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

Since its inception in 1973 by Pietro Prati, the Italian manufacturer of converting and finishing technology has always held true to the belief that quality breeds success.  Today, almost 50 years later, the company is acknowledged worldwide as one of the leading manufacturers in the narrow and mid web sectors of the market, with an annual output of more than 200 machines valued in excess of €20m.  Its modern high-tech headquarters in Faenza boasts a string of ISO certifications and its products are manufactured in accordance with CE, UL/CSA, and Industry 4.0 standards.

So, what makes Prati so special?   According to Sales & Marketing Director Chiara Prati: “It’s our eye for detail.  At every stage from R&D to delivery and commissioning we maintain a high level of quality control that gives reliability to our products and success to our customers.”  The proof of this can be found in the company’s global network of sales and support, which since 2018 has included a facility in Dallas Texas, to serve converters in the US and Canadian markets.  Today, 80% of Prati’s business comes from exports outside Italy, with around 45% to Europe and 35% to RoW.

Much of its success is based on what it calls its ‘Futura’ technology – a scalable architecture for all converting and finishing applications that allows a customer to grow his or her Prati machine inline with changing business requirements.  As Prati’s product range developed from high-speed slitter/rewinders to more complex inspection and finishing lines, the need to include ancillary technology from external suppliers became evident.  The choice of these manufacturers was crucial to the company maintaining its reputation for quality, according to Chiara Prati.

“We first encountered Vetaphone when we were working on a special laminating line for one of the World’s largest manufacturers of tube laminates.  It was 450mm wide and required a 4KW corona system for secure over-printing on a difficult substrate.  We soon came to realise why Vetaphone was the most popular brand on the market – when you invent something you have more experience than anyone else – and it matters!” she explained.

Since that time the two companies have worked closely together on a number of special projects as well as Vetaphone corona units becoming the standard fit for Prati’s successful DIGIFASTone and DIGI COMPACT converting lines.  Currently, the two companies are working on a special 630mm project in Spain that will handle linerless labels but needs the facility to spot-coat hotmelt adhesive.  “We enjoy working with Vetaphone because our company philosophy aligns with theirs – we both like a challenge and using our expertise to find the best solution,” she added.

The cooperative partnership is a good fit for both.  Prati’s requirements are for web widths from 370mm to 760mm, a sector in which Vetaphone has a large share of the corona treatment market, and for substrates that include PSL, PET, monofoils, multi-laminate and alufoil, amongst others – all substrates for which surface treatment was invented and over the years has been progressively developed and refined by the Danish manufacturer.  Applications for this combined technology include industries from food and beverage to security and logistics as well as a range of industrial products.

Currently, work is progressing on Prati’s new DIGIFAST20000 model that’s being developed for the HP 20000 and 25000 lines.  This 760mm wide machine will need a 4KW corona system from Vetaphone, and global sales projections are ambitious.  Looking ahead, Giuseppe Rossi, Vetaphone’s Sales Manager for Italy commented: “We are delighted to be working closely with Prati on a number of exciting new products that will be hot prospects for the market.  I think both companies appreciate each other’s attention to detail and the investment made in R&D.  This can only bode well for the future.”

With plastic packaging coming under increasing pressure from environmentalists, Prati is aware of its responsibilities towards a ‘green footprint’.  According to Chiara Prati: “We believe every action represents our commitment to sustainable development and confirms our sensitivity to the environment.  Our technology is designed to meet this commitment, our offices are required to minimise impact and the conduct of our people reflects the ecological approach that are the basis of our corporate ethics.”

www.vetaphone.com

The Istanbul-based UNIFOL is a compelling technological player, having developed innovative, resistant and long-lasting PVC films for 3D applications on large surfaces. The acquisition is part of the Fedrigoni Group’s strategy to continue to diversify its product range in adjacent sectors, expand its global presence and reinforce its position as a leading player in the global self-adhesives space

The Fedrigoni Group, the top global player in the production of high value-added specialty papers for luxury packaging and other creative applications, and a leader in the premium labels and self-adhesive materials markets, announces an agreement for the acquisition of UNIFOL, a global market player based in Istanbul and the only PVC self-adhesives manufacturer in Turkey. Founded in 1994 by its current owners, the company has approximately eighty employees and specialises in PVC CAST technology for vehicle wrapping with its UNICAST brand. Its film materials are used to protect the body of a vehicle, change a vehicle’s colour or apply graphics.

UNIFOL has made significant investments in this technology by creating state-of-the-art plants and cutting-edge materials to provide products compliant with current standards. This acquisition presents an excellent opportunity for Fedrigoni’s self-adhesives division – already present in the world of graphics and visual communication solutions – to enrich its already broad offering.

“UNIFOL is an extremely interesting technological player for us” – states Marco Nespolo, CEO of the Fedrigoni Group – “because it has developed innovative, resistant, long-lasting self-adhesives that can be used for 3D applications on large surfaces. This acquisition will allow us to make our offer more attractive and to continue our strategy to expand into promising segment, adjacent to those we are already present in, as we have previously done with our entry in the smart labels sector with the acquisition of the French company Tageos”.

“We are greatly satisfied with this operation that allows us to expand our portfolio of solutions in the graphics and visual communication sector” – adds Fulvio Capussotti, Executive Vice President of Fedrigoni’s Self-Adhesives division – “The combination of the UNIFOL technology and the global geographic presence of Fedrigoni will allow us to be ever more competitive in a rapidly growing niche market in Europe and throughout the world”.

Birol Çakır and Erkut Cilvez, the shareholders of UNIFOL also expressed that: “We are delighted to reach an agreement with a solid and expanding international company such as the Fedrigoni Group. We believe that following the completion of the transaction, UNIFOL will accelerate its global growth path and ability to invest in research and development of increasingly high-performance and innovative solutions”.

Fedrigoni
Since 1888 Fedrigoni has stood for excellence in the manufacture of specialty papers. It is one of Europe’s largest players in the production and sale of various types of high value-added paper for packaging and graphics, premium labelling products, and other self-adhesive materials. With more than 4,000 employees in Italy and abroad and 25,000 products, the Group sells and distributes in more than 130 countries and has become the third global player in the self-adhesive materials sector also thanks to recent acquisitions. The Paper business unit includes the Cordenons Group and the historic Fabriano brand, and the Self-Adhesives business unit includes Arconvert, Manter, Ritrama (since February 2020), IP Venus (since December 2020), Acucote and Ri-Mark (since June 2021), Tageos (March 2022). The American distributor GPA is also part of the Group.

For more information: www.fedrigoni.com