Press release submitted on behalf of Highcon
Highcon today announced a new portfolio line-up ahead of drupa 2024, addressing the fastest-growing segments of paperboard packaging. Responding to a global market with continuously growing demand for smaller production batch sizes, faster delivery, increased sustainability and enhanced customer experience, the company’s new portfolio accelerates Highcon’s strategy of mainstreaming digital die cutting by focusing on productivity, efficiency and quality. The new portfolio line-up includes:
- For Folding Carton, the Highcon Beam 3 with optional new Beam Writer for offline writing of DART foils, will allow customers to produce around 50% more per shift than with Beam 2 – while delivering higher and more consistent quality[1].
- For Corrugated Packaging and Display:
- The Vulcan1, a revolutionary next-generation system with 1.4 x 1.7 (55” x 66”) sheet size, still under development, will enable the full benefits of digital die cutting to mainstream corrugated production.
- An upgrade to the Highcon Beam 2C that delivers up to 50% enhanced productivity when paired with the optional Beam Writer and facilitates the expansion of Highcon’s footprint in the short- and medium-run corrugated market – especially for POS and web-to-pack.
New Highcon Beam 3
The new Highcon Beam 3 has been developed to respond to the feedback of both customers and prospects over recent years. It is packed with innovations and enhancements that will allow customers to be more productive and address a broader range of applications. A converter will be able to run 10 jobs with an average run length of 1000 sheets every shift. This will typically drive an ROI for customers of less than two years in a two shift operation.
Prior to the first Beam 3 shipping to drupa 2024, Highcon will be performing a field upgrade to an existing Beam 2 system at Eurographic, in Poland. “We’re excited to be the first customer to receive the Productivity & Quality Boost Package that will bring Beam 3 performance to our system.” said Bartosz Nowakowski, GM of Eurographic Group in Poland. “The surge in production per shift is poised to make a significant impact on our operations.”
New Highcon Beam Writer
The new Highcon Beam Writer, compatible with all Highcon Beam systems already installed, enables customers to create creasing rules using Highcon’s proprietary DART system and 5th Generation Consumables offline. For every 100 jobs per month, Beam Writer can free up more than 16 hours of Beam capacity, or two full shifts, improving productivity and increasing capacity.
“I’ve always believed that there is a place for an offline DART writing system” said Charles Linney, Director of Linney. “Although the current inline system works very well, the offline Beam Writer could save us 10 minutes per job, which equates to over 50 hours a month.”
New Highcon Vulcan
The new Highcon Vulcan will enter mainstream corrugated production and address a painful gap in current solutions. It has a maximum sheet size of 1.4 x 1.7 meters (55” x 66”) and supports boards up to 5mm, including microflute, B-, C-, and EB-flutes. Like all Highcon systems, Vulcan will combine true physical creasing with laser cutting, and will have a maximum throughput of 3000 full-size sheets per hour (up to7000 sqm/hr or 75,000 sqft/hr). It will have a job changeover time of 5-10 minutes.
“Highcon’s Vulcan will find a very broad footprint across the corrugated industry, complementing analog die cutting and solving the intractable problems of fast reaction, small orders and eliminating MOQs,” said Richard Brown, President of The BoxMaker.
As product development started, four “Foundation Customers” including Thimm, The BoxMaker, UDS (Poland) and Grupak (Mexico), placed deposits on Vulcan systems in 2022. In 2023, Schumacher Packaging joined the Foundation Customer program and signed an MOU to purchase 5-10 units of Vulcan from Highcon before 2030.
“Schumacher Packaging is an innovation leader and digital visionary,” said Bjoern Schumacher, CEO. “We are very pleased with our Highcon Beam 2C, but Vulcan is the system that can start the inevitable digitalization of corrugated finishing. Seeing is believing, and the demonstration of the prototype that I saw in Israel last June, convinced me that Vulcan will be game-changing for us.”
During the tough economic environment of 2023, Highcon slowed down the Vulcan development with the intention to resume the program fully before the end of 2024. During 2026, the first Vulcan unit is targeted to ship for Alpha testing at a customer site.
Highcon is offering thought-leading customers the option to secure a finite number of early delivery slots. These slots will only be converted into binding orders following a successful production demo.
Upgraded Highcon Beam 2C
Based on a running speed that is ~15% faster[2], the upgraded Highcon Beam 2C offers higher productivity for corrugated customers with faster sheet throughput. When used in conjunction with the new optional Beam Writer, it will offer corrugated customers approximately 50% higher productivity per shift for typical customer job baskets. It also includes the Digital die cutting Workflow Package (DWP) for smoother, more effective and automated integration into a site’s production workflow.
drupa 2024
At drupa, Highcon’s booth (Hall 9, B24) will showcase its customers and their work as well as Highcon’s new solution portfolio, together with samples from the breakthrough Vulcan prototype.
“In this challenging environment, Highcon’s customers are successfully using ‘the right tool for the right job’ to optimize their plant productivity, overcome capacity limitations, improve agility, cost-effectiveness and efficiency and better serve their customers – all while maximizing their return on investment,” said Shlomo Nimrodi, Highcon’s CEO.
“Inspired by our amazing customers, their feedback and how they’re using our solutions today – as well as inputs that we’ve received over several years – Highcon will be demonstrating how digital die cutting is becoming mainstream. The time to die cut digitally has arrived.”
The lollipop envelope includes cold foil transfer, 4-color process, Cast & Cure™ clear holographic and spot scent coating that smells exactly like a lollipop. The amazing aspect of the project is that the embellishment and finishes all were accomplished in two passes. The cold foil and 4-color process printing was the first pass, and the Cast & Cure and scent coating were applied in the second pass. All of these were done on a K+B Rapida 106 LED UV offset press with an Eagle Systems’ cold foil module. The final steps in the production were the embossing of the word ‘Color’ and the lollipop on the front side of the envelope and the diecutting. Both were accomplished in one pass on Kenmore’s in-house platen 40″ diecutter. The final envelope was converted on a W+D 628.
The USPS reports 56% of the 105 billion pieces of mail it handled in 2023 were marketing pieces. So, it’s no surprise that direct mail has paralleled the strength of the economy even though postage increases have reduced overall mail volumes in recent years.
“The greeting card industry is in a good place,” reported Nora Weiser, executive director of the Greeting Card Association. She explained, “We have a record number of small makers in the industry, and while our largest card buyers by volume, baby boomers, are declining, our largest segment by dollars, millennials, are only now entering their primary card-buying life stages – getting married, having babies and buying a house – as they are now 29-42 years old. The demand for cards has remained strong because millennials have seized onto cards as a key vehicle to further relationships with their friends and family.”
The trading card segment is divided into sports cards and collectible or trading card game cards. Sports cards cover all major US sports plus European football. The collectible and trading card game segment includes Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic: The Gathering and Marvel Champions. Both segments are experiencing healthy sales and are likely to see high single-digit or low double-digit growth during the next two to five years, according to Stefan Congram, global director – Design Centers & NPI at Cartamundi Group.
Extended Producer Responsibility laws in the US may negatively impact folding carton volumes as marketers eliminate the use of folding cartons for some secondary packaging applications, e.g., bottles in cartons. However, any decline is likely to be offset by the adoption of renewable and recyclable folding cartons as an alternative to non-recyclable packaging. As a result, the folding carton market should see steady growth of 5% per year globally and in the US, according to Adam Peek, senior vice president of sales at Meyers, a third-generation family-owned printer with an in-house design studio.
Greenwald: Every customer asks the same question with an embossing job: “Can you make it any deeper?” I suggest operators talk to their engraving suppliers about their recommendation on how deep to make the die. They will want to know the paper stock being used and the press the embossing will be run on. The key is to not have the die made too deep or the makeready will be a disaster. Again, the engraver is the best source.