NILPETER – FA-26 – The step into the market for flexible packaging

The latest and widest press developed by Nilpeter is the 670 mm wide FA-26, which represents the company’s entry into new markets.

According to Nilpeter, it offers new standards in terms of flexibility, sustainability, fast job changes and full automation – and is set to set new standards for presses in the industry. It is now also set to set new standards for conventional flexible packaging in the wider web segment, where job changes are traditionally more time- and cost-intensive.

With the new FA-26, we are able to offer high-quality flexographic printing – UV-, solvent- or water-based, combined with many inline finishing processes – on a variety of new substrates. And this includes recyclable and biodegradable plastic substrates. The flexibility of the new FA-26 allows the processing of newly developed substrates as well as conventional substrates combined with various lamination technologies – enabling different lamination systems to create recyclable packaging applications.

The printing world is rapidly evolving in a direction where sustainability is as important as cost or technical features. Inline printing and processing, and thus limiting waste, opens up new opportunities for both label printers and flexible packaging converters to offer short-run, value-added flexible packaging products.

Nilpeter sees the new FA-26 as a cornerstone in the product range that offers a much-needed alternative to traditional flexible packaging printers and label printers in the development of innovative and sustainable packaging solutions. This was already evident after the smooth introduction at LabelExpo Europe 2019, where the company showed a single FA-26 printer that attracted a lot of interest. Since then, numerous trials have been carried out with several print shops and the results have, according to the company, exceeded expectations, especially those of existing and potential customers in terms of fast job changes and very low waste. According to Nilpeter, the FA-26’s low TCO is impressive and the first jobs are already on the books.

The press has also attracted new technological developments from OEMs in the flexible packaging sector. The ability to print and produce a fully functional laminate inline using dry solvent lamination or e-beam is in demand in the market. The E-Beam enables instant cure PET/PET lamination – a recyclable design for flexible packaging – which is made possible by the high accuracy in manufacturing and the accurate and automatic storage and recovery of process parameters.