Practicing sustainable manufacturing can be hard for high-waste industries like label converters. Thankfully, that won’t be the case forever, thanks to advances across the board in our industry! We took a big step forward ourselves this year with making how we make labels better—not just for our customers, but by improving our energy consumption. We’re on a slow burn mission to leave the place where we work here in the Monadnock Region better than we found it—and to do that, we know we have to be mindful of the investments we make in our business’ future!
This year, we welcomed a brand new Xeikon Panther PX2200 digital inkjet label press into our Keene, New Hampshire facility. You might be thinking—what’s so great about a giant label printer? Won’t that just need tons of energy to run? Well, we’ll let our President add his two cents first!
“Xeikon stood out for its next gen printing capabilities and strengths with variable data,” EIM President Alex Henkel says. “As a company that values having a net positive impact on the region our employees live in, what sets this printer apart for us is the leap forward in energy efficiency when compared to the older inkjet press it is replacing.”
EIM’s Product Manager Juan Munoz also commented, “Both the Panther’s LED ink curing process, as well as its 600 dpi printings improvements on ink usage are a leap into a more sustainable energy impact for us as a label converter. Because of the LED ink technology, the Panther series press doesn’t require as much energy to cure inks as traditional UV inks. And the 600 dpi printheads lay down less ink, therefore reducing ink consumption compared to 360 dpi printheads.”
As converters look to embrace more sustainable options, new developments in ink curing are moving them towards energy efficient machines. In fact, there are many benefits of LED ink curing over older methods. LEDs consume vastly less energy and have a significantly longer life than traditional UV ink curing.
Our Production and PrePress teams have had quite the journey this year, installing and calibrating this next gen machine, along with diving into training on the new systems and processes that come with new technology. Thanks to their tireless work, our new Xeikon press is already spitting out quality inkjet labels for our customers!
