Dion Label Company, a label manufacturer in Westfeld, MA, USA, is taking steps toward perfecting print quality for its wide range of customers. As part of the process, Dion has partnered with MPS and CC1 Inc. – the company recently purchased its second MPS EF flexo press and equipped it with a CC1 camera-based DRC-6000L mark-to-mark automatic registration control system.

Dion Label Printing specializes in multi-color pressure sensitive labels, tags, tickets, shrink sleeves, pouches, and specialty application products for various markets. John Dion, Dion Label Printing’s Co-President, comments, “We believe that our mix of product types, printing technologies, high-quality and adherence to color standards is somewhat unusual in our business. Dion Label prints many eight to nine color jobs with a combination of solid and process elements. Many of our print runs often include adhesive print as well, which adds the risk of slightly destabilizing registration.”

Dion Label Printing was searching for that “near-perfect registration” on their flexo press print runs, similar to what they obtain with an in-house digital press system. As John Dion explains, “Our go-to flexo presses for tough jobs are the MPS flexo presses. The MPS flexo presses are able to meet the near-perfect registration provided by our digital presses for brand/product compatibility. While making our decision to purchase the EF flexo press, MPS indicated it had worked with CC1 successfully to fully automate register control by eliminating the need to fine tune print register. The newest nine-color MPS press is equipped with both UV and aqueous print stations and we have a two-camera CC1 setup with the DRC-6000L register control for complete automatic adjustments."

CC1 Inc.’s vice president and general manager, John DeCarlo, remarks that with CC1's register controls, Dion has the ability to provide cutting-edge press automated register technologies for a very diverse customer base. He says, "Teaming with MPS, we were able to supply our DRC-6000L register control configured specifically to their press to fully automate the tight registration for Dion Label Printing’s specialty label press runs. Our DRC-6000L register provides specialty label printers, like Dion Label, additional savings by fully automating color register during make-ready. Final register can be established automatically even if color marks overlap. This is one of many unique features of our DRC-6000L Register Control.”

The EF is MPS’ automated multi-substrate press platform, with a web width ranging from 13 to 20 inches. The EF is a proven flexo press platform in the North American market, focused at offering the lowest costs per 1,000 labels as well as maximum versatility. The EF features solid MPS machine construction with predictable and reliable high print quality. MPS’ slogan is "Operator Focused, Results Driven," and the press maker's vision is that ease of operation is key in order to reach maximum productivity. 

John Dion concludes by saying, “The system has allowed us to tighten color traps even further and especially helps with in and out movement.  CC1 Inc. has been an excellent partner and their system has performed well. Any future EF flexo presses from MPS will definitely be equipped with CC1’s DRC-6000L Register Control."

Dion Label Printing was featured in the July/August 2016 issue of L&NW as the subject of that issue's Narrow Web Profile.