Traditional metallisation, especially for labels and packaging, is not only costly but also environmentally unfriendly. Cold and hot foil applications require specialist knowledge, create high levels of waste, slow productivity and often lead to register/passer inaccuracies. By Sabine Slaughter

Providing print businesses with tools to differentiate their offerings with unique, attention-grabbing applications the company showcases nine different Scodix applications at Hunkeler Innoationdays. By Sabine Slaughter.

At ColourByte's booth the G3 Zund cutting system can be seen. The solution from the Swiss manufacturer, distributed by ColourByte, features – depending upon versioning – manual, semi-automated or fully automated production capabilities.

The innovative Rollover flatbed applicator that can be seen at the Saga DG booth will find a new home at Printworks Mediatech in DIP, Dubai, after the show. It is the first of its kind in the region.

What you need to know about the cold-foil transfer process

The term Value Added Printing (VAP) was created some years ago. Users of print products with high-end finishing needs can now access entirely new production and value-adding potential based on the techniques of print providers and technology vendors. Accordingly, the term encompasses not only the end product, but equally the associated techniques, services and produc-tion process. By Jochen Wied.

Laser cutting, a.k.a. digital die cutting, uses high-powered lasers to vaporize materials in the lasers' beam path. The powering on and off of the laser beam and the way in which the beam path is directed towards the substrate effects the specific cuts that the artwork requires. Because cut away parts are vaporized the hand labor or complicated extraction methods otherwise needed for small part scrap removal is eliminated, by Markus Klemm, R&D Software Engineer, Spartanics.

Written by guest blogger Andre Palko of Tech-ni-Fold USA

The first time a funeral director called us at the office, my mind immediately started racing, at first thinking it a wrong number, and a split second later thinking, "Oh no, who could it be?" Fortunately it was a business call, not to mention a sign of the changing times in the printing industry. The funeral home, it turns out, was having trouble finishing the order of service cards they produced in their office. He explained his frustrations to me. With today's changes in printing and copying technology, printing is no longer the province of skilled craftsmen.

In November, together with its Saudi Arabian representation Alkhorayef Printing Solutions, MBO organized a special event in Riyadh. Around 50 invited guests, all of them executives, decision makers or owners of large print shops and binderies from across the country were invited to the famous Hotel Rosewood for the presentation of MBO's current product range followed by a gala dinner. Frank Eckert, CEO MBO group, and Sheikh Bandar Alkhorayef, owner of the eponymous MBO representation in Saudi Arabia, guided the honoured guests through the evening.