Kartongbolaget AB, the Helsingborg, Sweden-based folding carton converter, is introducing a fast, short-run and personalized packaging service, with the installation of a seven-color HP Indigo 30000 Digital Press integrated with a Tresu iCoat 30000 coater.

The digital line, the first of its type in Scandinavia, serves its customers in the industrial, food, confectionery and personal care sectors across northern Europe. It complements an existing offset workflow that includes a six-color Heidelberg Speedmaster XL75, diecutters and other finishing equipment.

The installation enables Kartongbolaget to introduce a new flexible digital folding carton service, “Fast Track," offering short and personalized runs of up to 5000 sheets, as well as sample production, delivered within five days. Its cost-effectiveness is enabling niche and luxury brands to achieve retail listings with added-value packaging presentation for the first time.

Furthermore, the company is offering a number of additional services made possible by digital printing: versioning, variable data printing for limited editions and tracing in the supply chain, personalized products, interactive packaging linked to social media competitions and samples on-demand. 

Joakim Johansson, managing director, Kartongbolaget, comments: “We were determined to invest in HP Indigo’s liquid toner technology because of its proven performance and versatility. It would give us the option to print board up to B2 size, and also assure us of low ink migration to meet new food legislation. When we saw first-hand the quality and performance of the HP Indigo 30000, along with the Tresu iCoat coater at the HP Graphics Experience Center in Barcelona, we knew there was no alternative.”

With its priming feature and ability to achieve 97% of the Pantone colour gamut, the HP Indigo and the Tresu iCoat 30000 coater deliver indistinguishable results to offset on numerous substrates.

Tresu iCoat 30000 is configured inline with the HP Indigo press, enabling seamless single-pass printing and coating. The integrated digital printing and flexo coating line has a maximum speed of up to 4,600 sheets per hour (3450sph in four colors), handling substrates of maximum format 750mm x 550mm in paperboard and metalized boards between 250µm and 600µm thickness. The press can also print on plastic substrates, accommodating PVC and polypropylene up to 630µm, and PET up to 400µm.

Where no substrate or varnish change is needed, setup times for each job are about one minute.

Tresu iCoat 30000 is a flexo coating unit that applies water-based or UV-varnishes in a single pass directly after the digital printing stage, protecting the underlying graphics and providing value-added aesthetic appeal. The iCoat unit’s automatic chamber cleaning and fast sleeve change facilities enable varnish changeovers within 10 minutes.

After coating, the automatically stacked sheets are wheeled to one of four separate diecutters that also take offset jobs, before gluing.

The company’s own design studio develops packaging and promotional concepts, creating complete, affordable branding solutions for small businesses seeking a strong identity that can be consistently applied in all situations.

Joakim Johansson said: “The flexibility of our HP Indigo – Tresu digital line gives our customers a huge advantage in targeting consumers with more relevant products. So one production run can be split into multiple runs with different language versions, regional variations, brand varieties and limited editions, without any extra setup times, manual input or start-up waste.

“Above all, this digital investment gives the potential to widen our offering beyond the packaging, and provide integrated logistics solutions that remove waste from the supply chain,” Johansson concludes.