During the Bobst Days 2021 in the second week of June, it showcased the Master DM5, its first-ever fully integrated all-in-one, all-in-line digital label press. During the presentation, Bobst showed a video of the press configuration incorporating the digital cluster, the flexo groups, and converting station in action. Andrea Pasquinelli, product marketing manager at Bobst, then talked in detail about the DM5.
Italy’s IBE invests in Bobst Master DM5
Italian label producer IBE was the first company to invest in the Bobst Master DM5. The company’s CEO, Roberto Spreafico, said he first saw the press at Labelexpo 2019 in Belgium. “The Master M5 immediately caught his attention, and I saw great potential in the machine. Having a press with four flexo groups, cold foil, lamination, and printing on adhesive allows us to makes any label in one pass is the main reason why we chose M5,” he said.
“We are honored to be the first beta tester in the world for Bobst. After six months of hard work to make its real success, both Bobst and IBE can be proud of the achievement,” Spreafico added.
IBE has tested all types of substrates on the press, including glossy to matt one to structured paper, and targeted all types of jobs. He said that compared with the toner press users, his organization could benefit from the DM5’s higher speeds and perform inline embellishment in one pass.
Talking about some trends in the industry, Spreafico said that for many years the average run lengths in the label industry are continuously decreasing, and the number of SKUs is rising. This trend has been visible across all the sectors that IBE serves – food, household, cosmetics, wine, oil, and chemicals.
Mouvent’s cluster uses Fujifilm Dimatix Samba inkjet heads
The digital print engine inside the Master DM5 is made up of Mouvent’s proprietary Cluster Technology – integrating Fujifilm Dimatix Samba print heads. This lightweight inkjet head array or cluster is the basis of the entire range of digital printing machines developed by Mouvent and shown at Bobst’s digital printing competence center. The Mouvent Cluster heads are compact and straightforward to change for easy and accessible maintenance. They have all-in-one fully integrated inking, conditioning, and electronic circuits for the highest print head reliability.
Prime, print, embellish, cut – each module is digitally automated for on-the-fly non-stop job change, Pasquinelli said. The press can print at up to 100 meters a minute. The modular plug-and-play architecture makes the line fully customizable from the PDF to the finished label with a custom mix of inline priming, printing, embellishments, and finishing units.
“Customers can choose the perfect configuration depending on their needs. Thanks to the modular press design, customers can find the perfect fit for their job basket. The press is also very compact, which means that its short web path will result in lower wastage,” Pasquinelli said.
Ink-on-Demand (IoD) is an optional extra for DigiFlexo print units. This solution replaces conventional inking reservoirs with a single rubber pipe that dispenses 30 grams of ink to the print unit at a time. The system eliminates ink trays and chambered doctor blades and performs fully automated washing of the print unit in less than one minute. This concept was demonstrated at the last Labelexpo in Brussels in 2019 for achieving accurate color density in each unit on the press while running.
The press has a full range of added value capabilities, including coatings, varnishes, tactile effects, 3d effects, hot stamping, cold foil, embossing, die-cutting, punching, silkscreen, flexo and digital Variable Data Printing (VDP).
