FREMONT, Calif., Oct. 05, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Las Piedras, Puerto Rico-based Collazo Group is reworking its business, including the award-winning capabilities of the EFI™ Nozomi C18000 Plus ultra-high-speed, direct-to-board corrugated packaging printer to make a big influence in its native market. The firm is the first Caribbean packaging converter to undertake single-pass inkjet expertise, giving Collazo Group an vital aggressive benefit in addressing longstanding market gaps for top graphics corrugated work.
Founded 30 years in the past, Collazo Group started as a business print business. The firm has additionally added wide-format digital print, with an in-house design division for inventive POP shows, and entered the packaging market with the acquisition of a flexographic printing firm. Corrugated packaging has turn out to be a big development space, which the firm supported with the acquisition of a 5 ply corrugator and, most lately, its new four-color Nozomi UV LED inkjet printer.
Better turnaround and decrease prices
By printing high-quality packaging and shows on the Nozomi C18000 Plus printer being put in this month, Collazo Group Owner Christian Collazo anticipates with the ability to change almost all his firm’s litho lamination work with more-efficient digital manufacturing. “Just a couple of years ago, we had three litho presses,” stated Collazo. “We sold them and began outsourcing the lithography we needed for packaging. We expect that the Nozomi will enable us to bring 90% of those outsourced jobs back in house.
“In fact,” he added, “we believe the Nozomi C18000 Plus will allow us to double our capacity for high graphics work compared to what we have been producing with litho lamination. Plus, we can provide a better price and faster turn time for our customers by printing directly on the board.”
The Nozomi printer creates alternatives for companies on the island that purchase flexo printing as effectively. Puerto Rico has little in the means of full-color flexo printing capability. That is a barrier for native flexo packaging consumers, companies that can’t drive larger advertising and marketing enchantment with excessive graphics designs due to litho lamination’s added price, time and amount necessities. Now with Collazo Group, these firms have a greater, digital excessive graphics possibility that’s less expensive than litho lamination at the portions they want.
Collazo Group makes use of white prime liner for a lot of its work, and when evaluating applied sciences discovered that the Nozomi C18000 Plus delivered increased high quality than comparable aqueous inkjet single-pass merchandise. “Had we chosen a solution with water-based inks, we would have been more limited,” based on Christian Collazo. “We would not have the quality we need to migrate our display work to digital.”
Driving sustainability with extra worth to clients
For Collazo Group clients, there are further benefits to this introduction of the corrugated packaging trade’s main single-pass inkjet expertise. Given that the majority of Collazo Group’s work is produced for purchasers inside Puerto Rico, the economics of analog flexo and litho lamination can require pricey minimal order portions above these purchasers’ precise wants. Waste is an particularly huge problem, with analog make-readies accounting for a big share of a median medium-run job.
On prime of that, analog corrugated changing has required importing and storing bigger portions of single-face corrugated rolls. This inevitably results in excessive charges of spoilage in Puerto Rico’s humid local weather with something saved for too lengthy. The more-sustainable, lower-inventory EFI Nozomi manufacturing line “will be another cost savings for our customers,” stated Collazo, “since we will no longer have to account for all that waste in our pricing.”
Collazo Group is retaining its litho lamination tools for the occasional 100,000-plus amount jobs it produces. That stated, firm executives count on some larger-quantity jobs will migrate to digital as soon as purchasers and prospects see the versioning benefits the new printer creates.
“Because it is a digital printing process and we are largely producing on demand, our customers can easily change their artwork based on seasonality, promotions and more,” Christian Collazo defined. “This is a huge selling point that no one else on the island can accommodate the way we can. When I explain this capability to new prospects, I almost always get a meeting with them!”
Industry main digital corrugated manufacturing capabilities
Designed to ship superior productiveness and dependable uptime, the EFI Nozomi C18000 Plus supplies constant, high-quality throughput with fewer interruptions. It leverages EFI’s confirmed, high-productivity UV LED imaging know-how and state-of-the-art board path applied sciences, comparable to a patented vacuum desk system that eliminates warping. The 71-inch (1.8-meter) extensive printer additionally options an improved inspection system to assist customers monitor high quality and rapidly establish inkjet nozzle points or different defects.
Operating at speeds as much as 246 linear ft (75 linear meters) per minute – producing as much as 10,000 35×35-inch (890×890-mm) boards per hour two-up – the printer additionally options superior coater choices, together with a quick-change anilox coater for improved efficiency.
The newest model of the EFI Fiery® NZ 1000 digital entrance finish (DFE) blade server used to drive the printer handles even the most complicated data-rich jobs at or above printer-rated speeds. Plus, it consists of distinctive colour administration capabilities, a Smart Ink Estimator for more-precise ink price management, and integration with a strong EFI IQ™ suite of cloud-based business intelligence and administration instruments.
“We are excited to be able to work with Collazo Group to bring these new capabilities to Puerto Rico,” stated Evandro Matteucci, vp, Packaging and Building Materials, EFI Inkjet. “Even before this month’s installation, the company has client work lined up for its Nozomi C18000 Plus printer, so we expect volumes to grow quickly. Collazo Group can be a leading example of what the corrugated converting industry gains in the transition to a more-efficient, more sustainable, premium-quality, and proven single-pass inkjet solution.”
For extra details about EFI Nozomi options for ultra-high-speed corrugated packaging manufacturing, go to nozomi.efi.com.
About EFI
EFI™ is a world expertise firm, main the worldwide transformation from analog to digital imaging. We perceive our clients need breakthrough applied sciences to steer them by means of their digital journey. That’s why we’re enthusiastic about driving their business development with a scalable portfolio of merchandise, options, companies, assist, and world-class partnerships for the manufacturing of signage, packaging, textiles, ceramic tiles, constructing supplies, business print, and personalised paperwork with a variety of printers, inks, digital entrance ends, and workflow software program. They work collectively to extend earnings, lower prices, enhance productiveness, and optimize effectivity – job after job, yr after yr. We’re dedicated to our clients’ success. And we positively imagine we have now the proper individuals, expertise and expertise to assist them obtain their business objectives. (www.efi.com)
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