For over 50 years, ASL Print FX has been trusted to bring their customer’s brand vision to shelf.
A recognized leader in the label and packaging industry, ASL Print FX is based in Vaughan, Ontario Canada, with operations in Winston-Salem (North Carolina, USA) and Napa (California, USA).
With their location in the heart of Napa Valley, North America’s famous wine region, ASL Print FX is popular among many reputable wineries for label printing and brand traction.
Entry into hybrid printing
To expand their capabilities in fast turnaround of premium wine labels, ASL Print FX opted for hybrid printing with the purchase of an MPS EF SYMJET press.
Why MPS? Charlie McLean, President and CEO of ASL Print FX explains: “MPS has built a reputation of developing high quality presses that deliver top-of-line performance in label printing.
“When we decided to invest in a press capable of printing complex, shorter-run wine labels to meet fast turnaround demand, MPS’ EF SYMJET hybrid press was the perfect solution for our needs.”
Travis Pollard, Vice President & General Manager of ASL Napa adds: “By combining traditional and digital capabilities into one press, MPS offers a unique competitive advantage: faster run speeds, setup, & change over times, color correction, and lower waste.
“The support and engineering team is second to none. Being able to successfully pioneer this new technology in the wine & spirits industry has truly been a rewarding experience for both our customers and ASL Print FX.”
Award-winning labels
Over 83 industry awards have been presented to ASL Print FX and their clients since 2009, earned in wine-spirits, pressure sensitive label, envelope, magazine cover, roll to roll, and newspaper-publication categories.
ASL Print FX also won an award in the first edition MPS Label Awards held during Labelexpo Europe 2019 for their ‘Unsorted Wine Label’ printed on the hybrid EF SYMJET press.
The jury’s feedback: “This label combines a great use of colour and embossing, for a true metal look & feel. There is a high complexity of material in inkjet, and good registration.”
Read about all the winners of the first MPS Label Awards
The best from two technologies
MPS developed the hybrid EF SYMJET press together with Domino. The press consists of the proven MPS EFS or EFA flexo platform combined with a fully integrated Domino N610i digital inkjet unit, and is available in a 340 mm and a 430 mm width with speeds up to 75 m/min in hybrid mode. This versatile hybrid press is also equipped to run in full flexo or digital mode, but is best used to combine the best of both worlds.
Hans Poortinga, Manager Technology and Expertise Centre explains: “The main difference and advantage of a hybrid press is that you can take the best from two technologies. With a standard stand-alone digital press, you can only print regular colours and must complete special finishing off-line, such as metallic inks, back side printing (turner bar), glue side printing (delam-relam), die cutting, slitting, cold foil etc. On the hybrid press we combine it all in-line. But there’s still the option to do something off-line if it’s really complicated.”
Typically, the hybrid EF SYMJET press is used for a combination of flexo printing and variable data printing. The quality and cost-efficiency of the flexo part is then combined with the versatility of digital inkjet: by printing variable data such as codes, colour- or image variety.
Poortinga adds: “From a cost price perspective, with the hybrid press you can choose to run big solids in flexo and the images in digital. This translates into savings on both inkjet ink and flexo plates.”
Interested in learning more about hybrid printing?
To determine if hybrid printing is a viable solution for your business, download this whitepaper which includes:
✔️The key benefits of hybrid printing
✔️Difference between conventional, digital and hybrid printing from a time consumption & cost perspective
✔️What industry experts say about hybrid printing
You can also read other MPS blogs about hybrid printing, watch these videos, or request a consultation with our print specialists.