Omet inaugurates Innovation Park

Label press manufacturer Omet, represented in Australia and New Zealand by Currie Group, has opened its new Innovation Park, a 1500sqm permanent showroom at its Italian HQ.

The company took the opportunity to present its new flexo press KFlex line, which it says comes with an ergonomic and flexible design, capable of being reconfigured at any time by the printer.

Some 150 industry players attended the official inauguration of the new Omet Innovation Park, with CEO Antonio Bartesaghi welcoming the guests, and presenting the Omet Group's exponential growth over the last decade, culminating in the relocation to the new headquarters in Molteno last year, and the realisation of the Innovation Park.

The Innovation Park is a 1,500sqm space that Omet has set up with the aim of allowing printers, converters and suppliers to meet and collaborate, to host printing demonstrations and also to do trials of new materials on Omet machines.

The company says everything is done with the will of “improving not only the purchasing process, but above all the production process, strengthening a relationship of trust between sellers and buyers”.

In the exhibition area there are reserved boxes and machinery from the Innovation Park's technology partners: Tesa, Simec Group, BST, GEW, Flexowash, Zeller+Gmelin, Simonazzi, Nazdar, Actega Ecoleaf and Rossini.

Marco Calcagni, marketing & sales director at Omet, explained the further potential of the Innovation Park, such as the possibility for printers to use the Omet machines in the showroom to support their production, making not only samples but proper production lots that they are unable to produce at their sites.

Omet says its product range is “undoubtedly the most comprehensive” for converting and printing labels and flexible packaging with narrow and medium-web machines, and is now enriched by the new printing line: the KFlex, officially unveiled during the opening of the Innovation Park.

The new machine, covered by a curtain in the first part of the event, was unveiled in a blaze of smoke and music before being presented point by point by Omet sales area manager Andrea Angeli, who highlighted the machine's flexibility. Tailor-made for the printer's needs, it has a design that allow accessibility and maintenance, a new flexo printing unit with a contrasting UV lamp and a new innovation, the Switch System: the possibility of changing any of the machine's modules (printing units, pull-out die, digital print-bar, hotfoil, screen printing) in just a minute and in what Omet says is simple way. The machine is scalable.

In the second part of the event, the participants were divided into groups for a tour of the Innovation Park, where Omet also showcased an iFlex and an XJet, plus there was a stand by Ribes Tech, the Omet Group's start-up company that focuses on printed electronics, in particular smart labels, and offers integrated IoT solutions.

The Innovation Park is located just a few steps away from the new Omet Headquarters in Molteno. It was also possible for guests to visit the new headquarters, inaugurated last year, to allow further growth to the company's production reality, which extends over an area of more than 30,000sqm, more than 20,000 of which are dedicated entirely to the production of label and flexible packaging printing machines.

Omet says its headquarters represent the beginning of a path of change that aims to increase production capacity and “make processes more efficient, indispensable factors for a breakthrough in terms of growth and innovation, which have always been the pillars of Omet's excellence.”