculties – says Lena Chmielewska-Bontron, European Marketing Manager Mark Andy. – After three Open House events organized in Warsaw (Poland), we hosted customers in Mark Andy’s North American headquarters in Chesterfield. During Digital Days, we presented three hybrid presses, including two inkjet models and a toner-based one. Besides the equipment, we also showcased DFE’s and a new software increasing automation of label production process. We presented flexo platemaking and on-press mounting techniques as well as invited our guests to the new Mark Andy Print Products. Recently it moved to a new warehouse for consumables and spare parts, designed according to lean warehousing principles”.

The company also announced its presence at the upcoming Labelexpo trade show, scheduled in Chicago for September 2022. “A huge interest from participants of Digital Days once again confirmed increasing popularity of digital hybrid presses in the label production environment. Several weeks ago, we organized a very successful Open House in Europe, also showing our most important solutions for this market. I also would like to take this opportunity and invite all the printers to come check out our digital hybrid presses in the Mark Andy’s booth at Labelexpo Americas, this year’s most important trade show devoted to narrow-web label and packaging production. At the show we’ll be presenting proven and well-established presses from the Mark Andy product porfolio, but we’ll also announce a completely new solution expanding our toner-based portfolio.” – concludes Shannon Stamberger, Director Technology Center Operations Mark Andy USA.

Labelexpo Americas will be held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Chicago on September 13th thru the 15th, 2022. Mark Andy will be show-casing its digital hybrid product portfolio at the event and would like to invite customers to come see us at Booth 319 in Hall A.

About Mark Andy Inc.
Mark Andy is a pioneer of the graphic arts and printing industry. As the world’s leading manufacturer of narrow- and mid-web printing and finishing equipment, it supplies leading global brands, including Mark Andy and Presstek printing presses, Rotoflex finishing solutions, as well as a complete line of Mark Andy Print Products consumables and pressroom supplies. All products are backed by the largest customer support team in the industry, minimizing downtime and helping customers be profitable, efficient and at the forefront of innovation. Mark Andy does what it takes to understand each customer’s unique business, the challenges they face and the pressures they feel. It strives to provide products and services that help customers solve their problems and solutions that go a step further, allowing them to excel in their day-to-day operations, ultimately increasing productivity and reaching their full potential.

For more information, visit www.markandy.com.

Brookfield, WI – Colordyne Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high speed inkjet technology, opens new Inkjet Innovation Center at its headquarters in Brookfield, Wisconsin. The new 1,000 square-foot space showcases Colordyne’s UV and WB digital inkjet print engines, the 3800 Series retrofits, and its complete portfolio of process color inkjet printers.

The fully equipped center provides current customers, prospects and all visitors access to training, education, application testing and product live demonstrations. The facility highlights Colordyne’s retrofit approach to single pass inkjet and hybrid print production by featuring Colordyne’s 3800 Series process color UV-LED and Water-Based inkjet engines retrofitted onto a standard flexo press.

“The Inkjet Innovation Center gives Colordyne the opportunity to demonstrate the efficiency, speed and high-quality performance that our inkjet equipment portfolio offers,” said Taylor Buckthorpe, Director of Sales & Marketing at Colordyne Technologies. “Our approach to single pass inkjet and hybrid print production leverages the assets converters already own. We now have the space to show our clients how easily they can retrofit process color inkjet onto their current equipment, leading them to recognize the production cost savings of single pass inkjet or hybrid printing and converting.”

The Inkjet Innovation Center will host an open house in August 2022. At the event, Colordyne will introduce its latest inkjet engine development, the 3800 Series WB. The new technology is a process color, mechanical piezo, water-base inkjet engine built upon the proven engine architecture of Colordyne’s 3800 Series UV. The official launch for the 3800 Series WB will take place late third quarter of this year.

About Colordyne Technologies
Headquartered in Brookfield, WI, Colordyne Technologies is a leading manufacturer of high speed, high resolution and low capital cost UV-LED and water based inkjet print engines. They are designed for integration onto existing printing and converting equipment to create an affordable hybrid production press. Colordyne Technologies recognizes the years of investments made into the people and equipment that make up a label converting press room. Colordyne’s unique retrofit approach to digital printing allows label converters to seamlessly integrate process color inkjet directly onto existing production lines at breakthrough speeds and without the loss of current press functionality.

Visit www.colordynetech.com for additional information.

New exclusive GEW distributor appointed for all sheetfed offset business in USA, Canada & Mexico

With immediate effect, GEW will be represented for its sheetfed offset and wide web offset (>38″) business across the USA, Canada and Mexico, by GMH UV LLC.

Based in the Midwest, GMH UV is headed up by industry stalwart Grieg M. Heimbuch. A life-long Graphic Arts veteran, Heimbuch has spent the past 40 years in equipment sales, and has experienced the ups and downs of equipment companies placing their needs before the printers who purchase their equipment. After spending the last six years selling another manufacturer’s UV equipment into the industry, Heimbuch states his fresh determination to now focus on customers’ satisfaction and profitability. His ‘Customer-First Focus’ is already proving to be a breath of fresh air, delivering success and profits to customers.

GMH UV is now a dedicated partner and distributor of the GEW UV product line for the sheetfed industry in North America, and will provide full sales coverage throughout the territory. The company will be supported by a multimillion dollar parts inventory and a large and experienced service team already in place at GEW Inc in Ohio. Together they are ready to meet all of their customer’s reliability needs, focused on keeping printers up and running excellent UV & LED product. All service and spare parts will continue to be delivered through GEW’s established infrastructure, while GMH UV will fully focus on sales and business development.

GMH UV is a company dedicated to bringing the best UV and LED equipment to the North American sheetfed industry. Grieg Heimbuch had been in search of a suitable supply partner for some time and was excited to discover the business opportunity with GEW. He explains: “GEW’s sheetfed UV and LED products exceed the quality and reliability requirements that GMH UV has set as a priority. An exact meeting of power, quality, and price makes GEW’s UV equipment perfectly suited to deliver to GMH UV’s high-performance, high-volume printing market that represent how UV Sheetfed printing has matured over the past decade.”

Heimbuch has surrounded GMH UV with experts in every aspect of UV curing and printing, creating a highly capable team to provide the most state-of-the-industry process and product support. GMH UV has a unique ‘on the floor’ service format that will eliminate the current ‘call and wait while down’ customer service support so notorious in existing equipment supply schemes.

This drive for ultimate reliability and productivity is further supported by GEW’s Remote Monitoring Service. Robert Rae, Managing Director of Sales at GEW, explains: “All new GEW UV systems are continuously monitored over the internet and this enables encrypted system performance data to be sent live to GEW, to ensure the fastest and most precise service response available. The full service history of every lamp is recorded and viewable by GEW engineers in the USA, including all parameters, faults and operator commands. A preventative maintenance program will recommend software or hardware updates and can highlight and correct out-of-tolerance parameters before any issue arises on site.”

Rae goes on to explain the background to this latest move in GEW’s sales strategy for North America: “In the past year, the sales organisation at GEW Inc has undergone a significant restructuring. We have an excellent product line-up across our narrow web, sheetfed and wide web printing and coating markets, and a service organisation with an enviable reputation. However, we had to find a solution to grow into the expanding sheetfed packaging market without losing focus on our core markets in narrow web printing. This exciting partnership with GMH allows us to do just that with GEW Inc maintaining its historical focus and GMH spearheading sheetfed and wide web offset.”

With GMH UV and GEW, Heimbuch is committed to bringing the best possible world of UV and LED to sheetfed printers across North America. He comments: “GEW not only brings the experience and commitment of the largest graphic arts UV company in the world to the North American market, they have partnered with GMH UV to meet and exceed the production needs of our customers. I cannot be more thrilled to represent GEW and help to improve the way printers are worked with in the North American market.”

Robert Rae concludes: “We are very confident that the sales acumen and industry expertise of GMH UV partnered with high quality UV and LED products and services from GEW will be a breath of fresh air for a sheetfed offset market bereft of new options.”

About GEW
GEW designs and manufactures Arc and UV LED curing systems for printing, coating and converting applications. The company is the leading manufacturer of UV systems for label and narrow web printing, with a world-class production facility at its UK headquarters, subsidiaries in the USA and Germany, and an extensive network of worldwide distributors. GEW also specialises in the design and installation of UV LED systems for sheetfed offset applications.

www.gewuv.com