Converters have new, high-quality, cost-effective options for hybrid flexo/digital production of premium labels, thanks to a new solution at Labelexpo Americas that delivers more power than ever before.

Colordyne Technologies, a leading manufacturer of efficient, high-resolution digital inkjet printers and retrofits, is partnering with Fiery, Electronics For Imaging’s industry-leading developer of advanced servers for digital color print production, to be the first manufacturer in the world delivering UV-LED and water-based inkjet solutions that feature the market-proven, high-end prep and processing workflow capabilities of the Fiery Impress digital front end (DFE).

Colordyne’s high-speed, high-resolution process color inkjet print engines, on display at Stand 5923 in the tradeshow Labelexpo Americas 2022 taking place from 13-15 September, feature the Fiery Impress DFE, a brand new, turnkey inkjet print server technology. 

Colordyne’s inkjet engines driven by Fiery print server technology offer premium quality inkjet production for durable UV-LED labels and water-based ink printing ideal for food and beverage and other CPG brands seeking eco-friendly, sustainable labels. 

Customers can easily integrate Colordyne’s inkjet engines on existing flexo and convert equipment to create an affordable single-pass hybrid printing press or employ it as a standalone digital production press. The print engines support up to seven colors with options for CMYK, white and additional process colors.

Affordable management

“Using Fiery Impress with our 3800 Series inkjet engines, converters can retrofit their existing flexo presses at approximately half the cost of a new hybrid narrow web press,” said Taylor Buckthorpe, director of sales and marketing, Colordyne Technologies. “The comprehensive set of integrated Fiery products add a wealth of capabilities throughout the print process, helping manufacturing facilities produce more with their presses. When it comes to next-level automation and color management, we look at Fiery as the strongest partner to work with. Together, we will help converters drive efficiencies while increasing quality and reliability as they grow their businesses with digital print.”

With over two million servers installed worldwide, Fiery technology is the leading DFE in digital printing. The launch of the Impress DFE – a ready-to-go, an off-the-shelf platform that requires less time and less cost for hardware integration – streamlines the process needed to bring Fiery technology to new industrial and packaging applications. 

The new Fiery offering helps ensure users can complete more jobs per shift thanks to a suite of file preparation and make-ready tools to automate many prepress tasks. Fiery Impress technology efficiently handles color management, including extended color gamuts beyond CMYK, while delivering accurate ink cost estimates to help converters ensure profitability. Additional tools, such as Fiery JobFlow prepress automation workflow software, can eliminate manual step-and-repeat work to help converters get digital and hybrid jobs to press faster.

Digital and cloud capabilities

Converters can also take advantage of more opportunities in multi-SKU, versioning, and serialization by using a Fiery Impress DFE streaming option which delivers powerful RIP-while-printing capabilities for continuous, high-volume, variable-data printing. 

The Fiery Impress DFE delivers consistent, predictable results that match a designer’s intent with industry-standard native Adobe PDF print engine processing and PDF 2.0 support – a key competitive advantage not available in other RIP solutions. 

Fiery Command WorkStation – the 1 operator interface for digital print job management – comes standard with the Fiery Impress DFE. Plus, Colordyne 3800 Series users can use the server to connect with a full suite of free and paid EFI IQ cloud business intelligence and analytics solutions. The Fiery Impress DFE can also integrate with leading label and packaging MIS platforms, connecting converters’ digital operations to company-wide workflows. 

“Fiery DFEs have long been known for delivering superior color, image quality, and efficiency, and our Fiery Impress DFE brings those capabilities to new markets, including labels, packaging, and inline manufacturing,” said John Henze, vice president of sales and marketing, EFI Fiery. “This exciting new partnership with Colordyne Technologies represents an important market opportunity that combines the industry’s leading DFE technology with Colordyne’s remarkable inkjet engines for hybrid and digital label converting.” 

The Fiery Impress DFE is the first technology for Colordyne equipment capable of supporting the Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE) for a native, end-to-end PDF workflow using the industry’s leading rendering technology. Support for APPE gives users the advantage of optimal output using the industry’s leading rendering technology, optimizing the appearance of transparency blends, overprinting, spot colors, trapping, and more. 

“The Fiery Impress DFE will open doors to new opportunities in manufacturing workflows, especially for labeled products,” said Mark Lewiecki, senior product manager, Adobe. “Colordyne customers will benefit from the power of the Adobe PDF Print Engine, built on the same Adobe technologies employed by Adobe Acrobat and Illustrator CC. The result is maximum reliability, from design to proof to final output. Adobe and EFI continue to bring innovative technologies to market. We are happy to see that Colordyne and its customers will show the way forward in this dynamic growth segment.” 

With its new, advanced workflow, Colordyne’s retrofit technology at Labelexpo Americas is a reliable and effective upgrade in the power and flexibility converters need to meet new market opportunities. 

“Inkjet is important for growth-minded flexo converters, but the bigger opportunity comes with color capabilities and workflow advantages over a basic inkjet integration,” according to industry analyst Marco Boer of IT Strategies. “In a crowded field where there are many niche digital inkjet integrators, choosing one that offers a robust DFE workflow and extended gamut inks at a competitive investment cost can create a differentiating advantage in label production.”