The Right Stuff

Often overlooked, specialty printing equipment can prove vital to your in-plant when a job requires its services.

Digital copiers and wide-format ink-jet printers may get the lion's share of the headlines these days, but when you have special needs—like for envelopes or labels—it's the specialty printing equipment that you turn to.

To help you sort through the available systems, IPG has assembled information on various models of envelope presses, tag and label presses, thermographic equipment and sheetfed press attachments.

Envelope Presses

For in-plants that need to print short and mid-volume runs of envelopes, Olympus America Digital & Imaging Group offers the PagePlex envelope printer. It provides addressing at 300x300 dpi and at an output of 20 ppm, and is geared for volumes of up to 10,000 #10 envelopes per day. Materials accepted range from bond and linen to manila and brown kraft envelopes, including window envelopes. It handles sizes from 3˝ to 81⁄2˝ in width and from 5˝ to 12˝ in length. The PagePlex can also accept postcards, paper labels, pressure-sensitive labels, and letter, legal and A-4 size paper.

New from Halm Industries is the Super Jet Plus envelope press. Standard features include a piggy back roller for more ink coverage, an expanded width of 3˝ over the previous Super Jet model, and a fountain disconnect feature on one print head, which lets users run the second head as a one-color unit. Also, it has the ability to run landscape over portrait, which gives operators more throughput flexibility.

Tag & Label Presses

Does your in-plant print a high volume of labels? If so, the QLS-4100 full-color digital thermal transfer label printer from the Quicklabel Systems Division of Astro-Med might be just right for you. It can produce near photographic quality color images, logos and graphics. The QLS-4100 requires no ink, plates, toner or hot stamp dies because it uses a thermal transfer ribbon to print on a variety of materials. Data goes direct from computer to finished labels in seconds.

From Gallus comes the Arsoma EM 280 flexo press, designed for economical and flexible printing of short to medium size runs. It can print 500 labels per minute. Rotary hot foil stamping and rotary screen printing options are available. It is expandable to 10 print stations.

With the introduction of the new 17˝ Model 2200 press from Mark Andy, options for label printers have been expanded. This model has been modified to give customers another option between the 10˝ Model 2200 and Model 4000 series. The 17˝ model incorporates a more robust drive train to handle the higher torque associated with heavier 12-point stock. Dual side frames are standard on the unwind for stability when running wider stocks.

The Nilpeter DL 3300 13˝ digital press is designed for on-demand, short runs of color labels. Features include variable image capability, high resolutions and digital diecutting. The Nilpeter DL 3300 eliminates traditional prepress functions, reducing costs and production delivery times.

Another label press comes from Chromas Technologies. Called InstaPrep, it is available in 10˝ and 13˝ web widths, and it is equipped with Instant Change Technology for quick and clean job changeover. With supplied motorized cart, anilox rotation is maintained, slide-out inking cassettes and dies are changed quickly. InstaPrep holds registration, resulting in excellent print quality on various types of substrates.

Thermographic Equipment

SUNRAISE HP Series thermographers with Energy Smart Heat Zone Control are designed for business stationery production settings. The SUNRAISE line includes standard 12˝, 15˝ and 20˝ formats as well as 30˝ and 40˝ wide thermography machines. SUNRAISE also manufactures business card slitters that can cut up to 120,000 business cards per hour.

Using a 13,000-watt infrared heater, the new Green Machine 13000 from Therm-O-Type consumes only 7,300 to 8,700 watts of power per hour during a typical production shift. Heat up time has been reduced to less than eight minutes. The insulated heater doors, vibrator motor, cooler and holddown blowers are all interlocked through a single run/standby/automatic switch. Start feeding paper on the press and the Green Machine switches to run mode. Interrupt the paper feed and it goes into energy saving standby mode.

Offset Press Attachments

Townsend Industries has made it possible to turn one-color presses into two-color devices. The T-51 and new T-51 AE series are designed for use with the Heidelberg GTO 46/52 and feature total plate positioning on-the-fly. These models boost productivity because on-the-fly vertical, on-the-fly horizontal and on-the-fly twist plate adjustments give fast speed of makeready and control throughout the entire two-color, one-pass print run.

For feeding envelopes and cards, A.B.Dick offers the A.B.Dick 1200 feeder, which runs in tandem with most small A.B.Dick and competitive offset presses. Push-button control guarantees synchronization and non-stop production between the offset duplicator and the feeder. The adjustable feeder handles envelopes from 3x5˝ to 101⁄2x161⁄4˝, as well as catalog envelopes. A top load/bottom vacuum feed ensures non-stop production. An auto sensor prevents jams and reduces waste.