New digital die-cutting kit at Drupa

The Euclid is the company's first product launch since Aviv Ratzman and Michael Zimmer founded the business in November 2009. It will also be a first Drupa for the company.

The company also announced that the first Euclid machine will be installed at a beta-site at Graphica Bezalel in Yavne, Israel in February, ahead of Drupa.

Highcon's development of the Euclid has included investment from several parties including the investment company owned by the Indigo founder Benny Landa.

Ratzman, the chief executive at Highcon told PrintWeekIndia that Euclid will be a game-changer in package production. “There is no other solution like the Highcon Euclid in the market today. It will completely transform package production by making it more efficient, flexible, and cost effective. Both, the converters and their customers will benefit from Euclid’s ability to translate digital files directly into cut and creased packages within minutes.”

The machine wields precision laser optics and polymer technology to streamline and migrate the die-cutting and creasing process from analogue to digital.

Highcon's Euclid uses the company's patent-pending Digital Adhesive Rule Technology (DART) to crease lines direct from digital data, which helps cut set-up times.

Each crease line job is created digitally after the data is received from the design and production software. This is claimed to remove the costly die-making process and the associated set-up times involved.

Multiple lasers and precision optics are then used to cut the sheets up to a maximum size of 760x1060mm and up to a maximum weight of 550gsm.

According to the Ratzman, the Euclid can handle runs from a single unit up to 10,000 items on a maximum thickness of 0.6mm.

Ratzman said the past two decades catalysed key areas of the supply chain to move to digital, except for packaging finishing. “The biggest challenge for convertors is to meet the increased demands of their customers, the brand owners. This includes greater innovation, more complex designs, shorter turn around times and shorter runs. Without a digital cutting and creasing machine, this is very difficult.”

Highcon intends to bring the product to market through a mix of direct and indirect channels and India is one of the markets where the company is looking for potential partners. “Highcon considers the market in India as very important, so we will have one or more channel partners in India by the end of this year,” said Ratzman.

This News article appeared in the 24 February 2012, Vol IV Issue 11 issue of PrintWeek India Magazine