Heidelberg highlights Gallus Labelmaster 440 at Avery Dennison Innovation and Knowledge Centre, India

At Label and More, the knowledge-sharing sessions and live demos of the Labelmaster 440 were showcased to more than 80 printers across the labels & packaging segment, and ADIKC partners – Esko, Dupont, Flint, Royal Coat, Rotometrics, Univaco, and Tesa.

Ferdinand Rüesch, Senior vice president, Global key accounts – Gallus, stated, “The Labelmaster 440 fulfills some critical criteria of most label printers. With shorter print run lengths leading to several job changes and potential material waste, there is a greater need than ever before for a resource-efficient label press with shorter setup times. The Gallus Labelmaster 440 fits the bill perfectly, while also addressing key performance demands for producing self-adhesive labels, mono films, shrink sleeves, in-mould labels and cartons.”

The Gallus Labelmaster is a top-selling press in its class with worldwide installations exceeding 100, since its debut two years back. A fully automated flexo press designed for the label and packaging market, the Labelmaster 440 is endowed with an intuitive operating philosophy for shorter make-readies and faster job changes.

The Gallus Labelmaster is a gearless and shaftless press with a short web path along with the latest automation-ready for Industry 4.0 – a perfect suit for labels and various other packaging market segment meeting the print needs of the market, the press is available in printing width of 340mm.

Global adoption of Labelmaster

Samir Patkar, President of Heidelberg India, commented on the successful global uptake of the Labelmaster, “This is a press built for today’s packaging printer, ensuring lowest wastage, brilliant performance, and highest efficiency. Configuration flexibility and agility facilitates quickest adaptability to evolving market conditions. This futuristic design of the Labelmaster protects the investment of the printer, while providing competitive differentiation and profitable returns.”

Lightweight aluminium printing cylinders fitted on the Labelmaster 440 can be quickly changed, ensuring high-speed job changes. The printing cylinders and anilox rollers are driven directly by servo drives, thanks to which, the press can accommodate a wide choice of substrates, including paper, self-adhesive materials, cardboard, Monofoil label materials and Tube laminates. A new locking system enables quick, easy and accurate positioning of printing units with absolute precision and guarantees 100% register accuracy across a wide spectrum of substrates, at all speeds.

Print demo @ Labels and More

In the two-day forum, multiple jobs were printed on the Labelmaster 440 to underscore its dexterity in handling a broad array of substrates. The print demo included a multi-colour carton printed on a 200 gsm board with matt gloss varnish & die-cut, all-in-one pass; cosmetic label printed on 50 microns shrink transparent substrate with reverse printing in a single pass; and self-adhesive label with matt & gloss varnish and die-cut.

The winning edge…

Samir Patkar added, “The modular design of the Labelmaster 440 makes it a compelling value buy. The press can be configured to meet distinct business needs. You can add a screen printing unit, Gravure print unit, hot foil stamping unit, multilayer, a die-cutting unit in print position, quick-change front loading die-cutting system and more to produce premium labels or cartons. The perfect price performance ratio is indeed a classic competitive edge.”

The Labelmaster 440 supports high printing speeds of up to 200 m/min. Even at high speeds, the press produces premium print quality with high-end finishing, as the printed image is always in the register. At all times, an ink chamber optimized for high speeds, facilitates optimal ink transfer to Anilox rollers with minimal splashing and foaming.

In concluding remarks, Ferdinand Rüesch noted, “The ADIKC was a great platform to interact with more than 80 CEOs operating in flexo, gravure and sheetfed offset segments, and understand their challenges and needs. The forum also led to some interesting discussions with printers exploring a foray into labels, as well as converting cartons by Flexo.”

Participants speak…

Nirav of Letra Graphics “We thoroughly enjoyed the live job runs, especially the multi-substrate printing with coating, and finishing…all at a single go. It is exciting to see label printing move beyond the best.”

Bhrigav Jain of Monarch Graphics commented, “Heidelberg has always strived to create bespoke brand experiences for clients. This event was no exception. The Labelmaster 440 demos were impressive.”