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A challenge to IML
FESPA Digital is a trade show for digital printing, focusing on screen printing, industrial packaging and signage applications, and taking place in Amsterdam in May 2009. Digital label press manufacturer Xeikon will use the show to launch and demonstrate a digital transfer application, set up in collaboration with Diamond Photofoil (www.photofoil.com), a UK-based company specializing in decoration of plastic materials.
At FESPA Digital, plastic glasses will be decorated using a Xeikon-printed transfer. This application is unique, says the company, in that it is the only truly viable industrial alternative to in-mold labeling (IML) or direct printing, providing offset-challenging full color prints on virtually any thermoplastic molding. Given the high cost of producing short-run IMLs, this new development could well find a market.