Color Ink was founded by Jim Meissner in 1984. In the beginning, the company provided prints for the Milwaukee commercial market on offset presses. Due to declining demand in some areas of the printing industry, they had to diversify and adjust their business model in line with customer needs. To do this, Color Ink invested in game-changing digital solutions, including a Highcon Euclid III digital cutting and creasing system, installed in 2019. Today, Color Ink is primarily focused on the retail POP, and packaging marketplaces, which involve creative and often complex products.

Serving the Short Run Market Efficiently and Profitably

Austin Meissner, VP Operations at Color Ink says the Highcon Euclid fits perfectly within Color Ink’s existing arsenal of conventional and digital equipment, which includes an offset press, large format digital presses, 28 inch digital presses, digital embellishment systems, bindery, and folding carton finishing departments.

The Highcon Euclid removes bottlenecks in the post-press process by dramatically reducing setup time and enabling rapid turnover of jobs. It also delivers increased design options with the ability to produce intricate cutouts, etching, and variable data cutting for Web-to-Pack applications.

Meissner believes the transformation to a fully-digital production process has given Color Ink the flexibility to streamline short run production and offer a wide range of commercial and packaging applications. This includes manufactured prototypes and short runs delivered quickly and inexpensively – enabling it to streamline production.

“The Highcon has been integral in helping us gain more business from clients and to stay ahead of the competition. It’s swiftness, agility, and unique offering, are enabling us to get our foot into the door with creative custom packaging in new markets, including promotional and prototype packaging displays, and other verticals ranging from retail to beverage markets,” says Meissner.

“This is an untapped market that takes advantage of intricate die cutting capabilities like quick turn wedding cards and promotional packaging. It is a selling point. We start with quick prototypes and unique cool pieces and then leverage our capabilities to gain jobs for other parts of the business.”

Austin also expressed optimism regarding the growing nutraceutical market. Nutraceuticals are pharmaceutical alternatives which are said to offer physiological benefits. They are derived from food sources and the opportunities for packaging in this segment are vast and expanding.

In many cases, time is of the essence for Color Ink, and getting clients’ products on the shelf is key, especially in fast-growing industries. For this reason, what’s important for the company is that the elimination of conventional die-making and related processes has halved production times, from 10 days to about 5 days. In some cases, Color Ink even has the flexibility to efficiently do urgent rush jobs in as little as one or two business days to satisfy customer demands that previously would have been unattainable.

“A few weeks ago, we had a CBD client that was going to a trade show. They said they needed a few samples to showcase at the show. They placed the order on Thursday and we got it out on Monday – within 3 days – so they were thrilled. The Highcon is a much more efficient way of producing these short run jobs. If we had to rely on conventional die cutting, it would have taken 5-7 days, if not more,” says Meissner.

Ease of Operation

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, commercial printers are feeling pressure from a tight labor market, particularly around finding professional operators. Hence, companies are seeking intuitive and easy-to-use digital systems which require minimal operator training and manpower.

“Fortunately, the Highcon is user-friendly and intuitive, meaning that the operator does not have to babysit the system. He just needs to get the job, hit the computer, and the Highcon runs by itself. It’s not super complex; meaning that the operator is free to operate other machines at the same time,” added Meissner.

Evolving from Commercial Print to New Markets

Over the years, digital technologies have helped Color Ink expand beyond its roots in commercial printing and into areas like rapid prototyping and creative services. With the Highcon’s digital cutting and creasing capabilities, there is still room for more leveraging opportunities. Just a few examples of what Meissner mentions are e-commerce for the maker space and working with online retailers to enable future growth and added value to customers.

The post Color Ink Differentiates Itself with Value-Added Offerings first appeared on Highcon.

“With this investment, we anticipate a significant increase in turnover for our digital business, projected at 20% over the next two years,” explained Reinhard Bolterauer, managing director of Bauernfeind Grünburg. The facility primarily focuses on the production of corrugated products such as promotional boxes, small gift boxes, and shipping boxes for its target markets in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.

As early as 2010, Bauernfeind embraced digital production, allowing them to swiftly adapt to changing market conditions. With the growing trend towards smaller production runs and increasing demand for customized solutions, Bauernfeind’s digital production volume has significantly risen in recent years. Consequently, the company has experienced substantial growth in its digital production capabilities. Most recently, it added the cutting-edge Agfa Jeti Taurno H3300 High-Speed LED printer in addition to its Highcon Euclid and three additional digital printing systems. This equipment has facilitated the establishment of a comprehensive digital production workflow, solidifying Bauernfeind’s position as a company operating at a 95% digital capacity.

The Highcon Euclid 5C offers several advantages that enhance production efficiency and agility. Firstly, it eliminates the need for traditional dies, resulting in cost savings, reduced storage requirements, and waste. Moreover, it leverages digital technology to enable just-in-time (JIT) production, accommodate short runs, and facilitate customized perforations, even down to individual serial numbers. Furthermore, it opens new customer and market opportunities, including presentation boxes with intricate laser cuts.

“With the Highcon and the Agfa, we have taken a big step forward, directly benefiting our customers. This will be reflected in even shorter delivery times in various finishing options, improved quality, and significant environmental savings,” said Bolterauer. In addition, with Highcon’s laser cutting technology, Bauernfeind can now offer a wider variety of laser-cut filigree shapes and varied contours from rigid and corrugated cardboard up to 3mm thick, which is challenging to achieve with analog systems. Combined with our digital printing expertise, we can quickly create personalized gift boxes featuring laser-cut motifs, presentation packaging, promotional items, and secure shipping boxes.”

“The Highcon is extremely crucial for our customers due to its high production speed and relatively low tooling costs,” explained Bolterauer. “Faster production and shorter delivery times are of utmost importance. Typically, our average delivery time is around seven to eight working days. However, with the implementation of the Highcon system, we can potentially reduce this time by half, achieving a delivery time of approximately three to four days. Additionally, we can increase our production rate, allowing us to accommodate urgent requests from customers. For example, if a customer requires us to complete a job as soon as the following day, we can fulfill their request.”

Bauernfeind also intends to implement Highton’s digital manufacturing approach, which involves dynamically ganging multiple jobs to optimize production runs over an entire shift or longer, rather than focusing on individual jobs. According to Bolterauer, the company aims to achieve a 20% increase in output within the next two years, thanks to faster printing and die-cutting speeds. They plan to gang jobs on both the digital printers and the Highcon system. Additionally, the converter hopes to transfer 20% of its current analog jobs to digital systems, with the remaining growth expected to come from new business opportunities such as presentation boxes with very fine laser cuts.

Bolerauer concluded “With this investment, we are now transferring some of our smaller-sized board jobs, Point of Sale, and counter display orders to Highcon. The Highcon allows us to expand our range of offerings and allocate our other digital equipment primarily for larger projects.”

The post Digital is the Future for Bauernfeind Print & Display first appeared on Highcon.

EnvironPrint, a digital printing service, based in Grapevine, Texas, is on a mission to help meet these demands with eco-friendly products and services.  Since its establishment in March 2021, the company has devoted itself to minimizing its carbon footprint by providing customers with the products they want with the advantage of a smaller impact on the environment. This is achieved by utilizing digital printing and digital die-cutting and creasing technologies for short runs, minimizing waste production, and recycling as much as possible. In addition, no minimum order quantities (MOQs) means that its customers can order packaging in precise quantities without the risk of obsolescence.

EnvironPrint customers can also help the environment with their purchases. GreenSpark has partnered with EnvironPrint to help recycle plastic bottles, plant trees, and reduce carbon emissions. Through this plant-supporting initiative, EnvironPrint and Greenpark has planted over 2,088 trees, saved over 4,473 plastic bottles which would have polluted the ocean, and offset over 4.9 tonnes of carbon emissions.

“When you talk to customers it’s sort of like an added benefit. They not only get a good price but also an eco-friendly experience,” said Shaun Robertson, Director of E-commerce at EnvironPrint. “We have a wide range of customers, including small businesses, entrepreneurs, and companies looking for environmentally friendly products. We have companies that are getting marketing materials and we also have designers that are using our abilities to send products directly to their customers. It’s kind of unique. We have had people in Europe doing design work for clients in California. They upload their files and then have their orders delivered right to their customer’s doorstep in California.”

Digital Bringing in New Revenue Year Over Year

EnvironPrint is 100% digital, with multiple printing devices and a Highcon Beam digital cutting and creasing system. This digital technology has played a significant role in expanding its production capacity and generating new revenue.  Job requests ranging from highly creative and distinctive cards, flyers, marketing essentials, and packaging, are coming from a broad section of US and international-based clients using EnvironPrint’s online platform. Their business model has become a convenient and popular way to shop.

“We invested in a Highcon Beam, and what we realized is that we could do a lot more than just packaging. There are no MOQ and our products are more environmentally safe since there are no plates, make readies are lower and you don’t have dies for die cuttings. We are also filling in more capacity on all our presses,” said Robertson.

With a speed of up to 5,000 sheets per hour, the Highcon Beam system replaces the expensive and slow conventional die-making and setup process with a digital technology that delivers rapid delivery to market, design flexibility, and the ability to perform a wide range of applications in-house. Robertson says they are finding that another benefit of the Highcon is the efficiency it brings to the entire production plant.

“All of the efficiencies come into place with ganging. If we can gang different jobs and then print them and cut them on the same sheet using one die; you have just done several jobs with the same waste as one job,” said Robertson. “As of now, we probably gang about 30% of our jobs from EnvironPrint. By ganging you are probably saving 80% of your time.”

According to EnvironPrint, lead times for marketing materials are typically four business days, and six days for packaging. With this agility and time savings, some customers are ordering on a JIT basis, avoiding obsolescence and reacting quickly to trends.

“For packaging the longest lead time is 10 days. This compares with a typical average lead time of six weeks. So, you are saving them four weeks,” said Robertson adding that the Highcon system has opened up several new revenue streams for the company, including custom circle hanging tags and shelf wobblers of all shapes and sizes.

“I had no idea that circle hanging tags are such a big deal, but they are, and it’s one of our top selling products and with the Highcon they are easy to produce. There is no setup and you can fit hundreds of circles on a sheet. To produce them conventionally is awful,” said Robertson.  “We have no MOQ. So you can order a single circle hang tag to ensure you are happy with the design before placing a full order. First, you get people that want 50 of them, then you get people that want 200 of them and then they come back and order a  thousand of them.“

This is just a small sample of the growth opportunities! Thanks to Highcon’s Digital Finishing, EnvironPrint has also gained new customers from new segments, such as beverage and CBD packaging, and individuals looking for small runs of customized invitations.

“We’ve done a bunch of jobs which we honestly couldn’t do without the Highcon. We had a job, it was a guy, who wanted laser-cut graduation cards. It was a silhouette of him, a graduation gown, and a chain necklace that went around a 5 by 7 [inch] card. There’s no way you could have cut out little circles for the chain and all the intricate details around the border without a Highcon. If it would have been done on our CAD table, it probably would have been ripped to shreds.” said Robertson.

The post Digital Production Gets Greener with EnvironPrint first appeared on Highcon.