Not only was the change in production methods culturally daunting, but Mission Labels installed the first machine of its kind in the UK. The ThermoflexX 30 imager from Xeikon cost £77,500 and formed part of a £100,000 investment in pre-press facilities that nudged the West Sussex printer out of traditional film into CTP production.

Mission impossible was not an option for Mission Labels. The company wanted to spend around £500,000 on a second Nilpeter press and that is what prompted Mission Labels to go for CTP. “We bought the machine to move us into new markets; the quality of plates from our existing equipment was not good enough. We wanted a Nilpeter, but without the Xeikon we could not have bought the new press.”

Mission Labels, which emerged in 2002 from the takeover of a company in liquidation, today makes a turnover of well over £2.5m from supplying everything from retailers to food producers with labels in runs of millions in up to eight colours.

Humphrey’s team was keen to edge itself into new markets such as metal detectable labels that flag up as metal contamination in food processing and manufacturing. 

“The trouble with our existing machine was the quality of the plates. We bought the Xeikon so we could buy the Nilpeter. But it wasn’t a foregone conclusion. We looked at the market before coming down on the Xeikon,” explains Humphrey.

This included taking a trip to the US to check out a rival machine. 

“It was not satisfactory; the machine wasn’t plugged in. I think it was there more for effect than anything else. But more than appearances, there were technical aspects that didn’t stack up for where we wanted to go. It wasn’t as accurate meanwhile the drum on the kit was very big, so if you weren’t using the entire width of the drum you had to cover it with foil.”

Mission Labels looked closer to home and found what they wanted at the Belgium base of Xeikon. The ThermoflexX handles plates up to 635x762mm and can expose any plate with a laser ablation mask (LAM) layer, including flexo, letterpress and dry offset, ablative film and digital screen.

The imager accepts 1-bit TIFF files generated by any workflow, RIP or front-end. It also supports all relevant technologies such as flat top dots, says Humphrey. The platesetter has a standard resolution of 2,540dpi but Mission Labels specified the optional second output resolution of 5,080dpi for screen rulings of 250lpi for finer detail.

“This level of technology is essential these days because the labels market is becoming more and more competitive: there are more printers doing labels but demand is affected because of issues such as packaging waste. We wanted to be in a position to be able to meet all demands, not just hot and cold foil, peel-and-reveal and over-laminating, but film, metal detectables and wine glasses.

“The imager that constantly came out ahead of everyone else in terms of providing the best package of productivity, quality, service and price was the ThermoflexX.

“Even though there were no such imagers in the UK we felt confident, having had several meetings, that we would get the training and after-sales support.”

Wow factor

But it was the technical specifics of the ThermoflexX 30 model that really wowed Humphrey. Mission Labels chose this machine because its 635x762mm format met the plate requirements of its 330mmwide Nilpeter FB3300 eight-colour presses. It was also capable of outputting plates for larger presses in the future.

The imager was delivered during early December last year along with a RIP and software. The investment also included front-end systems, AV Flexologic exposure kit and a new pre-press department and design and artworking studio. Two engineers came over from Belgium to configure the machine, ensure curvatures were correct and run tests with inks.

By Christmas “we were in full production; it was pretty seamless”. But if the support from Xeikon was “second to none”, its location in Belgium is far from perfect, says Humphrey: “Being based on mainland Europe means engineers have to come a long way to service and look after machines. If Xeikon wants to sell more kit over here I suspect they will have to open up shop closer to home.”

That said, when the men from Xeikon set foot in the Mission Labels base, he could fault their professionalism no more than the performance of the ThermoflexX.

“They fine-tuned everything, from homing in on the correct dot gains to ensuring not a speck of dust could damage plates.” This, he says, saves downtime because staff know every plate taken out will offer a better quality of print.

“Results have been very good. Not only has the quality of the image on the plate taken a huge jump forward, we are able to turn work around much faster, while makeready and start-up waste on the presses has also been reduced. We can now receive a PDF file and get the job on the press in less than an hour, often despatching the order within a couple of hours of getting the digital file.”

As well as the raw speed and quality, the imager has impressive features such as the vacuum slider, which lets the team cut off vacuum to areas of the drum not required. This enables the operator to easily fit and expose plate off-cuts that would previously have been discarded. 

Service and back-up are also good, Humphrey says. “Xeikon services the ThermoflexX twice a year; for the first service they tell us what we need and we place an order, and for the second one they make sure all is running smoothly. In that way, the machine will work exactly the same way in three years’ time as it did on day one because all the parts are renewed whenever necessary.

“It’s fantastic and offers great peace of mind. We know the machine will work and the quality of output will be good because the build and servicing is so good.” 

There are minor downsides to the technology: unlike the old machine, which could handle any size, the ThermoflexX needs to work to certain sizes. And were Mission Labels to try and enter more new markets such as sequential printing, Humphrey reckons a new system would be needed. Which leads to another consideration: cost.

“Though CTP has enabled us to move forward on quality and consistency, it is expensive, when you add the hefty price of the Nilpeter. In this economic climate it’s a big risk to take, but it’s one that’s worth bearing because we are securing our future for the next 10 years.”

SPECIFICATIONS

Max plate size 635x762mm

Standard resolution 2,540dpi

Optional resolutions 2,400dpi, 4,000dpi, 4,800dpi, 5,080dpi

Standard productivity 1.5sqm/hr

Auto clamping Standard

Applications Labels, folding cartons

Price £77,500

Contact Xeikon Prepress NV +32 57 221 350 thermoflexx.com

COMPANY PROFILE

Mission Labels was set up 14 years ago by Fiona Warwick, Dave Humphrey and Sue and Martin Gearing. The 18-staff business generates a turnover of £2.6m from supplying self-adhesive labels to supermarkets, grocers, food producers, breweries, farms, retailers and caterers in runs from 100 to several million. The company, with inhouse design studio, uses two Nilpeter FB-3300 eight-unit presses, the Xeikon ThermoflexX imager for the label and dryoffset markets, a Flexor machine for inspecting, slitting and rewinding label stock and an X-Rite colour-measurement tool.

Why it was bought...

Mission Labels wanted to buy a new Nilpeter press but the quality of its existing platemaking kit was not good enough, so the company made the leap from film setting to the latest digital platemaking technology. “We bought the Xeikon so we could buy the Nilpeter: without the Xeikon we could not have bought the Nilpeter,” says Humphrey.

How it has performed...

Machine performance and servicing have been excellent. “We can now receive a PDF file and get the job on the press in less than an hour, often despatching the order within a couple of hours of getting the digital file,” says Humphrey. “We know the machine will work and the quality of output will be good because the build and servicing is so good.”