The integration brings together Esko WebCenter, a web-based platform tailored for CPG and pharmaceutical teams to manage aspects of the packaging management workflow from creation to approval and distribution, with GlobalVision’s automated proofreading platform, Verify. The result means a unified and user-friendly workflow that streamlines quality inspections and ensures 100% accuracy, compliance, and print readiness.

A key feature is the single-Click file inspection tools for compliance. The built-in automated text compare, spell check, graphics, barcode and braille inspections ensure that files are compliant with global regulatory requirements by checking files as they move through the WebCenter workflow.

Security and data protection with the closed-loop integration is said to ensure that files leaving WebCenter are securely transferred to Verify, prioritising data security and protecting sensitive information.

Another feature is the seamless artwork management workflow. This reduces the number of revisions needed, improve productivity, and create more synergy in the artwork management workflow by connecting Verify to WebCenter, allowing for single click file transfers between the two.

The Verify integration in WebCenter brings together speed, precision, and security to address the challenges faced by artwork, labelling and quality control teams to save time and maintain compliance by automating proofreading throughout the artwork management process.

Michael Malz, chief product officer at GlobalVision, commented, ‘Esko and GlobalVision teams have been hard at work for many months to bring this new integration to life. Accessing GlobalVision tools from within the WebCenter workflow has been a key function our shared customers have been requesting, as it brings quality inspections right where users need them.’

Jan De Roeck, Esko director of marketing, industry relations and strategy, added, ‘We are dedicated to developing solutions that accelerate the go-to-market of packaged goods. We are always keen to ensure our customers are making the very most of their Esko software and we are delighted to have worked with GlobalVision on this integration.’

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Automate Print has been established as a platform to foster cross-industry collaboration to further the streamlining of workflows, capitalise on personalisation and ‘significantly’ reduce overheads through the application of technology. The Automate Print collective consists of Infigo, printIQ, Enfocus and Esko. Having hosted its first session to coincide with the Printing United 2022 exhibition in Las Vegas, US, the group is now bringing Automate Print to Europe, specifically the UK.

Taking place at The Kia Oval in London on 21 June, the full-day event will include interactive sessions and demonstrations, as well as an evening of networking. A demonstration to show how an automated web-to-print workflow can be created when the partners’ platforms are fully integrated will be presented. Each of the partner companies is to host sessions across the day, addressing various topics related to workflow automation, integration and personalisation. A customer panel will highlight real-world examples of automation already in use. 

With personalisation to be one of the main benefits targeted by the Automate Print event, this session is to be hosted by personalisation expert Richard Askam, who was closely involved with Coca-Cola’s ‘Share a Coke’ marketing campaign. He said, ‘Personalisation is critical to consider as the print industry continues to evolve. Most consumers expect the ability to personalise their product or packaging, with the same turnaround time or faster. Automating your web-to-print workflow to accommodate this is imperative.’

The four supplier companies involved similar draw attention to such challenges. For example, Rachel Keenan, channel manager at Enfocus distributor DistributorX Solutions, noted, ‘The print businesses that have met the challenges over the last few years, have been the ones that have implemented and experimented with automation. When you have these different platforms that can be integrated, it reduces the need for rekeying information, cuts down on unnecessary phone calls and emails with clients, reduces errors across the workflow and speeds up the overall turnaround of jobs.’

George Folickman, sales director for Phoenix Software at Esko, said, ‘The key to any successful technology company is a keen awareness of the underlying challenges their customers face. More sophisticated automation and integration is required to enable the short runs and fast turnaround times being demanded of our industry, all while strictly managing their overhead. Yes, it takes investment, but when you integrate the right platforms, then all of this is possible.’

Greg Young, head of customer success at Infigo, added, ‘The fact that there is such a variety of sessions, run by those that are the forefront of developing and integrating the platforms and driving print automation, I think we are all going to learn a lot about the current and future opportunities around web-to-print and where the industry is going.’

Concluding, Rob Thurston, printIQ sales manager, commented, ‘The ability to be flexible with your offering, and your workflow, is imperative to growth. Not only does integrating these platforms help reduce overhead, streamlining the workflow and provide a quicker turnaround than ever before, but it also gives you better oversight and control of how efficiently your business is running.

‘With these different platforms you can really drill down into the products, sectors and geographies that are proving to be most popular – and the ones that aren’t – to take a more strategic approach and maximise opportunities.’

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Esko says that Tilia Labs’ range of intelligent algorithms for sheet layout, estimation and planning complements its own software suite and that the two companies will work together to develop ‘next generation’ integrated projects.

Mattias Byström, vice president and group executive of product identification at Esko, said, ‘Converters are coming under increasing pressure to deliver more volume with shorter print runs to bring versatility to the market, while the adoption of digital printing continues to grow. This acquisition demonstrates our ongoing commitment to providing integrated software and hardware solutions that accelerate the go-to-market process for consumer-packaged goods.’

Sagen de Jonge, CEO and co-founder of Tilia Labs, added, ‘We have long shared a common goal with Esko of empowering businesses to improve ways of working, eradicate waste and optimise operational processes to meet the challenges they face today and tomorrow.’

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The new model offers the same features and specifications as its larger C Series brethren in a 1.6 x 1.4m format, including an aluminium composite tabletop, rack and pinion drive system and dynamic table mapping for accuracy and consistency. Multiple tool combinations are available during production and the system includes a material thickness probe and optional camera for registration.

‘We know that industrial manufacturers, as well as small sign shops, require a high-speed cutting table to keep up with the manufacturing process, but floorspace comes at a premium,’ said Stuart Fox, president, Kongsberg PCS. ‘The high cost of owning or renting space is a serious problem for many in the sign and display market. With the new Kongsberg C20, there is no longer any need for those businesses to compromise on production and quality due to a lack of available space.’

Kongsberg PCS was created when Esko sold the cutting table business to private equity firm OpenGate Capital in March 2021. 400 former Esko employees were retained across the R&D facility in Kongsberg, Norway, a production facility in Brno, Czech Republic, a new headquarters in Ghent, Belgium and other sites around the world. Esko agreed the sale in December 2020 as it wanted to focus on the software side of its business, along with other Danaher companies such as Pantone and X-Rite that are involved in print and packaging supply chain technologies. Mr Fox came to Kongsberg PCS from Esko.

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The Wigan-based firm, which has been in business for over 40 years, serves a number of local sports teams and brands and focuses on large-format stadium signage, including pitch-side advertising, executive offices, hospitality areas and exhibition spaces. Other client sectors in the north-west and across the UK include healthcare, education, automotive, retail and hospitality.

Growth during lockdown led to the purchase of new 700sqm premises. Jamie Collins, part of the DM management team, along with Andy and Joyce Hudson, explained the move: ‘We really had two choices, either shut up shop and try and wait it out or see what we could do to support our clients.’

The decision to remain open paid off handsomely, as the company was ‘inundated’ with demand for Covid safety screens and signage, winning contracts with the NHS as well as supplying local businesses, but this pushed it to its limits in machine capacity and space. ‘We had steadily been growing out of the unit we were in, but this took us over the edge,’ commented Mr Collins. ‘We needed somewhere large enough for customer vehicles as well as increased space for manufacturing and finishing.’

The move to larger premises prompted a review of the production equipment. ‘We took the decision to upgrade our Mimaki JFX 200 to the JFX200 EX. We were very happy with the capabilities of the flatbed but the upgraded version has given us extra speed that increases our production capacity,’ Mr Collins explained. The flatbed complements an existing Mimaki UCJV300-160 roll-to-roll printer.

The purchase of the Esko table was an ‘obvious’ choice. ‘Esko has an excellent reputation. Its tables are very well designed, and easy to use,’ said Mr Collins. The working area of 2210 x 4800mm will enable DM Signs to handle larger items in-house. Both printer and cutting table were selected after Covid-safe demonstrations at CMYUK’s Shrewsbury site.

‘As businesses reopen, they will want to refresh their environments.  We want to be able to help them do that in a more ethical way, so we’ll be looking at new environmental materials that we know the machinery can handle,’ added Mr Collins. DM Signs also plans to extend its bespoke packaging offerings and to provide its larger clients with their own micro-sites, allowing them to directly order their own branded products.

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The company, which was profiled in the last issue of Digital Printer thanks to its successful installation of a Xerox Iridesse, has been in what it calls ‘transformation mode’ for 18 months.

‘Essentially, what we are building at BL is the look and feel of a creative branding agency with a state-of-the-art production facility,’ said commercial director Matt Plant. ‘We are developing the front-end of the business, but naturally you need to invest in your production facility as well.

‘Internally, we’ve created real meaningful values for the business that we all work to every day. We’re developing ourselves into a customer centric organisation, where we now have a true understanding of our clients’ businesses – what they stand for, what they’re trying to achieve, and what their purpose is, so we can help guide them. We’re using our knowledge and a consultative approach to create the right results for our clients.’

Like many digital print businesses, Banbury Litho has navigated the challenges of Lockdown by turning to a number of Covid-related products such as signage and display, posters, floor graphics, face masks, visors, gloves and sanitisers to its customers. This in turn led to high demand for floor graphics and other types of safety signage, pushing the company to purchase the Mimaki flatbed and Esko cutter. 

‘Everything we do here needs to add value in some way, not just be a production machine,’ said Mr Plant. ‘The Esko Kongsberg is one of the best cutting tables on the market. If you’ve got the right specification, the right tools, you can produce such wonderful work on it. We want to be doing more packaging concepts, short run packaging, point of sale material, reboard furniture and more.’

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It added that under the new software, ‘Administrators are given more powerful tools and the freedom to design automation that allows businesses to work their own way.’

All available Switch Elements are created using the Switch JavaScript coding environment and Enfocus says that with the Switch 2020 Spring release, modern scripting features and a modern JavaScript syntax are now supported when writing Switch scripts. Previously, if you wanted to dive into scripting for Switch, users resources were limited to Switch-specific training material, now Switch uses Node.js as the JavaScript environment. 

Another new feature is the Flow Viewer, which acts as a viewer and gives users the ability to add annotations. 

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The machine, which is arranged in the standard sign configuration, comes complete with a router, a kiss/cut knife, a drag knife and a camera system. It also comprises a conveyorised bed for handling roll-to-roll media.

The Preston-based company decided to invest in a cutting table after being hired to complete a sizeable trade job for a major retail collaboration. The job involved applying standard vinyl to 16,000 pre–routed lacquered MDF panels, but the customer developed an issue with its CNC router and was about to pull the plug on the project when Matt Austin, owner and managing director of Optimum Signs, decided to step in and buy suitable equipment himself.

Mr Austin visited CMYUK’s showroom in Shrewsbury, where he was introduced to the X24. Now installed in Lancashire, the cutting table automates many processes, saving time and money. For example, Optimum produces 750 signs every three to four months on a constant rollover for one client. This previously took up to three days to produce, but the X24 has reduced this to four hours.

‘When we delivered this job for the first time, the comment that immediately came back was had we bought these in from somewhere else?’ Mr Austin said. ‘The quality was so much better. Previously we had been applying 750 graphics to 750 panels, now we apply graphics to four large panels and the X24 does the rest.

‘It’s revolutionised the way we work. We’re doing so much stuff on it. It’s unbelievable. It’s such an amazing machine. I didn’t realise it but we would push a client to work in a certain way because we didn’t want to have to buy stuff in, now I’m pushing for all sorts of things.’

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The company claims the new table, which delivers cutting speeds of 30m/min, is able to handle ‘the full spectrum of display, signage and packaging materials.’

‘The Kongsberg X Edge has been specially designed to ensure there is no sacrifice in machine configuration, with all the options you would expect from the Kongsberg X Series available,’ said product manager Russell Weller. ‘The difference is that as your company grows, the Kongsberg X Edge evolves with you. It can be easily upgraded in terms of both speed and acceleration to ensure it keeps up with your business demands.

‘The Kongsberg X Edge delivers this high production speed and outstanding cutting quality at a remarkable price. Moreover, its design avoids the impact of costly reinvestment when a business expands, not only delivering exceptional cutting quality but also unlocking future production flexibility and profitability.’

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The global provider of integrated hardware and software for the wide format, packaging and label sectors has designed the free-to-attend event to provide participants with ‘deep insights in to how to optimise and automate workflows, understand how to reduce waste in their processes and identify opportunities for workflow improvements.’

‘Despite the fast pace of the packaging and labels sector today, we know it’s important to step out and consider where to go next when driving operational excellence in any business,’ said regional business manager James Mason. ‘At Esko, we’re keen to ensure that our customers are able to talk to our teams, discuss their challenges and gain deeper knowledge of how to drive quality, consistency and success in their business through technology integration.

‘We’re bringing together a number of subject matter experts from the Esko head office, as well as the UK team, to support our UK customer base on a range of topics. The day’s agenda includes speakers on PDF native editing, integrating new cloud-based collaboration tools such as Share and Approve, understanding the packaging digital transformation journey, as well as a first look at our plans for Drupa 2020. We’re hoping the day will be insightful, interesting and an opportunity to learn and network for everyone.’

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