Maximising profitability and efficiency with OKI digital label printer

Silat Labels : small company tackles big job for global rugby tournament

Industry : Self-adhesive labels

Location : Midrand, Gauteng, South Africa

The Challenge: Silat Labels partnered with NSI 4 Africa which placed them in an ideal position to take advantage of an opportunity to work with the Dutch brewing company Heineken, a key sponsor of the rugby tournament, which initially commissioned 600 labels for a limited-edition beer bottle to mark the event. The challenge Silat Labels faced was the ability to print a stunning transparent label that displayed well on the dark bottle. To do this Silat Labels needed to research a new label printing solution that could deliver on this requirement, within the deadline.

Silat Labels looked for an end-to-end label printing solution which was different from other CMYK only options that it had previously seen or used. It also wanted a printer with a small footprint to fit in the space available, so ideally a desktop printer rather than floor standing. The printer needed to be easy for all the team to use, and good for on-demand small run printing.

The solution: Paul Stretton, Owner & Founder of Silat Labels chose OKI’s Pro1050 Label Printer as it is a fully customisable digital label production solution. Paul purchased this from NSI 4 Africa, OKI’s assigned value-added partner for the Northern, Central and Southern African territories. Silat also purchased a DPR Virgo Die-cutter to support its requirements.

Upon receiving delivery of the initial order of 600 labels, the client was extremely pleased and promptly ordered a further 20,000 which were produced and delivered over the following two weeks, all in time for the tournament kick-off. “OKI’s Pro1050 made it possible to grow the order from an initial small quantity into a much larger volume. Other technologies wouldn’t have allowed us to adapt to the client’s needs as effectively as we could with our OKI device,” says Paul.

The Benefits: Thanks to the Pro1050’s CMYK+White Toner capability, it was possible to print transparent ‘no-show’ label that displayed well on the dark green bottle. The ease of operation and digital nature of OKI’s technology meant that Silat Labels was able to accommodate the client’s changes efficiently, easily and cost effectively. The label design could be easily changed, quickly printed onto the clear label media and adhered to sample bottles to achieve the desired result.

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Urlichs & Pape : makes business stick with Oki’s Pro Series label printer

Industry : Printing Services

Location : Germany

The challenge:The family-run printing business, Urlichs & Pape, specialises in the production and further processing of labels; the process includes numbering, perforation, blind stamping, die cutting, grooving and lamination. After several decades of success in printing classic labels on sheet material, using offset paper, gummed paper and adhesive paper, Urlichs & Pape’s two managing directors, Ulrich Peters and Wolfgang Hohgardt, added label roll production using a thermal transfer printer as a service line. Pre-punched formats were used, which were printed only in black with just a few format variations.

However, using this format, more and more customers gradually withdrew and moved towards their own independent label production. This prompted Urlichs & Pape to search for a solution that would enable the company to print and offer coloured adhesive labels.

The solution:A detailed market evaluation showed that the label printing segment had great potential. After reviewing the most appropriate equipment, Urlichs & Pape opted for OKI’s Pro1050 five-colour digital LED label printer, with the UniNetiColor LF700+ digital label finishing system. The combination enables the company to print high-quality coloured labels and carry out further processing efficiently.

“OKI’s Pro1050 is a very well-designed and highly sophisticated system that, in combination with the UniNet finisher, guarantees seamless, smooth production at maximum quality,” said Ulrich Peters. “The rolls with the respective media types can be replaced very quickly and the consumables have a high capacity.” The team from Urlichs & Pape were supported in the setup of the new label printer by its solution partner, Faber, which handled the installation, preparation and on-site training.

Using the smart solution, Urlichs & Pape can now print on a wide range of media, including uncoated, glossy and textured papers, as well as synthetic materials with a variety of substrates including transparent, opaque, white or coloured.

Having the option of white as a fifth colour gives the printing business greater flexibility in the design of the printed labels. White can be used as a background on transparent substrates or to create new extraordinary designs on coloured or metallised materials.

“The enormous advantage of this solution is that from now on we no longer have to buy ready-made materials or punching tools,” said Peters. “For the individual formats of the respective labels, I can now easily create a cutter line for the drag knife of the finisher, the matrix is removed and the product is cut and wound, moving from rows of three to one. The order is ready to ship before you know it and the customer is happy.”

The benefits:Since moving to OKI’s Pro1050 five-colour label printer and UniNetiColor LF700+ digital label finishing system, switching between different media has proved to be easy and straightforward for the Urlichs & Pape team.

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Grafiche Morbegnesi : high-end design agency adds label printing to its portfolio

Industry : Print Services Provider

Location : Italy

The challenge: Grafiche Morbegnesi is located in Italy’s Sondrio province where local food and wine producers have a requirement for professional quality labels to help their products stand out from the crowd. However, when fulfilling label printing requests,an external print supplier had to be used as Grafiche Morbegnesi lacked this capability in-house. This resulted in long lead times for the company’s customers.

The solution:Grafiche Morbegnesi had been relying on an OKIA3 colour printer as its printer of choice for normal digital printing jobs, providing the company with extremely satisfactory professional quality results.The printer had proven easy to use and provided exceptional reliability, so when looking for a device to meet its label printing requirements, the company had to consider OKI.

At a trade fair, the company came across OKI’s Pro1050 label printer and was impressed by its performance and unique ability to achieve striking results by printing in 5 colours (CMYK+White). “There was no way we could overlook OKI when making our choice,” says Enzo Salvato, owner of GraficheMorbegnesi. “Other devices on the market are limited by inkjet technology while the OKI device uses digital LED together with dry toner technology which provided a noticeably higher quality. Other devices also lacked the diverse media handling of OKI’slabel printer which would be essential to Grafiche Morbegnesi’s service offering.”

The benefits:Finlogic’s installation of OKI’s Pro1050 and die cutter took just two days to complete, allowing the Grafiche Morbegnesi team to get to grips with the new system and start producing orders.

Following the installation, the ease of use of OKI’s Pro1050 was the first obvious benefit. The team were able to operate the new printer with very little training, while the flexibility of the Pro1050, which can produce low volumes as well as thousands of labels in one print run, means the company can fulfil label orders of different sizes for clients both large and small. Large print runs that would have previously taken as long as a month using a third-party print supplier can now be completed in just two days.

OKI printers are available in India through JN Arora & Co Pvt Ltd.