Fujifilm Europe today announces the launch of a new food-safe ink which significantly extends the application versatility of the Jet Press 720S for packaging production by enabling it to print on primary food packaging.

The market is seeing a growing increase in the number of packaging brand owners and specifiers who are looking to achieve greater shelf stand-out and to differentiate their products from their competitors. At the same time they are also looking to reduce stockholdings, optimise supply chains and find digital press solutions that will allow them to more profitably print offset quality, customised packaging in much shorter and more frequent runs.

Delivering exceptionally consistent, high quality output ready for finishing on carton board or synthetic media up to 600 microns thick, the Jet Press 720S folding carton solution already satisfies these requirements fully, with around one third of all European customers already producing some form of packaging on the press. German print house Straub Druck & Medien AG is one such customer and its CEO, Francisco Martinez, comments: “Packaging buyers want consistency and solid and bright colours, and the Jet Press presses are delivering all of this. We believe packaging will grow in tandem with our commercial printing operation over the next few years, and the Fujifilm machines are essential to our success in this sector.”

However, the new food safe ink forms a key additional component of the Jet Press folding carton solution, making it the first B2 digital press approved for primary food packaging. This makes it ideal to meet the growing requirement for a reliable digital solution to produce high quality folding cartons for the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics/household/personal care markets.

The new, low migration, aqueous food safe ink complies with stringent primary food contact regulations, including Swiss Ordinance 817.023.21 and European Commission Regulation 1935/2004 (for full list, see Editor’s Notes), and has been specially formulated to work with inline (via a bridge) and nearline UV or aqueous coating.

A number of Jet Press 720S customers are currently using the press only for printing packaging, including secondary food packaging. One of those is Belgium-based Packaging for Professionals (P4P). Established to fill a gap in the European packaging market for high quality, low volume packaging produced on demand, it has built its business around the Jet Press 720S. P4P’s co-founder & CEO, Mohamed Toual, comments: “Traditionally, clients in the packaging industry have doubted the ability of a digital press to match the quality of litho or flexo printing. However, our customers have been hugely impressed with the quality of the products we have produced on the Jet Press 720S. The feedback we have received has been universally positive and we are very confident that this will continue.”

For companies looking to diversify into packaging, the Jet Press folding carton solution can also incorporate Phoenix imposition and planning software from Tilia Labs. This software optimises the way jobs are collated, or “ganged”, for printing based on minimising waste or maximising printing speed. This ganging function supports true shape nesting and automatically provides users with different options to arrange jobs.

Taro Aoki, Head of Digital Press Solutions in EMEA for Fujifilm, comments: “The introduction of a new food safe ink further demonstrates Fujifilm’s commitment to developing the Jet Press platform and to bringing new solutions to market in response to customer feedback. With the ongoing trend towards more creative, personalised and shorter run packaging, forward-thinking converters are increasingly looking for digital printing technologies that offer the reliability and print quality their existing systems have delivered, but with the ability to profitably print short runs. The Jet Press 720S has already proved itself to be a high-performance and highly versatile press for both commercial and folding carton applications. The introduction of our new, food-safe ink, together with options for inline and nearline coating and specialist pre-press software, takes that versatility to a new level and will appeal to many folding carton converters.”