At the beginning of December last year, Heidelberg China and Gallus Shanghai jointly organized in the Print Media Center in Shanghai a launch event for the Gallus Labelmaster in China.
Around 160 guests from label print shops in China and Region Asia as well as media journalists attended the event. They were able to watch live demos of the Gallus Labelmaster in label production and experienced a new height in leading label printing. “We are extremely optimistic about the future development of packaging and label printing in China”, explains Benny Huang, CEO of Heidelberg China. “In recent years, with an increasing middle class and accelerating urbanization processes, there are more and more specific requirements on packaging and label. It is our duty to continue providing high quality products and services for packaging and label print shops in China.” Asia has become the fastest growing label market in the world. It is expected that by 2019, the Asian label market will have increased by 5.5%, in which the growth rate of self-adhesive labels will reach 6.3%.
“Owing to the higher cost of raw materials and labor today, print shops are paying more attention to productivity”, describes Teddy Jiang, General Manager of Gallus Shanghai. “At the same time, influenced by consumers and branding goods manufacturers, packaging and label printing is moving towards short run, multiple orders and product diversification.“
Since entering the Chinese market nearly ten years ago, Gallus has sold over 100 machines. Together with Heidelberg China Gallus will introduce their machines to more Chinese customers.
After the full integration of the Gallus Holding AG into Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) in 2014, the Gallus Innovation Days were held at the Gallus headquarters in St. Gallen, Switzerland in September 2016. Customers from all over the world saw for themselves the world premiere of the Gallus Labelmaster, the latest flexographic printing press designed for the label market. A year after that, in September 2017, visitors of Labelexpo Brussels were totally convinced of the high efficiency as well as high flexibility presented by the new Gallus Labelmaster. The machine has set a new benchmark in 17 inch label printing. Already now, only three months after the market launch, there are more than 20 presses installed in foreign countries and customers’ feedbacks are positive.
Gallus Labelmaster: Premiere in ChinaThe Gallus Labelmaster is a label printing press platform designed for the label and packaging market. It features a special platform design and can be configured by customers to meet their own specific requirements. With its open interfaces and Heidelberg platform development know-how for offset presses of Heidelberg, this machine series represents a highly secure investment and enables users to respond flexibly to future changes in the market. The new Gallus Labelmaster for label printing thus builds on the successful, tried-and-tested design principle of Speedmaster offset printing presses from Heidelberg.
“Less Complexity, more Flexibility” is exactly the innovation concept defined by Gallus for the Gallus Labelmaster. Modules such as flexo printing, screen printing, cold foil, die cutting etc. can be freely selected and configured, thus enabling the press to be customized to suit any specific requirement of label print shops. The unique modularity of the Labelmaster meets all popular needs on the market, from commodity labels to sophisticated, high-finish products. Therefore, the Gallus Labelmaster is able to print on a wide range of substrates, to name a few, self-adhesive label, cardboard, PE, PP, aluminum foil, tube laminate and so on.
With this new press platform, Gallus has also developed a new locking system that enables quick, easy and accurate changes of printing units. The system positions them on the base unit with absolute precision and ensures 100% register accuracy.
New standard in cost effectivenessThe Gallus Labelmaster also sets new standards in cost effectiveness – from dramatic time savings, thanks to its ease of use and high speed, to low waste and minimal material consumption. It makes label printing easier, faster and more profitable.
The machine platform boasts a whole series of product highlights, such as an extremely short web path of just 1.4 m between printing units and a high maximum speed of 200 m/min, thus making the Gallus Labelmaster the fastest label printing press Gallus has ever produced. The press can be controlled centrally via a HMI touch panel, although manual intervention is also supported, with operators able to make changes with ease and, more importantly, very quickly, thereby achieving extremely short setup times. The lightweight aluminium printing cylinders that were specially developed for this machine type can be changed in just a few quick steps, thus ensuring that job changes can be completed with unparalleled speed.
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