AGFA PRINTS PACKAGING WITH SPEEDSET

Agfa has unveiled its B1 SpeedSet 1060 water-based inkjet printing press, aimed at the packaging market, with the press now being fine-tuned at several early adopters.

The SpeedSet accommodates a wide range of substrates, from folding carton and micro-flute to various paper types, making it suitable for applications like retail-ready or shelf-ready food and beverage packaging. Its water-based inks, primer and varnish are environmentally friendly and comply with food-safety regulations. It runs at 150 metres a minute or 11,000 sheets an hour. It has an inkjet primer, four colour CMYK inkjet bars using 25 Fujifilm Samba 1,200dpi printheads for each colour, then two inkjet varnishing bars.

The Speedset was revealed at the company’s UK manufacturing site, where the Agfa’s  packaging and inkjet technology specialists highlighted the capability of the SpeedSet 1060 sheet-fed digital press to meet short-run packaging needs, while, it says, setting new benchmarks in printing performance and efficiency.

Industry experts discussed trends in packaging and retail-ready solutions, providing insights into staying ahead in the dynamic packaging industry. A live demo provided an up-close look at the technology, and showcased the press’s revolutionary speed and unmatched print quality. 

Head of Packaging at Agfa, Matt Brooks, said, “This fully digital packaging printing press merges the robustness and print excellence of an offset press with the compelling attributes of inkjet printing. It offers offset-like print quality yet boasts shorter setup times, reduced material waste, and efficient variable data printing.

“With its killer speed of 11,000 B1 sheets per hour, it is simply the fastest digital packaging press around. It will enable packaging converters to make their current operations more efficient. Print runs up to 5000 will be cheaper on the SpeedSet.”