Available as of last Tuesday (1 June), Duplo is offering the full range of nearline flood coaters, from entry-level to high speed, duplex, and inline with some digital print engines.

Duplo UK managing director Martyn Train said: “Duplo’s financial year starts on 1 June and so launching the Ultra coaters at the same time gets our new year off to a great start, energising the company with new opportunities and creating some new relationships in the process.

“We’ve made some great inroads with the DuSense even through a pandemic year, and we’ve been able to show many customers how important embellishment is to print.

“The Ultra range of flood coaters offer both UV and the new aqueous, water-based coating for a more environmentally friendly coating but also certified for coating the inside and outside of food packaging.

“They also offer options for duplexing multi-pass or single-pass along with inline coating with some HP print engines. These machines are perfect for digital printers who are looking for an easier, cheaper, and more productive solution to lamination, but also for those wishing to move into the packaging environment for both food and non-food products.”

The Ultra brand is owned by Belgian business Mark Hunting, whose managing director Réginald de Ghellinck said that when the range was first introduced, the UK was one of its biggest European markets.

“There have been many installations around the country, mainly with digital printers producing greetings cards, business, and postcards.

“For many digital printers, lamination has historically been the standard way to enhance and protect digitally printed substrates.

“In comparison, UV and aqueous coating has been very common in the conventional offset market. With the evolution of digital printing, new manufacturers’ technologies [and] new types of varnish have now been manufactured, making UV and aqueous more accessible and easier to use.”

He added: “For cost, practical and ecological reasons, some of our customers have moved away from lamination as our solutions are easily 30% cheaper to run, minimise the use of plastic, contain fully recyclable substrates, [have] no need for stocks of different films sizes and thickness, and no more need to trim after lamination.

“There is a growing trend of people moving towards the aqueous versions of our solutions as water-based coating is environmentally friendlier than UV and lamination.”

The Ultra Printflood range includes the 100Pro, which runs at up to 13m/min and supports sheets up to 356x510mm; the 200Pro, which runs at up to 34m/min and supports sheets up to 530x750mm; and the 300A, which can reach speeds up to 45m/min and also accepts sheets up to 530x750mm.

The most recent addition is the Ultra 1000A, which can run B2+ with long edge feeding up to 730mm, enabling a production increase of 25% compared to short edge feeding.

Duplo did not disclose pricing for the range.