An Alliance for Printing Performance

Anderson & Vreeland adds Screen’s Truepress L350 UV for high-end inkjet production

Printing press manufacturers are in a race to introduce affordable products that deliver the quality expected by converters and their customers. Yet with every new product, the options and choices grow more complex. Selecting the best equipment for a given operation involves choosing between a confusing array of inkjet and toner presses, understanding real-world machine capabilities, considering finishing options, evaluating workflow and color management software, and more. It’s little wonder that label and package printers have been slower to adopt digital printing than commercial printers, even as many are under pressure to add digital printing capabilities to their operations.

Building on its 55-year legacy of supporting label and packaging printers, Anderson & Vreeland has alliances with six leading digital press suppliers, providing complete solutions for both inkjet and toner-based (electrophotographic, or EP) presses. Because no single press or equipment provider can address the needs of every converter, working with multiple companies lets A&V help small, medium and large volume converters select systems and software tailored to their individual needs. One of A&V’s newest offerings is the Screen Truepress Jet L350 UV, a high-speed inkjet press that features ultra-violet ink and offers a compelling means of producing quality labels quickly, affordably, and with exceptional quality.

Premium Performance

We already offer other Screen products and adding the Truepress Jet L350 UV press lets A&V provide label and packaging printers ready access to a high-speed UV inkjet press built with their needs in mind, explains Jeff Skolnik, Digital Sales Manager for Anderson & Vreeland in the U.S and Canada. The press delivers excellent print quality on a full range of label and packaging substrates, features a 3 picoliter drop size to help ensure smooth gradients and vignettes, life-like flesh tones, a four-level gray scale, a very solid white in a single shot, and an expanded color gamut.

Able to run at up to 164 feet per minute with Screen’s renown durability and reliability, and aided by automatic head cleaning that purges the print heads in about three minutes, L350 UV users are experiencing 85–90% uptime.

But the value of any press is more than putting ink on a substrate. The L350 UV is backed by Screen’s prowess with digital imaging and printing, color management expertise from GMG Color, and the advanced workflow processes of Hybrid Software, all underscored by A&V’s deep packaging experience and knowledge.

Where high-speed inkjet is the right solution, the Screen L350 UV provides the best combination of features for converters who see inkjet as the optimal solution for meeting their customers’ label and packaging needs, says Skolnik. We also have mid-range and entry level inkjet systems, plus toner-based presses from other vendors. It is all about what the customer needs.

The digital advantage

Converters are adding digital presses for several reasons most relating to efficiency, productivity and profitability. There are a number of flexo printers running unprofitable or low profit work on their flexo presses that would be much more efficient on a digital press, says Scott Bucholtz, Packaging and Digital Solutions Manager at Screen Americas. A digital press lets converters move short and medium run work off their flexo presses and focus on longer run jobs that may be a better fit for that flexo machine.

That is exemplified by The Label Shoppe in City of Industry, California, which acquired a L350 UV in the fall of 2015. Label Shoppe vice president Ryan Gaytan, is seeing business grow, for both short run jobs on his inkjet press and for longer ones he wasn’t seeing previously that he can run on his fleet of flexo presses.

We’ve seen converters move work from their flexo presses and are now completing 15 to 25 short-run jobs in a shift on the L350 UV, relates Bucholtz. In addition to that efficiency, being able to provide new products and services to their customers helps them differentiate and win new business opportunities.

Gaytan agrees that its new press is a competitive differentiator. Virtually all the other high-speed digital label presses in our Los Angeles market are toner machines. Having UV inkjet lets us do things the toner systems can’t.

One stop shopping

Anderson & Vreelend also offers mid-range and entry level inkjet systems, plus toner-based presses from other vendors, notes Skolnik.

By offering a complete range of both digital and conventional equipment and associated software Anderson & Vreeland provides converters with a single reliable and comprehensive source for a full range of label and package printing requirements. Applying a consultative approach, A&V teams can go into a customer’s shop, learn what a printer or converter is doing and look for ways to improve their approach and processes with flexo or digital equipment. Or both. That way we can match the most appropriate solutions and components for their needs, concludes Skolnik. And one of the solutions we are able to offer is the Screen Truepress L350 UV.