Gallus Group recently celebrated its 100th anniversary earlier this year. The press manufacturer, a subsidiary of Heidelberg Druckfarben GmbH (HEIDELBERG), is a longtime leader in the field of traditional label printing with its Gallus Labelmaster, and has seamlessly moved into the world of digital label printing with its Gallus Labelfire – with hybrid presses also in its portfolio.

Interestingly, Gallus, together with HEIDELBERG, has also recently entered the ink space, developing the UVF01 ink set for the Gallus Labelfire 340. Gallus presented the new ink set at Interpack 2023.

“We always look for ways to innovate and drive value for our customers, so for the Gallus Labelfire 340, a new flexible inkset represented a unique opportunity to open a new profitable market for our converter customers,” noted Thomas Schweizer, head of sales, Gallus Group. “Today, Gallus Labelfire 340 users can utilize all the benefits of digital print – including short-runs, versioning and personalization, reduced waste and storage – to enable production of cost-effective folding carton packaging and laminate tubes commonly used in cosmetics.”

Schweizer noted that the key advantage of the UVF01 ink set is that it solves the common problem of UV ink cracking on laminate tubes when bent. He added that this was a key issue that restricted the use of UV-based digital presses for flexible packaging applications, as they just weren’t robust enough.

“We solved this by developing a completely new ink set that reflects the market needs for folding carton and tube laminates,” Schweizer pointed out. “This now enables us to provide a cost-effective, high-quality UV ink set with a wide color gamut and the required durability.

“Not only does this support business growth for converters, but it also unlocks huge opportunities for brands to explore new packaging designs – as well as tactics to better engage the consumer and increase sales,” he added. “What’s more, as the Gallus Labelfire decoration/refinement can be printed in a single pass, it represents less set-up times, less waste – all of which is very important for expensive tube laminate production, where it might typically cost 1.7 €/m2.”

Developing inks is a new discipline for Gallus, made possible through its relationship with HEIDELBERG.

“This is one of the many benefits of being owned by HEIDELBERG,” Schweizer said. “We’re able to utilize their state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities to design and develop this ink set at speed and scale. This is a fantastic capability, and it’s a real differentiator for our business. What’s more, in times of part supplies and delivery issues, being independent as well as being able to provide them via HEIDELBERG’s comprehensive global network, gives great peace of mind to our customers.”
For Gallus’ R&D team, the greatest question was how to overcome design limitations because of the brittleness of cured UV inkjet ink.

“When you open and close a folding carton (FC), the ink tends to crack at the crease line,” Schweizer observed. “For tube laminates, we see the same issue. So, we developed an ink set that is flexible enough to be used for FC and tube laminates – and this was produced from scratch. To achieve that, we had to keep in mind additional requirements like machinability, print quality, heat resistance, abrasion, spring back force, odor, RCTA (Regulatory Compliance & Toxical Assessment), cleaning frequency, aging and ink curing, to name just a few.”

The labels and packaging market has many challenges to face, in the short term, caused by labor shortages, parts supplies and rising costs. But in the future, it will also need to prove its relevance to future generations, who live in an almost 100% digital world.

In recognition of this, Gallus and HEIDELBERG have developed a new vision for the future success of the labels and packaging market.

“This includes adding automation and connectivity to compensate for a lack of skilled labor across the industry,” Schweizer noted. “With increased pressure on improving sustainability, we are focused on developing digital technologies to decentralize value chains. In terms of automating the workflow and reducing our dependency on human intervention, Gallus has some ground-breaking innovations that are entirely focused on meeting our customers’ challenges.”

Schweizer added that we can expect more new inks from Gallus in the coming years.

“As digital labels continue to grow, in addition to foldable inks, we expect low migration inks specifically for cosmetics and food, and UV ink for standard labels, to represent significant and immediate growth for us and the wider industry,” he said.

“What’s more, we are moving our business from a ‘product price’ based sales model to a TCO calculation – designed to better serve customers, increase transparency to the ‘real costs’ of a product purchase, and deliver increased customer value,” Schweizer concluded. “In addition, as the inkjet technology used by Gallus is both modular and scalable, when combined with the expertise of the HEIDELBERG and Gallus R&D teams, it will be possible in the future to utilize it for other applications and markets – enabling customers to further diversify and grow.”