Jet Press 720S: P4P

Founded in the summer of 2015 by a small team with decades of experience in lean manufacturing systems and the packaging industry, Packaging for Professionals (P4P) – based in Fleurus, just outside of Brussels – was established to fill a gap in the European packaging market for high quality, low volume packaging, produced on demand. The business was built around the capability of the Jet Press 720S to produce high quality, short run  packaging, combined with “Kanban” ordering and manufacturing principles. The investment has allowed P4P to profitably and efficiently provide the company’s clients with packaging of the highest quality within extremely tight deadlines, as well as producing samples and prototypes which precisely match the media and the print quality of the finished product.

Having discovered Fujifilm and its industry-leading products while working in the automotive sector, company co-founder & CEO, Mohamed Toual, believed the combination of Fujifilm and the company’s leading inkjet technologies would be the ideal solution for his new venture in the packaging sector. So much so, that the Jet Press 720S was the first technology investment he made when he founded P4P and he has already built up an array of satisfied customers right across Europe – including well-known brands in food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

“Traditional printing in the packaging sector has always been problematic in two important areas,” says Mohamed. “Prototypes were always inferior to the finished product – offering at best an indication of what the customer could expect – and there was also, inevitably, a time lag for the production run due to the amount of manual labour involved in the production process. The Jet Press 720S – which I believe is now the benchmark platform in this sector – has changed all this. Its quality, flexibility and efficiency mean that these challenges have been overcome.”

“Traditionally, clients in the packaging industry have doubted the ability of a digital press to match the quality of litho or flexo printing. However, our customers have been hugely impressed with the quality of the products we have produced on the Jet Press 720S. The feedback we have received has been universally positive and we are very confident that this will continue.”

The Jet Press 720S features new generation SAMBA™ printheads – the industry’s most advanced single pass printhead technology – with each B2 width print bar containing 17 individually replaceable modular printheads, each with 2,048 nozzles, ensuring the press can achieve native resolutions of 1,200 x 1,200 dpi. The print bar also takes advantage of unique VersaDrop™ technology, allowing the size and shape of each ink drop to be precisely controlled and placed on the paper. This guarantees the highest digital print quality in the industry, with unbeatable consistency and no on-press tweaks necessary. The replaceable modular printheads also significantly reduce the necessity for system downtime and minimise breaks in production for press maintenance, with a traditional offset paper feed mechanism providing high registration accuracy and reliable operation.

Already a popular press throughout Europe for commercial print applications, the Jet Press 720S was last year also configured to be able to take folding carton board. This new model benefits from the same industry leading quality and productivity as the commercial print version, but with a redesigned vacuum jacket and the ability to increase the vacuum pressure around the drum, allowing the press to accommodate a more diverse range of heavier carton boards commonly used in packaging applications.

P4P’s investment in this new platform represents a European first, and Fujifilm anticipates many other packaging specialists will follow. Says Taro Aoki, Head of Digital Press Solutions in EMEA for Fujifilm: “The new configuration of the Jet Press 720S enables companies specialising in folding carton production to offer their customers ultra-high quality, short-run, versioned and personalised packaging, while also achieving substantial reductions in substrate waste and associated production costs. Fujifilm’s focus on the packaging market is growing, and the launch of the Jet Press 720S for packaging has been designed to give packaging printers and entrepreneurs the opportunity to carve out profitable new markets for their businesses.”