Labelexpo: Labellers get set for biggest show yet

13 September 2013

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I'm there for four days and I'm not doing four days of drinking the Belgian beer. There's an awful lot to see." Hopefully Mercian Labels managing director Adrian Steele will find just a small window to sample some of the local produce while in Brussels this year. But nonetheless his comment provides insight into just what to expect from Labelexpo Europe 2013. In short: lots.

The exhibition, having started out in one hall at the Royal Horticultural Halls in 1980, is tipped to be the biggest it’s ever been this year. The amount of exhibitor space sold has apparently reached 31,000sqm, with an impressive 600 exhibitors preparing, as we speak, to dazzle visitors with their shiny printing wares in a few days’ time.

No surprise, then, that the show, running from 24-27 September, will also feature more new product launches than ever before, according to show organisers. And it’s of course no surprise that a lot of these will be digital.

This year marks the first time the show has featured a dedicated digital hall (Hall 9). World premieres from the likes of Epson, HP Indigo, Heidelberg and Screen will be sure to draw the crowds. As might be expected, details of the majority of these launches are being kept strictly under wraps until the show. The exceptions are Screen and FFEI.

Screen has announced the commercial launch at Labelexpo of its first UV press, the Truepress Jet L350UV. It is being billed as the fastest digital label press currently available, knocking out label stock at over 16sqm/min on a 350mm web. Then there’s the FFEI Graphium, billed as the industry’s most productive, modular digital UV inkjet press and featuring high-opacity digital white ink.

"One of the big highlights for us this year is the amount of digital technology we’ve got on show," confirms managing director of Labelexpo Global Series Lisa Milburn.

These on-stand demos will then be backed up with a half-day Digital Label and Package Printing Masterclass, and an inkjet trail featuring six inkjet manufacturers printing on the same substrates at various times throughout the day, to give visitors the rare chance to directly compare and contrast.

Also cementing digital’s now established place in the label and packaging printing world is HP’s Print Your Future space, in the Patio area of the Brussels Expo. Visitors will get the chance to see the HP Indigo WS6600, and the HP Indigo 20000 and 30000 in action, and listen to ‘Behind the scenes of the Share a Coke’ project and ‘Is digital printing limited to short runs?’ talks, as well as debates on other topics, in the Experience Theatre.

But Labelexpo Europe 2013 will be by no means all about digital. "Even the traditional press manufacturers, such as Nilpeter and Mark Andy, are launching new versions," says Milburn, reporting that Omet, MPS and Gidue all also have exciting web offset or flexo developments up their sleeves.

There’s DG Press Machines’ new Thallo variable sleeve web offset press for flexible packaging for example. The attraction of this press will be the wide range of configurations it can be bought in, says DG, with available 520mm, 850mm and 1,050mm web widths apparently just indications of the variable sizes on offer for this modular press, which can be ordered with a maximum of ten units.

Checking out traditional press speed and quality developments is high on Mercian Labels’ very demanding Labelexpo agenda. "One point that will raise its head this Labelexpo even more than it did two years ago, is the changing format of flexo presses, which are particularly focused on quick turnaround changes; that was a theme starting to emerge two years ago and I think there have been some really interesting moves and we’ll be taking a good look at those," says Steele.

Innovations –in both digital and traditional technologies – will be pored over particularly keenly by European label printers, he adds. "The European market is fairly static in terms of volume, so a lot of competitors are looking for new sectors, new niches to invest in to continue their growth."

Milburn agrees that this is why the show’s niche focus will be so integral to its appeal to European printers this year. Luckily for show organisers, an eagerness from European label printers to stay ahead of the competition in challenging times, is being complemented nicely by label and packaging printing growth elsewhere.

Milburn says: "Labelexpo Europe has become our global show, which means global growth affects us. Growth in India is about 10% per year, which is huge if you look at the global economy at the moment. Europe’s growth is only about 2%, but then you have 10%-12% in South America. We bring people in from all those different countries."

"Some of the countries like India are bringing much larger delegations," she adds, reporting that this holds true for a lot of European visitors too. The result is pre-registration figures which suggest attendance will be in the 30,000 region this year, up from around 28,500 in 2011.

So it seems this year’s Labelexpo Europe 2013 is, even more than ever, being seen as a ‘must-attend’ date in label and packaging printers’ diaries.

Mercian’s Steele sums it up: "Labelexpo is a show you cannot miss if you’re operating in the label industry. Not least because you can keep in contact with your suppliers all in one place, but also because all the major innovations are launched at Labelexpo. So it’s just a very cost-effective way of learning about developments. It is the definitive show."

LabelExpo essentials

Date 24-27 September

Location Brussels Expo

Price €50 (£42) for early registration (until 18 September); €75 (£64) standard rate; €600 for the Digital Label and Package Printing Masterclass which runs on 27 September, 09.00-13.00

Opening times 24 September, 10.00-17.00; 25-26 September, 10.00-18.00; 27 September, 10.00-16.00

Exhibitors Just under 600

Website www.labelexpo-europe.com

Key attractions

The package printing workshops, held in Hall 12, will feature two different sessions: a digital carton printing workshop hosted by Xeikon and showcasing glass jar label and carton printing on the Xeikon 3500, and a conventional flexible package printing session featuring Gidue’s Combat M3 press
A half-day Digital Label and Package Printing Masterclass, costing €600, will feature seven different talks including sessions on different technologies, pre-press systems and substrate selection and print quality
The Inkjet Trail will see six leading inkjet manufacturers produce a selection of food, pharmaceutical and industrial labels at allotted times each day (see boxout). The idea is to allow visitors to directly compare output from a range of manufacturers
New for this show is HP’s Print Your Future area, in the Patio area. On show will be the HP Indigo WS6600, and the HP Indigo 20000 and 30000. Seminars on a variety of topics will be held in the Experience Theatre

A PRINTER’S VIEW

Zenna Parfaniuk, director, The Label Makers

"We’ve been going for the past 15 years or so. We always like to look at what’s going on in digital because that’s where most changes are happening and that’s having the biggest impact on the industry at the moment. We’ll probably have a look at the laser die-cutting, but we don’t think it’s a cost-effective way for us to work at the moment. For people doing the really short runs in digital work that probably is quite a good option for them, but our runs tend to be a bit longer. We do go to other exhibitions, but Labelexpo’s probably the big one for us just in terms of it being very specific."

INKJET TRAIL DEMO SCHEDULE

Tuesday, 24 September

Esko (stand 5B25) 11.30-11.50 and 13.50-14.10

Heidelberg Linoprint (stand 5B50) 11.50-12.10 and 14.10-14.30

Stork Prints (stand 6H40) 12.10-12.30 and 14.30-14.50

Epson (stand 9H50) 12.30-12.50 and 16.30-16.50

Durst (stand 9H57) 12.50-13.10 and 15.50-16.10

EFI Jetrion (stand 9H55) 13.10-13.30 and 16.10-16.30

Domino (stand 9F70) 15.30-15.50

Wednesday, 25 September

EFI Jetrion (stand 9H55) 11.30-11.50 and 14.10-14.30

Epson (stand 9H50) 11.50-12.10 and 13.50-14.10