Gallus Innovation Days 2018: launching a new digital label entry level press

Already on the first day of the "Gallus Innovation Days", almost 300 visitors came to the headquarters of Gallus to St. Gallen to see the innovations of the Swiss manufacturer of label printing machines. This year, Gallus, a member of the Heidelberg Group, continues this success story for the third time in an even larger exhibition area. During the “Gallus Innovation Days 2018”, which take place from 26 – 28 June 2018, Gallus print experts present how digitization will change the label industry and how Gallus is going to support their customers to manage this drastic industrial paradigm shift.

Gallus Smartfire - Getting started in digital printing made easy
What would the Gallus Innovation Days be without a machine premiere? With the Gallus Smartfire, Gallus is presenting a starter model for digital narrow web label printing. This means, the Swiss full-range supplier is expanding its product portfolio with another digital printing press, which is deliberately positioned as an entry-level model. "With the Gallus Smartfire, we are also focussing on new target groups who are looking for a smart entry into digital label printing," explains Michael Ring, Head of Digital Solutions at Gallus. "The Memjet technology allows us to offer an inkjet printing press that produces labels with a quality of 1600x1600 dpi while still keeping the investment costs at a low level."

The Gallus Smartfire prints with the well-proven Memjet print heads with water-based inks, which means that these labels are eco-friendly and leave a minimal ecological footprint. The Smartfire uses an ordinary power outlet, needs no exhaust equipment, is extremely compact, and emits no VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds), thus making it the perfect press for any work environment.

"The name says it all, the Smartfire is absolutely easy to operate via a self-explanatory touch panel," says Michael Ring. With this digital press, only a few prepress skills are required to create professional CMYK 4-color inkjet labels. Just as easy are the replacements of the ink-containers and the exchange of the print head. Furthermore, this machine also delivers finished die cut labels, all produced in one pass and ready for shipping on the reel, just like Gallus customers know it from the other presses. For this purpose, a finishing unit is attached, on which the labels are laminated and cut. This can be either done individually by the integrated cutting plotter or by fast and cost-effective punching with the semi rotary die cutter at the end of the inline finishing unit.
So, one thing is for sure: Proven Memjet print quality matched with profound Gallus label know-how makes the Smartfire the ideal entry-level machine to get started in digital label printing.

Gallus Labelmaster Advanced, the perfect choice
Hot on the heels of the successful debut of the Gallus Labelmaster Advanced during Labelexpo 2017 in Brussels, this machine will now be presented to the public in St.Gallen with automatic transverse and longitudinal register control, which further emphasises the ease of use of this press. The process change from flexographic printing unit to screen printing unit is easy to handle, too. With just a few simple steps, the two printing units can be exchanged using a sliding carriage and then be reconnected to the machine base. Equipped with one screen printing unit and eight flexographic printing units, the Labelmaster Advanced presented in the Print Media Center at Gallus impresses with its high final speed and its absolute register accuracy, without any manual readjustment after each job change.

Gallus Labelfire 340 - Digital label printing, now with extended digital and screen inline finishing functions
Additional inline finishing functions for the industrial digital label production on the Gallus Labelfire are some of the main topics in the Print Media Center at Gallus Innovation Days. Upstream, this hybrid printing machine is equipped with a fully integrated screen printing unit, which enables a professional opaque white on transparent substrates that can be digitally printed over. Positioned downstream is the new Digital Embellishment Unit (DEU), which is able to carry out inline coating digitally and apply matte, gloss and tactile spot coating effects to the substrate web in various thicknesses as haptic relief effects. What is new is that by using metallic foils, this relief effect can be executed in metallic looks, which was previously not possible on any digital printing machine.
In keeping with the principle: "From the file to the finished label in one pass", the Gallus Labelfire proves that it is the only digital printing press in the world where almost all inline finishing processes are possible. This means that this press can be used just as reliably and flexibly as any conventional label printing press from the Gallus product portfolio.

Heidelberg and Gallus Lifecycle services
Digitization at Gallus Services increases machine performance
The new service offerings from Gallus fit hand in hand with Industry 4.0 and ensure that label printers benefit from higher availability of their machinery. Gallus and Heidelberger Druckmaschinen are working on many specific projects which advance digitization in print shops and deliver added value to customers. For example, the “mCall” enables automated ticket manufacturing, in which the printing press independently communicates all the necessary machine data to the Gallus helpdesk. This does away with the initial telephone calls and emails otherwise required to log the case, which is precisely how mCall speeds up the service organisation’s response times.
Gallus customers also benefit from the almost completed integration of Gallus sales and service organizations into the Heidelberg Group. This means that Gallus will be able to access Heidelberg's worldwide service network in the future. Gallus customers will now benefit from the dense global network of Heidelberg local service organisations and thus faster on-the-spot services.

Gallus Screeny – Industry 4.0 now also in rotary screen printing
The fact that Industry 4.0 also reveals its effects in rotary screen printing will be impressively demonstrated at this year's Gallus Innovation Days. The data of the Screeny A-Line screen plate used are read in by a scanner and then used together with the live data of the press. During the printing process, the live data of the screen printing process can then be shown online. In addition, the complete manufacturing process of a Screeny A-Line printing plate will be shown by using the automatic wash-out system from Gallus and the new Phoenix UV-LED direct platesetter from Heidelberg. This screen plate is also the plate that will be used for the live demonstrations on the Gallus Labelmaster Advanced in the Print Media Center Label.

Gallus RCS 430 – the benchmark in label printing
For over ten years now, the Gallus RCS machine system has been setting the benchmark in terms of print quality, productivity and flexibility in narrow-web label printing. The success of the Gallus RCS 430 is based on its unique combination of a modular design, outstanding process flexibility and a high level of automation. Thanks to maximum, end-to-end automation, the Gallus RCS’ extremely short job changeover times and minimum paper waste deliver optimum operational cost-efficiency.
Gallus impressively demonstrates this flexibility by showing fast job changes from flexographic printing unit to flexographic printing unit at top speed using the flying imprint process.

Gallus ECS 340 – the top seller
Since its launch, the Gallus ECS 340 has been the top-selling label printing machine with short web path. Nearly 500 machines worldwide provide daily support to Gallus customers in the label printing sector, helping them to increase productivity and cut costs. The outstanding web feed and the very short web path are decisive in delivering the excellent register performance of the Gallus ECS 340. At the Gallus Innovation Days, Gallus experts explain how multilayer labels can be produced by using a special web shifting unit. This proves that the Gallus ECS 340 has everything it needs to produce a variety of different labels.