Tonejet brings direct-to-can digital printing to InPrint Munich ‘17

In response to growing demands for greater flexibility for shorter-run, multi-version beverage packaging, Tonejet will put the spotlight on digital printing direct to the can at InPrint in Munich (14-16 November).

Tonejet’s direct-to-can digital printer, Cyclone, with inbuilt Rockwell iTRAK transport system has been designed to remove the barriers associated with small batch canning.

Marvin Foreman, sales manager at Tonejet, said: “This system brings a new level of competitiveness to beverage can production for short to medium runs as well as ultra-short runs.

“Built to accommodate any design at any run length, Tonejet’s direct-to-can printing capabilities provides brands with an opportunity to manage special or one-off print runs and easily accommodate for events or festivals, social media campaigns and competitions or even limited-edition beverages.

“We recently worked with Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), the world’s largest brewer, to produce customised cans for a large music festival they had sponsored.”

Using Tonejet direct-to-can printing capabilities, AB InBev created 10,000 customised cans for Tomorrowland (20-23 and 28-30 July), the world’s biggest electronic dance music festival, bringing together some 400,000 visitors from around 200 countries.

Tonejet, working together with AB InBev, printed 15 different can designs featuring national flags across just 10,000 units. The cans were produced in the exact quantities required, without the minimum-order restrictions associated with traditional printing. The largest print run was 1400 cans, and the shortest was 15 cans.

According to Tonejet, unlike analogue processes, the low cost of digital can production means that specially brewed and branded products can be produced cost effectively and quickly and every single can could be produced with a different image if required.

The brand also maintains that long lead times and minimum order requirements are eliminated, and as the system can print multiple jobs without stopping, product time-to-market is significantly decreased too. The cost per print is comparable to traditional can decorating processes and the digital offering means ‘one is the new minimum.’

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