The family-owned business offers a range of products including e-commerce packaging, food delivery boxes, drinks packaging and retail-ready packaging.
Managing director Trevor Bissett said the Nozomi, plus an extension to accommodate it at the 11,150sqm Newmarket headquarters facility, represented a £3m investment for the firm.
“It was installed during April and we have started producing in earnest on it this week,” he said.
“We are delighted with it and EFI have been fantastic.”
Bissett said the firm had been watching the Nozomi technology develop, and the 14000 LED model was the right fit for the company both in terms of the physical space that the machine required, and the quality it can achieve.
The single-pass inkjet device prints at up to 100 metres per minute, and is driven by EFI’s Fiery FS500 platform with NZ-1000 blade server digital frontend.
It handles boards up to 1.4x2.4m in size and in thicknesses from 0.8-12mm.
Caps Cases has opted for a five-colour, CMYK plus white configuration, with the option to add orange or violet in future.
“We could see how the Nozomi would sit alongside our flexo press and make a difference to our capacity offering,” Bissett explained.
“We can print high quality graphics direct onto corrugated and we can change it, version it, and print on the inside. This will become our main production machine for that type of work.”
He said the firm was also starting to get requests for personalised runs.
“As time goes on, early adopter brands will start to offer that. Supply chain logistics is the limiting factor, but the print technology is all ready to go.”
He expects the Nozomi to handle run lengths from “really small” productions up to around 10,000sqm, and it will also open up new markets for the business.
“We will also be targeting a new audience, new customers who perhaps traditionally have used litho-laminate.”
It will initially run on days, with further operators being trained up with the intention to increase that to rotational eight-hour shifts.
Bissett also highlighted the sustainability gains around the Nozomi’s energy-efficiency and type of ink used, and the recyclability of the output.
Evandro Matteucci, VP and general manager for packaging and building materials at EFI Inkjet, said: “We are thrilled that Caps Cases has become the first business globally to invest in and install the latest evolution of EFI’s breakthrough Nozomi platform.
“We are looking forward to supporting Trevor Bissett and his team as they increase productivity, alleviate bottlenecks, and deliver more value to their brand owner clients using the outstanding graphics quality and flexibility of our award-winning single-pass UV LED inkjet technology.”
The Nozomi is installed alongside five existing flexo presses and Caps Cases’ first digital device, a HP Scitex multi-pass 11000 press installed in 2016, which the firm has retained.
The £30m, 240-staff firm also has a manufacturing site in Glasgow.
