The Castellon, Spain facility that developed key technology for EFI’s CretaPrint ceramic printing business and its Nozomi line of high-speed corrugated printers has been transformed into a ‘world-class manufacturing operation for production-level single-pass inkjet printing for the packaging, display graphics and other adjacent markets’, according to EFI.
The site was acquired by EFI in 2012 and has a heritage of single-pass printing capability based on digital printing of ceramic tiles. Since then, EFI has invested heavily in applying that expertise to other markets, most specifically packaging and display graphics. The single-pass technology originally developed in Castellon was a key element in the development of the company’s successful Nozomi family of single-pass printers for those markets. This technology has also been applied in other market segments, including the Reggiani textile printers, and building materials.
Evandro Matteucci, vice president and general manager for packaging and building materials at EFI, said, ‘EFI has placed a particular focus on the packaging market as it has worked to transform the Castellon manufacturing facility as well as the research and development arm located there.
’This includes optimising operations to support ongoing innovation and to leverage our expertise. Our industry-leading single-pass technology is especially applicable to this growth market as it increasingly transitions to digital. As one example of the market opportunity, more than 250 billion square metres of corrugated board are printed each year worldwide, and we believe a substantial percentage of that can be transitioned to single-pass digital printing.’
Mr Matteucci also stated that the successes achieved, especially with the Nozomi printers, are proof that single-pass technology is well-positioned to enable EFI to expand into additional market segments. The technology has already been adapted by EFI for the display graphics market, with the 1.4m Nozomi 14000 SD, launched in May 2023. Further applications envisaged include markets such as metal decoration and folding carton production.
