The metallic process was developed by a Scodix user, and has now been formalised by the firm as one of the finishes offered. At its heart is the use of the Scodix PolySense clear polymer to lift the gloss of the underlying substrate.

"When you put Scodix on top of a metal board or film the result really looks like a hot foil, or even better," said Scodix vice president of marketing Ziki Kuly.

Scodix users can combine the full range of Scodix effects on a single sheet in a single pass enabling glossing, digital embossing and textured effects on the same job.

Scodix Metallic can be applied on top of a print to produce an unlimited range of metallic colours. In combination with an opaque ink it is capable of creating selective areas of metallic on the job.

Scodix is suggesting that users print and finish onto a silver laminate foil supplied by Spanish firm Derprosa, which it claims is the only foil approved by HP Indigo.

"By laminating the silver foil to board printers have the flexibility to use a wider range of underlying board weights and sizes and can laminate as few or as many sheets as they need without the issue of stock-holding or minimum order quantities," said Kuli.

It can be used in conjunction with Color-Logic software to aid with the file preparation but there is no formal tie-up between the firms and it is possible to artwork the job without using specialist software.

UK dealer Conversion UK was showing samples of the new metallic process last week at Packaging Innovations.

The S75 is a minor upgrade to the firm’s previous S74 to enable it to handle the wider sheets from B2+ presses such as HP Indigo’s 10000 and forthcoming 30000 carton board machine.

"For us adding an extra half an inch is no big deal, but for packaging printers every extra width makes a huge difference in efficiency," said Kuli.