The MGI-derived AccurioShine 3600 with iFoil One will enable Healeys to add spot UV and digital foil to short run work. Managing director Philip Dodd commented, ‘We had looked at the options for embellishment pre-Covid, but we felt the time was now right to enhance our creative options, to expand our customer offering, and to meet market demands. The AccurioShine 3600 enables us to differentiate our offering whilst enjoying the considerable benefits of flexibility that a digital solution brings.’

Mr Dodd also told Digital Printer at the time of the order signing that what Healeys would save on external finishing services would pay for the cost of the AccurioShine, and that the company would be looking at offering a trade service based around the machine to other printers and finishers, including the supplier it had been using for conventional foiling, for whom short runs were uneconomic.

The AccurioShine 3600 can add multiple coating and dimensional texture effects in a single pass on sheets up B3+ (364 x 750mm). Applications include enhancing business cards, greeting cards, photobook covers, and carton packaging consistent with the format. The machine also features artificial intelligence for registration, and an energy saving LED curing system. In combination with the iFoil One hot foil stamping module, it offers a range of high-impact finishing effects including personalised embossed foil. This can be used with variable data printing (VDP), to add impact to tickets, personalised packages and labels, invitations and one-to-one marketing items.

Richard Kilduff, channel manager for commercial printing at Konica Minolta UK, stated, ‘We are delighted to have partnered with Healeys Printers with their installation of the new AccurioShine 3600. It is an ideal solution for professional printers that are looking to lead the market and add real innovation to their traditional print offering. Digitising and automating manual embellishment processes allows for much greater flexibility and cost control, which in turn can drive business growth in new and interesting areas.’

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What’s now called embellishment or special effects used to be a group of purely post-press operations. These included lamination, spot or flood varnishing and foiling (hot or cold). Other eye-catching things have always had to be done in or on the press – if you wanted metallic colours you had to use a special ink or print on a metallised substrate; the same applied for fluorescent or other special colours.

Digital print has blurred those boundaries, bringing a number of ways of achieving the same or ‘close enough’ effects, combined with the flexibility and minimal set-up requirements characteristic of digital print. These also split into in-press effects and subsequently-applied effects.

Before looking at these in detail, it’s also worth noting that a sustainability argument is emerging for digital embellishment as an alternative to more conventional processes. This comes from Scodix, which makes stand-alone ‘embellishment presses’ (distributed in the UK by Friedheim) that can apply a wide range of decorative effects to printed sheets, with full digital flexibility in each.

Scodix carried out a lifecycle assessment of its digital foiling options which found that compared to conventional hot stamp foiling, its version reduces CO2e (CO2 equivalent) by 85%, fossil fuel usage by nearly 85%, and water consumption by 80% per B1 sheet. The study, carried out by EcamRicert, and Mérieux NutriSciences Companies, compared the enhancement of a single B1 sheet through to 100,000 B1 sheets using Scodix foil (175g) versus traditional foiling methods.

That’s only one of the options that Scodix offers and there’s no indication given that any of the other supported techniques offer comparable advantages. However, like any other form of digital printing, it seems likely that overall wastage of materials and energy is likely to be lower simply through the ability to only print or finish the number required.

The main argument in favour of these types of effects though is that they add impact to printed products and therefore margin to your work. Some you can only do if you bought the right press, though they could also be a factor in choosing a new one. There’s an increasing number of toner presses that offer additional colours which may include clear ‘varnish’, white, fluorescent and metallic colours, though usually only one or sometimes two at a time.

Plus-one – or more

Machines that offer a fifth colour include Xerox’s iGen line and Ricoh’s Pro C7200, also sold by Heidelberg as the Versafire EV (and about to be replaced by the Pro C7500, though we’ve not seen any specification for this yet). Kodak’s Nexpress and Nexfinity models could do this too, with options over where in the laydown sequence the fifth colour went, though both are now discontinued. Moving up to six colours brings in the popular Xerox Iridesse, and the more recent Fujifilm Revoria, while most HP Indigos can handle up to seven colours, though of course click charges go up in proportion with all extra colour presses. Xerox also offers a conversion kit for two-pass printing on its entry-level PrimeLink C9065/C9070, which potentially allows the use of up to eight colours, albeit with a complete change of toner cartridges between passes.

The exact choice of extra colours varies by manufacturer, but in addition to white – for use on coloured or transparent substrates – and clear – used to create flood or spot varnish effects – fluorescent or ‘neon’ colours are offered, particularly pink and sometimes yellow. These can replace or be mixed with their standard CMYK equivalents to expand the colour gamut for more eye-catching effects. A few offer metallic toners too, which again can be printed solid or mixed to provide novel colours and finishes.

After the event

Post-press options are more about foiling, spot varnish and various creative lamination processes, often in combination. A good entry-level choice here is foil-over-toner, a two-pass method that uses ‘real’ foil in a laminator like Vivid’s Matrix models or those from Caslon, Foliant (sold via IFS), Komfi (from Friedheim) or Autobond. Similar options also come from GMP and Intec, now part of the Plockmatic group.

An entry-level option for foil-over-toner is Vivid’s Matrix, seen here at a trade show

In these, the initial colour print is first laminated with a clear film, then printed again with the foil pattern in black toner on top of the film, before a second pass through the laminator transfers the foil to the partially melted black toner. It’s a more labour-intensive process but it works with a very wide range of foil types and doesn’t require special consumables.

Then there are the fully ‘digital’ embellishment devices that offer spot UV and/or foiling in a single operation. This category includes devices like Duplo’s B2 DuSense 8000, which is offered in various configurations providing spot UV, digital foiling or both, including a pre-treatment option for expanding the types of print that can be handled. It’s also possible to build up textured ‘3D’ effects with multiple passes, which the smaller B3 DuSense 810 also supports. An alternative is the B3+ Konica Minolta AccurioShine 3600, which uses technology from MGI, in which Konica Minolta holds a significant stake. It too can produce ‘dimensional’ effects.

At the top end of the digital embellishment market are the ranges from Konica Minolta/MGI and Scodix. These are dedicated industrial production devices that offer UV varnish and foiling, with Scodix offering a particularly wide range of foils and finished effects, while MGI’s line goes up to B1 sheet size in the form of the print-and-embellish AlphaJet that was formally launched in October 2022. Kurz is another player at the industrial end of the scale, having bought Steinemann, whose inkjet varnish and foiling systems it was already marketing as Digital Metal. These include the sheet-fed B2 DM-Smartliner for 2D flat varnishing and foiling and the DM-Maxliner for raised and textured effects.

Whether you’re just ready to dip a toe into digital embellishment and cautious with the investment, or know that you’ve got a ready market for it but need to be sure it’s good enough and fast enough to meet your customers’ needs, there should be something to suit and help your work shine.

Preparing files for embellishment

All digital embellishment processes require ‘artwork’ to control where the effects are applied. Usually this means creating additional layers in the originating applications and/or print PDFs, though some vendors offer DFE-based tools to create embellishment guides or colour substitutions from standard PDFs on-the-fly.

Andrew Bailes-Collins of Ultimate Technographics, which makes imposition, nesting and ganging software, has written a handy guide to preparing generic PDFs that should process correctly through most embellishment vendors’ DFEs and thus avoid some of the common pitfalls that require manual reworking in the prepress studio.

Called PDF Creation for Digital Embellishment, it covers the use of spot colours, layers, knock-out and overprint and choice of correct versions of PDF for hand-off. It’s available free from Ultimate Technographics’ website.

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AccurioShine 3600 is the first Konica Minolta-branded MGI product built on the success of the MGI JETvarnish 3D One. The press has been designed to offer special effects utilising the Jetvarnish technology, including the AIS SmartScanner registration system.

Originally based in the UAE, Sketches Int established its UK operations in 2019 to extend its high-quality bespoke print, labels, and packaging products to a new European audience. The Ruislip-based printing and design agency is utilising its new investment to produce high-impact and premium-quality products for its customers, whilst saving 30% on costs by completing embellishments in-house.

Sketches Int director Nizar Alolabi commented, ‘We are proud to be the first UK print business to be using the AccurioShine 3600, which undoubtedly gives us an advantage over our competitors. We have been very pleased with the whole process, from the initial consultation to the easy and straightforward installation and continued ongoing support from the Konica Minolta team.’

Allan Bates, business development manager at Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK), said, ‘We were convinced that the AccurioShine 3600 would be the perfect solution for Sketches Int, but we are always careful to make sure we match a potential customer with exactly the right solution for their needs and budget. Initially the company supplied us with some test artwork files so we could produce demonstration pieces which were then sent to Nizar and the team to assess. Following that, Nizar visited our showroom in Sutton-in-Ashfield for the first of several hands-on demonstrations of the AccurioShine 3600, to test various substrates and B3 media, which included labels that are kiss cut out once printed and embellished on Intec B3 plotters, along with artwork setup and operators training.’

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Mr Giralt will be responsible for sales at a global scale, plus marketing and strategic product management. Together with managing directors Steffen Pieper and Bernd Sauter he will also be responsible for shaping the company’s business strategy. 

He brings a long and proven professional experience in the printing industry, including in particular previous experience in digital printing and digital embellishment in leading positions at HP Indigo, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen and Leonhard Kurz.

‘We truly expect to start a new chapter in the history of Kama with his knowledge of the business and enthusiasm, and [to] strengthen our presence in the international markets,’ commented Mr Sauter.

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Fiery, separated from longtime parent EFI at the beginning of 2023, will demonstrate how its Fiery JobFlow solution streamlines and speeds up printing tasks through a single interface. Mark Boulter, sales development manager at Fiery, commented, ‘This is the perfect opportunity to learn how using Fiery JobFlow in conjunction with Konica Minolta’s print solutions can streamline print jobs with unified print room management.’

EPS will showcase its print and packaging software MIS/ERP solutions. John Morley, global channel partner sales sirector at EPS said, ‘Our team will be on hand to give visitors an insight into how our integrated, automated and purpose-built software technology solutions drive revenue and growth, reduce the cost of sales and manufacturing, and empower successful transformation of print and packaging companies through powerful business and production workflow automation.’

Solimar Systems will be present following the announcement earlier this year that the two companies have expanded their strategic partnership to include UK operations as well as those in the USA. Workflow-enhancing solutions from the Solimar Chemistry platform are now available to Konica Minolta’s UK customers, and support the migration of print to KM output devices in data-driven print environments.

Jamie Walsh, sales manager for EMEA and APAC, Solimar Systems, commented, ‘We are excited to be leveraging our new UK partnership with Konica Minolta and joining the stand, to discuss the opportunities for combining Solimar workflow solutions with existing and potential customers of the Accurio range of output devices.’

Konica Minolta itself will run demonstrations of the new flagship AccurioPress C14000e high-volume toner press, AccurioShine 3600 digital embellishment press with iFoilOne and TU-510 innovative four-edge trimmer and creaser, showing how it is now possible to complete entire jobs on a single production line.

Jon Hiscock, head of Production & Industrial Print at Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) stated, ‘We are looking forward to The Print Show and working with our partners from Fiery, eProductivity Software, and Solimar Systems. This is a major event for anyone involved in the UK print industry and there is plenty to explore on our stand. With Konica Minolta celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, it is very fitting that we are being joined by these partners to show the very latest in print and our continuing commitment to igniting print possibilities.’

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Jon Hiscock, head of production and industrial print at Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) stated, ‘With the shift to digital printing, more emphasis is being placed on digitalising prepress and post-press processes, alongside on-demand short-run printing. By combining the AccurioShine 3600 with other Konica Minolta digital colour printers, our customers not only grow their business in new ways, but also add value to their customers, by providing cost-effective, impactful, premium short-run embellishments to their day-to-day print jobs.’

The AccurioShine 3600 enables in-house spot UV varnishing, from prototyping to production, without the need for screens, plates or dies. The unit can add 2D and 3D multiple coating and dimensional texture effects in a single pass. With a maximum supported paper size of B3+ (364 x 750mm), the AccurioShine 3600 is said to be suitable for enhancing business/name cards, greeting cards, photobook covers, and packaging on demand. It features AI-based registration to align the embellished effects with the underlying print and a barcode-based system to automate job set-up and embellishment artwork file selection and processing.

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To be held at at 4pm Central European Time (5pm GMT) , the webinar will be presented by Andrew Bailes-Collins of Ultimate Technographics, who is also the GWG’s technical officer. It will also review PDF standards for the communication of non-printing content (i.e. that which describes processing steps).

Many providers of embellishment-capable digital presses offer dedicated tools in their DFEs to adapt standard print PDFs but this does not necessarily make the most creative or efficient use of those capabilities.

The GWG notes that ‘Embellishment and in particular digital embellishment is a real hot topic and an increasingly popular way for printers to differentiate themselves and add value (and margin) to their printed products’, but points out that to avoid problems and achieve the expected results, there are various best practices that need to be taken into consideration. Mr Bailes-Collins will address these in the webinar. 

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The term ‘embellishment’ can encompass inline printed effects such as metallic, pearlescent or fluorescent inks, or post-press processes such as raised and textured effects – sometimes called ‘tactile’ or ‘haptic’ – plus a wide variety of foiled effects that can range from mirror-bright metallics through diffraction and holographic effects, or just special colours.

A lot of the recent action has been over the Atlantic, but much of it is relevant to the UK and Europe. September saw the existing US based Foil & Specialty Effects Association (FSEA) announce the formation of the more focused Digital Embellishment Alliance (DEA), which it describes as a community to create educational and communication opportunities in the growing digital print embellishment segment.

This followed a three-day event in June in Minneapolis called Amplify Print, organised by the FSEA and APTech, which highlighted digital embellishment.

‘In the world of digital print embellishments, we see a market that is on the cusp of going mainstream but still suffers from an awareness issue at the brand and designer level,’ explained Gene Petrie, chair of the FSEA board of directors. ‘A key aim of the DEA is to help users and manufacturers educate their customers and increase understanding of how these digital embellishment technologies can help brands increase their print ROI.’ This year’s LabelExpo in Chicago, the first one to be held since the 2019 show in Brussels, featured a Digital Embellishment Trail for the first time, where stands featuring these effects were flagged up.

While the market for label embellishment is different to commercial printing and packaging, it’s also an indicator of which way the wind is blowing. It’s also worth mentioning Actega’s unique EcoLeaf filmless foiling technology, so far only for narrow web label presses, which applies metallic nanoflakes to a special inkjetted fluid to give a mirror-smooth metallic finish with no waste.

Inline on presses

Digital presses increasingly offer fifth and even sixth units that can take a variety of special toners, some to extend the colour gamut and some to add embellishments such as metallics, spot gloss or other effects. Kodak was the first to really make a go of this in 2008 with the fifth unit on its second-generation Nexpresses, which not only offered a wide range of special colours but could build up a raised ‘dimensional’ embossed effect with clear toner.

An example of the effects achievable with the combination
of digital spot UV and foiling on Duplo’s DuSense 8000

This has been continued with the latest Nexfinity models, whose fifth unit can produce 13 effects, including gold, silver, dimensional or gloss clear, and an opaque white. Xerox has also offered extra colours for years, most notably with its Iridesse model, which as the name suggests majors on its special effects abilities. Iridesse is still the only dry toner press to offer six colour stations, though HP Indigo liquid toner presses can have up to seven. Iridesse can run special toners in the first and sixth, or fifth and sixth positions – you might choose white in the first position as an undercoat on clear, dark or metallised substrates. Special toners can be white, clear (high or low gloss), fluorescent pink, gold or silver. The past few years have seen Xerox introduce add-on embellishment options as ‘Adaptive CMYK+’ kits for the mid-production Versants and the entry-level PrimeLink C9065/C9070.

These allow users to swap out the CMYK cartridges for a second embellishment pass. There’s a choice of ‘Vivid’ (silver, gold, white and clear, or fluorescent (cyan, magenta yellow, plus normal black). These can be fitted aftermarket if needed. Switching between toner sets takes 10 minutes or so, but Xerox Europe’s head of marketing Kevin O’Donnell says that it allows smaller printers to broaden their offerings and keep embellishment work inhouse. The high end iGen 6 has a fifth unit too, which gained a new fluorescent yellow toner option last year, alongside white, clear and some Pantone specials. Ricoh’s Pro C7200sx series toner presses have an inline fifth unit that can run white, clear, neon yellow, neon pink and ‘invisible’ security red.

White can run as the first colour if needed as an undercoat. HP Indigo digital presses are still unique in the way they can run up to seven colours with easy swapping. ‘Special’ inks include two white types, gloss and matt clear, silver, fluorescents (green, orange and pink), plus gamut[1]extending and tone-smoothing colours. Xeikon is developing a range of embellishment modules for its web toner presses that it calls Fusion; at LabelExpo it demonstrated an opaque white and silver printing on clear film. Foiling with laminators The post-press ‘sleeking’ market of foil embellishment via lightly modified thermal laminators makes a very attractive entry level for jobs where metal dies aren’t cost-effective. Several laminator suppliers promote this in the UK.

The results may not be as sharp as metal dies or the expensive inkjet foilers, but the entry costs are very low indeed, especially as the machines still work for conventional lamination, as with D&K’s range which foils up to B2. The Korean manufacturer GMP pioneered laminators with foiling facilities and sells three via GMP UK, a part of Gardiner Graphics. Intec Printing Systems – recently bought by Plockmatic and now sold alongside Morgana in the UK – bases its pair of ColorFlare foil laminators on GMP hardware: the CF350 costs £1999 and the CF1200 starts from £7999.

It also sells compatible foils, which were recently extended with a fashionable rose gold colour, plus copper and a useful opaque white. Vivid Lamination also offers a special Matrix Metallic version of its popular 420mm wide sheet-fed thermal laminator, for spot foils and gloss effects. This features modified rollers and a foil feeder. Other suppliers of laminator with foiling options include Autobond, Foliant (sold by IFS, using the retrofittable Multi-functional Imprinting Unit) and Komfi (sold by Friedheim). It was Caslon who pioneered the foil-onto-toner market in the 1980s, using dedicated heater-applicators rather than laminators. The company currently sells US-built FoilTech. machines, starting about £2000 for a 340mm wide manual feed model, up to a bit over £4000 for an auto-feed twin ribbon machine. A much more expensive but faster option is Kurz’s dedicated 4000sph B1 digital DM-Luxliner, which foils directly onto dry toner or HP Indigo prints.

Inkjets for ultimate effects

Inkjet-based embellishers have tended to get all the publicity ever since MGI announced JetVarnish, a digital spot UV varnisher, at drupa 2008 (though so did Komfi, but with less fanfare). At Ipex 2010 Scodix showed the first ‘high-build’ inkjet UV varnisher, with a raised and textured effect.

MGI soon followed with a high-build model called JetVarnish 3D. A few years later both worked out how to apply foil over the raised clear polymer. Scodix still offers more effects though, including faceted gems and Cast & Cure for high-end packaging. Scodix has gone through several generations and today has standardised on the Ultra 1000 series, with six models ranging in price from about £400,000 to £1.1 million. Most of them are B2 format, but with different front end configurations for commercial print, web-to-print and carton packaging.

Kurz offers high-end digital foiling options
supporting sheet sizes up to B1

There are two configurations for most applications. The base model uses a single polymer type, which VP global sales and marketing manager Mark Nixon says is suitable for ‘75% of all possible jobs.’ The other type has four polymer feeds, with different characteristics formulated between them to adhere to pretty well any substrate. The top model is the Ultra 6000, the only current B1 format offering, with a top speed of 1000sph. There was briefly a 4000sph B1 model, the E106, but the £2 million-plus price was too much for the market to bear. Mr Nixon says that users are happy with 1000 sph, as it compares favourably with high end analogue foiling systems that use metal dies and which can take hours to make ready. MGI today is in effect a subsidiary of Konica Minolta which as of October 202 held a 42.3% stake. KM sells the range worldwide, though not exclusively. Three models are B2 format, offering up to 4200sph, one is roll-to-roll on a 420mm web, and there is a long-A3 format model that was originally called JetVarnish 3D One, which was exclusive to KM even before it increased its shareholding in MGI.

This summer the MGI-badged One has been replaced by the Konica Minolta-branded AccurioShine 3600, which is apparently the same thing with a different colour scheme, though there may be technical differences we haven’t found out yet. MGI’s enormous B1 AlphaJet, which is now available after years of development and previews, can print full p The Konica Minolta-branded AccurioShine 3600 replaces the MGI JetVarnish 3D One colour and embellish with 3D polymer and foil inline at 1800sph. So far there’s only one user, ISRA, in France, announced this year. An official launch is due in October and will be reported in Digital Printer. At LabelExpo 2019, a prototype digital cutting and creasing unit was demonstrated that may find its way onto the AlphaJet too. Germany’s foil manufacturer Kurz recently acquired the Swiss Steinemann company, whose inkjet varnish and foiling systems it was already marketing as Digital Metal. These include the sheetfed B2 DM-Smartliner for 2D flat varnishing and overfoiling and the DM-Maxliner for raised and textured effects. There are also narrow web label models. Duplo’s B3 DuSense 810 is probably the entry level for 3D varnish effects.

Duplo is very resistant to giving prices, but the launch price in 2017 was reportedly £139,000. That’s a lot less than any of the current MGI or Scodix machines, though Konica Minolta’s AccurioShine 3600 may be in the same price league. DuSense can be fitted with optional inline foiling using the Bagel MiniLam lamination/foil unit. There is now also a B2 model, the DuSense 8000, launched in May 2022, which is offered in various configurations providing the spot UV, digital foiling or both, including a pre-treatment option for expanding the types of print that can be handled.

How to sell it

With embellishment systems becoming relatively common, at least as options, the challenge is now how to get the message out to the customers – designers, brands, even high street shops, who won’t order effects that they don’t realise exist. Xerox is well aware of this, says Kevin O’Donnell, and is making a big push to support help its users develop their markets for the embellishment options on their presses. Its Genesis Initiative is a multi-level set of free offerings that aim to build the market for what it calls ‘beyond CMYK.’ This includes helping printers to market embellishment effectively, and also to understand how to price it. There are also courses for designers to learn about embellishment, and how to use it and explain it to their customers too. Mr O’Donnell says ‘The key is not just the technology. More important is market engagement, and design skills. Every printer should be looking at the ‘plus’, over and above the norm. That’s not just embellishment, but anything you can do to stand out from the crowd, even if it’s just giving a box of doughnuts to new customers! ‘Embellishment might be priced for profitable value-added business, or it might equally be priced as a loss-leader to get new business,’ he says.

‘Some 90 – 95% of your business might always be CMYK, but if the embellishment brings in new customers, you’ve got a good chance of retaining them for future CMYK work.’ Another separate initiative is what’s probably the first consultancy intended specifically at helping creatives and producers get the best out of digital embellishment. Taktiful in California has been set up by Kevin Abergel, who worked for many years for MGI. He was most recently sales director for North America, but that office closed when Konica Minolta took on sales and distribution.

He’s now established a network of consultants with practical experience of digital embellishment in North America, and is looking to expand his services into Europe and the UK soon. He’s not confining his work to MGI/Konica Minolta based systems, but across the whole range of processes and manufacturers. He says that digital embellishment systems aren’t being sold enough to customers, especially the built-in fifth units on digital presses. ‘People aren’t selling it correctly, they aren’t necessarily understanding how to pitch it or how to teach their clients how to design for it. A lot of the clients we work with at Taktiful have a fifth colour and say, ‘Yeah, I never use it. It’s just sitting there’, or ‘I’ve had this machine for two years. Maybe I’ve run 10 jobs on it’.

Overall, you ask them what percentage of jobs are they actually using it on. Typically they say less than four or five per cent. It’s a nice-to-have, but right now it’s not a need to-have because they’re not actually putting in a lot of the marketing effort needed to be able to take that off the ground. ‘But then we see some small mom and pop companies, little three, four-person shops, and embellishment is all they talk about. They go around, they talk to every restaurant, every little trophy shop or every little shoe store. They talk about how great the print could look. They say, ‘You could put in this fluorescent green on your next mailing, or let’s put in some dimensional on your menu so that you can actually feel the wood grain’. These are the people who get it and they’re the ones that are making it work for them.’

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Previously slated for launch at drupa 2020, the €3 million press combines what have previously been separate print and finishing processes into one, saving on both floorspace and staffing, requiring only a single operator, according to MGI co-founder, executive vice-president and managing director Victor Abergel, who discussed the AlphaJet’s genesis and gestation in some detail prior to a live production demonstration at Konica Minolta’s Industrial Digital Printing facility in Paris.

Described by MGI as ‘a single-pass Factory 4.0’, the AlphaJet uses 1600 x 1600dpi Memjet printheads and MGI/KM’s own aqueous inks and UV-curable varnish, plus a variety of foils, including holographic and cast-and-cure types, to offer a full production of dry and finishing-ready embellished sheets at the rate of 1800 simplex sheets per hour. Media support ranges from 135gsm paper to 2000-micron board and some synthetic and metallised types are supported, though may need priming first for ink adhesion.

The CMYK inks are said to cover 80% of the Pantone range and to be Fogra-certified within this. At the moment there are no firm plans to increase the number of inks, though Mr Abergel told Digital Printer that any such move would most likely see the addition of two further primary colours, such as green and blue, to optimise gamut expansion, rather than just the addition of a fifth colour.

The UV ‘varnish’ options include flood (with satin or gloss finish options), spot, ‘tactile’ (2D) and textural (3D, up to a maximum build height of 200 microns), all of which can be mixed within a sheet as desired, subject to suitable layer information being available in the artwork PDF. Foiling will then follow the contours of the UV.

Registration accuracy was a key design goal for the AlphaJet. Eschewing cylindrical designs and belt transports, the press uses flatbed imaging on trays that effectively float and are moved via electromagnetic repulsion, removing pretty well all possible sources of friction. Vibration is further minimised by mounting the print section on a 4.5 tonne granite block. The whole press weighs 20 tonnes, and including 4000-sheet input and output stackers, occupies 150sqm in a looped configuration, but requires 200sqm for all-round access and paper loading/removal.

Press control is via a three-screen ‘flight deck’ which combines operational dashboard displays for overall equipment efficiency (OEE) with production status and 3D rendering software that enables print items to be previewed, shared and approved remotely for production, including modelling the visual effects of embellishment. The Cloud-based software also allows remote monitoring and even production control via tablet. Stock profiles can be set up and loaded to facilitate job changes, a process that was said to take two or three minutes, including loading of the material.

Sustainability also figured in MGI’s design deliberations. In addition to claiming a 30% smaller energy requirement and a 60% reduction in overall carbon footprint compared to separate print and embellishment processes, Mr Abergel confirmed that the inks, UV varnish and foils used in the AlphaJet are all de-inkable according to Ingede criteria, meaning that AlphaJet print should be fully recyclable along with most analogue print types. Perhaps equally important is the argument that by using the UV flood coating, which can be a thin as three microns, plastic lamination can be avoided entirely, which Mr Abergel said had attracted considerable interest from packaging printers working for luxury brand owners looking to improve their environmental credentials.

In terms of applications, the combined print and embellishment combined with the B1 format and substrate range is a natural fit for high quality shorter-run cartons and Mr Abergel told Digital Printer  that at least one large European analogue packaging printer is considering the machine and has set up a ‘secret’ digital department to evaluate it and understand the workflow required.

On the commercial side the case is perhaps less immediately clear, but Mr Abergel gave the example of a loyalty cards printed by first AlphaJet customer ISRA, for whom the ability to go plastic-free had been a major attraction. High quality business cards and personalised high-end marketing materials are other possibilities, as are some industrial applications, including printed electronics. Mr Abergel also pointed out that the machine can embellish-only and thus could handle offset printed sheets with equal facility.

The AlphaJet is available to order now and a second demonstration centre is to be opened at Konica Minolta’s New York, USA facility.

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The machine, launched in June, is the first Konica Minolta-branded MGI product and uses digital ‘spot UV’ and foiling technology developed in the MGI JetVarnish 3D One. The press has been designed to offer special effects for the commercial printing, finishing and packaging industries, using the JetVarnish technology, including the AIS SmartScanner registration system. Also on the Konica Minolta stand at the NEC will be the 81ppm AccurioPress C4080, feeding print to the AccurioShine 3600.

Jon Hiscock, head of production at Konica Minolta UK, said, ‘Our centre piece will be the AccurioShine 3600 and we will take the opportunity to highlight our range of print embellishment and specialist finishing products that span SRA3, B2, B1 and web as well as our B2 cut-sheet Inkjet and workflow solutions.

‘The entry-level device enables users to add value to the print they produce and respond to market demand, because in order to survive and grow their customer base they need to expand their reach and products offered. Many are finding that it’s not enough to just offer fast turnaround, quality and low pricing. The AccurioShine 3600 is great for adding 2D and 3D gloss effects and Digital Hot Foiling tactile finishes. To take it another step forward, it also supports variable data printing, to add more impact to printed products, personalised packaging and labels.’

Konica Minolta will be based on Stand B17 at The Print Show 2022. The event will take place from 20-22 September at the NEC in Birmingham.

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