UK-based i-Sub Digital claims its recently launched Digi-Foil digital foiling system can achieve “a groundbreaking reduction in time” for packaging producers using a combination of a Mimaki UJF desktop printer, foil and a heated applicator.
According to the Kettering-based print technology specialist, packaging manufacturers using Digi-Foil can produce colour-accurate mock-ups, short runs and one-offs for proofing in just 5-10 minutes.
Packaging businesses can receive same-day sign-offs of new designs, the company says, with no need to prepare traditional dies and foil presses.
The Digi-Foil system also said to cut waste “significantly”, by allowing foil to be applied only in required areas – as small as 4pt text or a dot size of 0.3mm.
Metallic, holographic, multi-coloured, opaque, patterned and foil embossed effects are all possible as a primary design, as an accent, or as a security marking.
"Before Digi-Foil, cutting out pieces of coloured vinyl was the only way to achieve a similar effect on a mock-up but it was a time-consuming and inaccurate method,” says i-Sub Digital director Andy Spreag.
“Here, we are creating mock-ups that are the exact replica of the finished product which means it’s much easier to choose packaging colours.”
Available exclusively from i-Sub Digital, Digi-Foil can cut “days or weeks” off the prototyping process, Spraeg says.
“Luxury is back on the agenda,” he says. “Metallics are light-catching and eye-catching, regardless of where on a shelf the packaging is, giving products greater impact.”
Spraeg adds that the company has heard from companies that had stopped offering effects such as gold blocking and silver foiling because of the amount of scrap they were producing, and are now “really keen on re-introducing those using Digi-Foil and producing significantly less waste material”.
